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Beautiful rug, Johanna Erickson.
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A friend clued me into a wonderful sale of woven items by the Weavers Guild of Boston, whose annual sale took place November 4 and 5, at the Weston Art and Innovation Center, the "maker space" of the Weston public library system. Lots of wonderful items for sale - accessories such as scarves, wraps and jewelry, and textiles for the home too. And we were allowed to touch! I purchased a scarf for my daughter-in-law - hope she likes it.
I wasn't able to record every weaver's name for every item, but there was a lot of skill on display and exciting use of color.
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Scarves in glowing hues.
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Scarves in shades of white, black and gray.
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Scarf - reminds me of the Drunkard's Path quilt pattern.
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This year, 2022, is the 100th anniversary of the Guild. An interesting display board gave a bit of history of weaving and a bit about the craft today. From this display:
Weaving is the action of making fabric by interlacing threads. This ancient process involves intertwining two distinct set of yarns or threads -the warp and the weft - at right angles to form cloth. Warp threads are the length wise fibers that are stretched tight on a loom, and weft threads are laced horizontally through the warp threads. (Weft is an old English word meaning "that which is woven.") By crisscrossing the fiber strands in this way, a weaver can create textiles, such as cloth, carpets, tapestries, and more.
The display also included the graphic below, just about the best illustration I've seen of warp and weft.
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Clear and concise explanatory image.
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One room of the sale, with items for kitchen and dining table.
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One room featured domestic textiles: dishtowels, runners, place mats, hot mitts, etc. Designs were both traditional and contemporary.
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Dishtowels for sale.
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Another area with wraps, jackets and scarves.
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More from the display board on weaving:
Before the textile weaving process emerged, its underlying principles were applied in the creation of everyday necessities like fences, shelters, and baskets. These construction relied upon the interlacing of small materials, such as twigs and leaves, to form stable objects. Once ancient humans discovered how to spin plant fibers to create thread (some 20 or 30 thousand years ago), basic weaving principles were put to expansive use, providing woven textiles for both utility and expressions.
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A towel by Marjie Thompson, based on a very old draft, or weaving pattern.
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The weavers had to suspend their monthly meetings due to the pandemic. Twenty-four members determined to make a community quilt, using small woven bits and pieces. From the project description:
Home Sweet Home
The COVID-19 Closet Cleanup Collaboration
by members of the Weavers' Guild of Boston
What does home and security mean to you in the time of Covid 19 pandemic?
This theme brought our guild members together as we faced national quarantine in March 2020. Zoom meetings began with small talk, and we laughed about the frenzy of cleaning closets. It was a time when going to the store was not possible. By using pieces from previous projects, and reimagining them in a small format, our community quilt project came alive with joy and colorful expression.
The individual blocks represent views from our own window to the world. Featuring familiar snapshots, like a house, a partner, a pet, a good book, a windowsill with flowers, a fantasy portrait with a bag of craft supplies, are all rendered with handwoven fabrics. As each block found its place in the panel, it was clear that the answer to our theme question revolved around love.
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Home Sweet Home quilt created with hand-woven fabrics.
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Block detail - the house wears a mask.
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Detail of one block - wash on the line.
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Weaving and embroidery combined.
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My favorite block, simple but evocative.
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