A Valentine wish to all of you who are reading this, you all keep me going, challenge me, support me, and my wish is that I can somehow keep you going, challenge you, and support you back. And isn’t that what the point of a Valentine is? A mutually beneficial relationship, a give and take, and there is nothing like the fiber community to provide that.
I had a great experience today, I broadened my fiber community by attending a meeting of the American Sewing Guild. There is a local chapter, about 20 minutes from me, much closer than my two weaving guilds. I had attended a meeting a little over a year ago, and it just didn’t click. I didn’t see a place for me there, maybe it was just the day, but I’m glad I went back, because today I had an entirely different experience.
I met so many talented, warm and friendly people, from the time I got out of my car, to when the meeting started, everyone was welcoming, and enthusiastic. There were a number of new people attending, there was a mother/daughter team, there was someone coming back to sewing after many years, there were quilters, those who did craft sewing, those who made garments, and I found another fiber community in my own backyard!
So if you didn’t have a great experience at a guild or fiber group, try again. Don’t give up. It was a great Valentine gift to find more fiber enthusiasts, I even found someone who was just beginning to weave, bought a 12 shaft Voyager table loom for her first loom. I showed my coat, and she was really thrilled to find out that you could weave yardage and sew it up. I gave her information on the weaving guilds in the area.
For the program, two of the woman presented a small project, that was a lot of fun, we all got a piece of rayon velvet ribbon, and we used a spritz of water and a dry iron to stamp images into the velvet ribbon, using rubber stamps, then we added tassels and/or beads, fringe, whatever we wanted, and came home with a great bookmark. I can never have enough bookmarks! In a weaving guild, there isn’t the time to do small projects, the programs are more about techniques, or historical issues, theory, all of which I love, but it was fun to do a hands-on quick project as well. I’m sure sewing guilds are much better suited to that type of program.
When I sat down to make the lime green tassel, from a skein of embroidery floss, a number of the members asked how I was doing it, you know when you know something, and have always known something and you find out that not everyone knows it, and of course you are happy to share the knowledge. That’s what we do. Back in the late 1970’s, when I graduated from college with a pretty worthless Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, I went to work teaching crafts at a mall chain store called the Craft Showcase. I taught macrame owl plant hangers, calligraphy, stained glass making, needlework, and anything else they needed teaching. Macrame was big. And plant hangers were even bigger. And all of the plant hangers had a giant tassel at the bottom. We chatted at the meeting about those big tassels, which is where I learned to wrap the head of a tassel.
Anyway, I love my Valentine’s book mark, I came home very excited, and happy to spend the rest of the afternoon with my lovely husband, and eventually both of my teens came home from work, and we spent a rare evening out to dinner with the whole family. Dinner was delicious, and I really enjoyed my “day off”.