Celebrating Weaving Greatness

When I was asked to chair a fund-raising raffle for this fall’s Blue Ridge Fiber Show, I was tempted to hit the floor and Army-crawl out the door. I’m glad I didn’t, because we’ve just put up an exhibit of raffle prizes at Sutherland donated by some of the top names in the fiber field, locally and nationally. These pieces are, as  you certainly would expect, beautiful.

The Blue Ridge Fiber Show is a biannual show sponsored by the Western North Carolina Fibers/Handweavers Guild. It is a very large, unjuried show, attracting entries from around and outside the United States. Cash prizes are given in several categories, which means fundraising is critical to its success. The raffle is only one of several fundraisers for the show.

Here is a picture of the raffle items on display at sutherland. It doesn’t do them justice, especially for the framed items, so please follow this link to the BRFS website for detailed descriptions and much better images.

We will be selling tickets here through June 13, (Studio Stroll weekend)  then the whole exhibit moves to Textures-For the Finely Crafted Home, in Waynesville, NC, through July 14. Textures is owned by fiber artist and raffle donor, Suzanne Gernandt, and her husband. After that it goes on the road again to Earth Guild where the BRFS committee is holding a trunk show as another fundraiser. Then it returns to sutherland until the drawing during the BRFS Opening Reception in October. The pieces and tickets also will be at every WNCFHG meeting through September.

Feel free to share the link with anyone you think might be interested in winning one of these beautiful prizes. Tommye Scanlin has posted details of the raffle and her piece in progress to her blog, and I’ve already had two emails from people around the country wanting to purchase raffle tickets through the mail. We can do that!

If you’re in the Asheville area, please stop by sutherland to see these beautiful pieces in person. Buy your tickets early and often! They’re a bargain. $1 each, 6 for $5 or 15 for $10. You can enter different drawings for each prize, and you do not have to be present at the drawing to win.

By the way, at our May Web Chats AT sutherland this Friday 10am-noon, I’ll be showing my Certificate of Excellence in Handweaving Level I samples (all 40 of them) and answering questions. That would be an excellent opportunity to buy your raffle tickets. Just email or call to let us know you’re coming.

When Weavers Move…or why they don’t

Last week I was finally able to move the rest of our New Jersey things to Asheville. That included many  weaving things I had been missing. My most familiar and tiresome lament at sutherland over the past 5 months has been, “I have that, but it’s in New Jersey,” whenever we decided we needed something for the studio.

So now it’s no longer in New Jersey. I just don’t know which box it’s in. I had my home studio looking pretty good before the movers arrived. New cabinets in place and yarn shelves at the ready. As the movers carried in boxes and asked for direction, I kept sending them upstairs to my weaving loft. Later I went up to assist in placing some bigger items and gasped. Where did I get all this stuff?

So here’s a look at what awaits me at home, which is probably why I’m lingering at Sutherland today. I know it will eventually all get put away, and I’ll undoubtedly look around and decide, “Now what I really need to get is…”