Guild Challenge Artwear Exhibit

Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild President, Veronica Hofman Ortega, emceed the guild's wearable art Challenge exhibit and awards ceremony on Saturday, September 11. This event, called "The Power of the Pocket," was a celebration of the beauty and excellence in fiber arts. The collection of wearable art garments was created by guild members in response to a Guild Challenge.

Ten entries represented a diversity of fiber art techniques, including knitting, crochet, fabric dying, weaving and patchwork and showcased the creativity, craftsmanship and ingenuity of the artists that created them.

Show attendees voted for the Viewers' Choice award and had an opportunity to meet and talk with the artists after the awards presentation. Top awards went to:

Viewers' Choice to Brenda Park
for "Linked Weft Woven Jacket with Purse"

Best of Show to Veronica Hofman Ortega
for "The Power of Panthera Leo"

Best Workmanship to Phyllis Narus
for Chenille Tunic

Best Use of Embellishment to Patricia Keran
for "In Memory of Cookie"

Most Innovative Pocket to Kay Pickrell
for "Plum Happy"

For more photos of the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild Challenge event, click here.

Many of these garments will be included in the upcoming Tennessee Presents Textiles special exhibit, "The Power of the Pocket." Tennessee Presents Textiles is a wearable art runway show and sale to be held on November 13, 2010. The guest speaker will be contemporary folk artist, Rachel Clark. You won't want to miss this event! It's contemporary fashion entertainment paired with a unique fiber art shopping opportunity for the upcoming holiday season.

"The Power of the Pocket" Guild Challenge exhibit scheduled

The Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild will host a wearable art exhibit on Saturday, September 11, 2010 from 10:30 am. to 1:30 pm. The exhibit, entitled "The Power of the Pocket," is a collection of fiber art garments created by guild members in response to their 2010 Guild Challenge.

Inspired by the theme for Tennessee Presents Textiles, a biennial textile art event, the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild Challenge was issued to guild members in January of this year. Throughout the year, Challenge participants have tested their fiber arts mettle to design and construct a garment which meets the Challenge requirements and expresses their personal aesthetic.

The exhibit and awards ceremony will be held at Senior Neighbors, 250 E. 10th Street, downtown Chattanooga. The public is invited and light refreshments will be available.

Join us on September 11 and celebrate the diversity, inventiveness and beauty of fiber arts!

Hairpin Lace: fun and versatile

Using today's novelty yarns and a crochet hook, the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild members learned a Victorian era needleart technique to create fun and frilly neck scarves.

Traditionally, hairpin lace was made using women's hairpins. Today, hairpin lace forks (or looms) are made of various materials and come in a variety of sizes and styles. Or, you can make your own loom using simple, commonplace materials (coat hangers, stitch holders, knitting needles and, yes, even flip-flops).

To begin, the yarn is joined to the loom with a slip knot. The hairpin lace is formed by a series of loops as the yarn or thread is wrapped around the upright prongs of the loom.

A crochet hook is used to connect and secure the loops. The width of the lace strand is determined by the width of the loom. Many hairpin lace looms are adjustable and can accommodate widths from 1/2 inch to 4 inches.

If you can master a single crochet stitch, you are well on your way to a fancy new hairpin lace creation! Give this fun and versatile technique a try. Here are some online patterns and references.

The Guild Show and Tell consisted of hand and machine quilted quilts, knitted garments and scarves, woven towels, and hand-dyed and hand spun yarns.

The friendship quilt, called "Fiber Fiesta," is complete...
including the label.

Pocket Particulars video and Sit-n-Stitch

"Pocket Particulars," with Sandra Betzina, was the feature film at the July Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild meeting. Guild members brought community service projects and other WIPs (works in progress) to work on during the video presentation. The "Pocket Particulars" video provided ideas and sewing tips on various pocket treatments for garments. "The Power of the Pocket" is the theme of this year's Guild Challenge.

Knit and crochet strips are being assembled into lap afghans for the guild's community service project (left). Beautiful silk painted pieces were presented (right). Show and Tell included hand spun beaded yarn and an exquisite needlepoint piece (below).

What fiber art project is on your loom, needles or hooks?

Visit an upcoming meeting of the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild and tell us all about it. New members are always welcome.

EarthLoom symbolizes life's journey

The EarthLoom—a metaphor for life and community—provided an apropos setting for the annual picnic of the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild.

Guild members shared an afternoon of fellowship and a pot luck picnic lunch while learning about the Zati approach to the Art of Weaving a Life through a presentation about the EarthLoom and Journey loom.

Zati is a word in the Urdu language that means "from an inner or sacred place." Following the presentation was an opportunity for guild members to weave on the EarthLoom.

Using the smaller, portable, 7-piece "Journey loom" for illustration, the meaning of the loom's structure was described: being, doing, feeling, thinking, creating, and teacher [the batten]. The red warp thread at the center of the loom symbolizes life's core. Surrounding the core are the warp threads which symbolize human values.

Members tagged each part of the Journey loom with a label to document the symbolism.

Traditional weaving materials such as yarn and thread, as well as organic materials such as flowers, plants and twigs were woven into the warp. Guild members could simultaneously interlace various findings into different areas of the weaving. With its symbolic references to various aspects of the human spirit and our daily journey through life, the EarthLoom serves as an artistic illustration in which each one's contribution is vital to the design as a whole.
A colored stick, marked with an individual's name, was inserted beside each person's contribution. The connections to our craft, to art, and to each other is what weaves the fabrics of our lives.

Productive Un-Knitting (just for fun)

Next time you have to un-knit, maybe you'll remember this and it will make you smile. "Frogging" and "tinking"... here's one way to make it a "production."



Here's how they did it. C'est bon!

May Day Alpaca Shearing

The thunderstorms passed north of our area and cool, mild weather prevailed for the annual alpaca shearing. Under slightly overcast skies, Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild members were on hand for demonstrations at the event where 55-60 alpacas were scheduled for their "annual clipping" at My Little Darlings Alpaca Farm in Chickamauga, Georgia.

The animals were quite friendly and not "camera shy" in the least.

When spun into yarn or used in other applications, alpaca fibers are soft and durable with a silky quality. Alpaca is naturally water-repellent and resistant to solar radiation. These characteristics offer protection against fluctuations in temperature for both the animals and for humans wearing clothes made from the fiber. Unlike wool from sheep, alpaca has no lanolin which also makes it hypoallergenic.

Throughout the day, visitors enjoyed demonstrations on needle felting...

while Riverbend Fiber Arts guild members took to their spinning wheels, crochet hooks and knitting needles to demonstrate other fiber and needle arts techniques.

It was a fiber-filled afternoon for one and all!