The Midwest Weavers Conference was awesome! Here we are in the cafeteria (at Grinell College, Iowa) nerding it up, looking at wool yarn samples. My roommate is the lady on the right, she grew up in Scotland and is incredibly interesting.
I took a two-day workshop with Anita Luvera Mayer, a pioneer in handwoven clothing. She's been weaving her own clothing since the 60's. This class was specifically about edge finishing and how to join edges without making a seam. We made a huge sample booklet while she lectured and told stories about her life as a weaver.
This is one of her current pieces that was in the gallery. She took all these old lace doilies and dyed them, then appliqued them onto the robe. She's also done a ton of beadwork on it.
She was very energetic and inspiring. A no-nonsense lady. I liked her right away and my favorite thing she told us was that there's no right or wrong way to do something in regards to sewing/weaving, if it works for you, then do it! (She's wearing white gloves because the security guy wouldn't let her touch her own piece without them.)
Here's a good shot of the back of one of her robes that was in the fashion show. She had all these square silk samples and dyed them and sewed them all together.She's also quoted as saying that she wants to wear something unique and wonderful every day. She really puts her heart into her work, and only makes it for herself. She teaches workshops all over the country and also leads at least two fiber tours abroad a year.
Very inspiring!
(I couldn't figure out how to post more than 5 pictures at a time, so there are 3 posts about the conference that all go together.)
