Happy July 4^th to those to the south of us.

I apologize, I have been a bit busy lately with Guild work.  Our 75^th anniversary party was on June 22^nd. My main job was to add 10 years of Photos to the slideshow, which I originally made for our 65^th anniversary.  I also volunteered to felt one of the squares in the tapestry project which I had started to tell you about in a previous blog. (https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2024/02/17/square-16-ovwsg-tapestry-project-and-template-transfer-method/)   Another job was Name tags, but I will tell you more about those later.

For the tapestry project idea, I spotted another group online, that had broken an image of Starry Night by Van Gogh into sections, and then each person recreated their square in their own medium. Ann and I searched for an image. Our criteria was:

• a recognizable image of Canada. (not a new work that is not recognizable when broken up into pieces and then reformed in representational sections.)
• an image that breaks up into interesting sections. (all or mostly sky, water or a monotone homogeneous colour image will not produce interesting pieces to work on for the participants.)
• not too cluttered an image that would make it hard to recognize when separated into parts
• an image available in a high enough resolution we can work with.
• if a square is not completed we would have to have a backup image to replace the missing spot.

After looking at many images, Ann chose a view of the parliament building, from the back of the building, in the fall.  She cropped and blurred the photo and divided it into 24 squares, with each ending up 6 inches by about 6.25 inches. Ann Printed out each square to the exact size needed and gave each participant their project. Our goal was to make a representation of our square in whatever medium we favoured. A few of us chose felt, but we also had various types of weaving, spinning and knitting. I was hoping for basketry too.

You may remember that Ann gave me the bottom of the Parliamentary Library, well that makes sense, I have been the guild librarian for a long time (I joined at the AGM in 1988 or 1989, where I volunteered to help with the library and was elected librarian. I did warn them about that little spelling problem, but they were unconcerned until I made them a subject catalogue. It was not in English or French but in my native dyslexic. We used it until I finally put the whole collection into a database.) But, back to the square.

I went back and looked at a less blurred image so I could see the buttresses more clearly. As you saw before I chose needle felting, and used the template method to transfer the image to a good felt base. I worked between the two images (Blurry and Less Blurry) to create my Squair.  It looked very messy as I worked on it.

1) Images I am working from bulldog clipped to coroplast in the background with the image I am felting in the foreground on a thick wool pad.

It got a bit better. I hope you can start to see the architectural buttresses a bit more clearly now.

2.1) ready to hand in my image. On the Left, the image Ann gave me, in the centre the felted representation, and on the Right the de-blurred and pixelated image.

2.2) close up of felt with original image checking size it’s close

If you were curious, Here is a shot of the back. I was working on my 1.5” thick wool pad, I think it was the 8”x10” size.

2.3) the back of the felt image showing the amount of wool push through has occurred.

I was well-supervised by moose, as I worked on this. He was very supportive and carried the picture, wool pad, references and the fibre for me.

3) Moose looking a bit scruffy from all his hard work carrying fibre, reference and the felting for the tapestry square project

Ok, we are now caught up to where I handed in the Square.  The next we will see it will be after they have all been assembled and unveiled at the 75^th anniversary party.

So let’s go to the party!! Don’t worry I have your invitation and just to tempt you further here is a preview of the 2 of cakes!

4) Anniversary Cake in English and French with the invitation in between (there was a French version of the invitation too)

Come in and don’t forget to sign the guest book! If you are a member of the guild, select an odd sheep name tag in the studio and then meet us in the Unitarian’s room.  There are a number of displays, a make-and-take table, demonstrations of weaving, spinning and felting as well as the Cake and punch we should check out! OH and you can buy your own Moose bag, there on the table beside the great wheel, you can’t miss them!

Since we are just inside the door let’s take a quick peek at the make-and-take table, Liane was organizing this. There was; a tapestry loom set up to try, mayonnaise lids drop spindles, small popsicle stick looms to needle weave with, CD weaving looms to make coasters and wet felted acorns to make.

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5.1– 5.3)  Make and take table

This spot was quite busy most of the party and seemed quite enjoyed.

The next table over was a display of work by Grade 10 students (from Lecole Secondarie Catholique Beatrice-Desloges in Orleans) in the School Outreach Program, run by Carmen Deschenes, one of our guild members and Daniel Cote, the school’s art teacher. The guild provided a floor loom and guidance on how to use it. This looks like it may be an ongoing project. The students were interested and each designed a woven project. One wanted to weave a representation of water so wove in wire to allow the wave to hold its shape. These are a few of the pieces that were in their art show on display today.

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 6.1- 6.4)

If we move a bit further around the room Ann Sunahara put together a display of the Bertha Grey Haze workshop on miniature overshot patterns. The 100-inch loom team wove coverlets showing some of the patterns from the workshop, one of which was on display. Alison brought her 4 harness Saori loom and wove one of the patterns. There were also samples from the workshop and the book the workshop was based on, which is in the OVWSG  library.

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7.1-7.4) Miniature Overshot Display from the Bertha Grey Haze Workshop

Next was a mysterious covered item, we will come back to that when it’s time for the unveiling, and then the slide show that I had been working on for months. There are now 921 slides! I promise I will not show you all of them!! I tried to select a few I thought you might enjoy.

8.01) a mysterious item is draped with a handwoven coverlet waiting for its time to be unveiled.

8.02) watching the slide show which was running on a loop throughout the party.

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 8.03-8.13) a few of the slides from the slide show

If I can pull you away from the slide show now, I was felting in the corner but didn’t get a picture of myself (I have not figured out selfies on my getting ancient Lumix camera). On the other side of me, there was a Great Wheel demo. It was a bit crowded so let’s see if we can sneak in for a peek.

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9.1-9.2) great wheel demo

The Guild was selling moose project bags and showing off some of the door prizes, many from Louet Canada (it’s their 50^th anniversary this year!).

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10.1-10.2) moose bags and prizes

If you have your moose bag now, let’s go look at the samples from various workshops the guild has given.

11) Some of the Samples from workshops given by the OVWSG.

There are samples of weaving, felting, basketry and Spinning workshops given by the guild on this table. After you have checked them out there are two cakes sitting on the next table.  Jean will do the cutting in a moment, then we can try a piece.

12) Cake and punch at the party

Lets take a look at the demos, there were floor and table looms, fibre prep, spinning and Felting.

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13.1-13.2) lots of interest in the Demos

Ok, we still have a few minutes before the unveiling, so let’s follow one of the tours up to the 100-inch loom room and the classroom! We can also take a quick peek in the studio too.

14.1-14.3) Tours of the Studio, 100 inch loom room and the Classroom.

Excellent! We made it back in time to see the unveiling!

15.1) Quick speeches  then it was time to find out what was under the coverlet

15.2) we had a surprise guest, Michael is the curator of the Almonte Textile Museum. He and Carl Stuart do the Unveiling

15.3) Close-up of the tapestry

15.4) names of who did which square

15.5) Admiring the tapestry

There were 24 members, who each made a square, using a technique of their choice. There is; Weaving, Tapestry weaving, Hand spinning, Hand Dyed, Felted and Knit Squares.  The team who did the mounting of the blocks were; Liane Thiry-Smith, Moira White, Paula Smith, Wendy Birkette Willbond, Annie Jackson, and Carlene Paquette. I hope Carlene will be able to tell us more about this part of the project. (ok, I may be the only one who gets excited about mounting and framing.)

The last of the door prizes were drawn and then it was time to wind down the party and put everything away.

16) The last of the Door Prizes is drawn

Before you head out, let’s take one last look at the tapestry project.

17.1)  a closer view of the squares

I wonder if I can find the image Ann had us working from. Yes! (Thanks Ann) so you can see what we were working towards for each square

 17.2) this is the image Ann selected so you can see what we were working towards.

 Thank you for joining us for our 75^th Anniversary Party, it was a lot of fun and a lot of work. I am looking forward to celebrating the 80^th but luckily we have years to recover before we start planning again! If you are in the Ottawa area, in the Fall of 2024, check out the Almonte Textile Museum where the tapestry will be on display. The Anniversary Comity has more planned for this year, I am looking forward to seeing what project we are working on next!