Spinning and Weaving, etc.

Some friend's of Eli were still at the bach when we arrived, packing up and waiting for the 1pm sailing back to the mainland. One of them was telling me she was into spinning, knitting and other textile crafts, the other one had done a degree in fashion design.  So I was taken back to when I was about their age and how much I enjoyed spinning, dyeing then some weaving.  I have a few of those early pieces at the bach - a multicoloured crocheted blanket in yarns I dyed and spun myself.  Round about the same time I took up simple handpieced patchwork, finishing off a bedspread in baby block pattern my aunt had given me, then doing a runner for a chest of drawers in blues, cutting up a blue skirt I had when I was about 18.  I still have the white broderie anglaise  blouse with puffed sleeves I wore with it and was thinking recently of upcycling it somehow or giving it to someone else to do so.

Then there are the two fabric art wall hangings, one done at a course at Artstation taken by Nora West and the other also done there too at a course run by Joan Graham of the Embroiderers Guild.  

Apart from that I have  a couple of tivaevae pillow shams I appliqued from a kitset I bought from the Cook island ladies who demonstrated their skills during a wonderful tivaevae exhibition in the Art Gallery many years ago.

Then there was the little basket I wove incorporating unusual materials as well as the willow.  I remember  it was taken by a well-known basketmaker up in Titirangi at her studio.

Lastly  there is the weaving by Alison Milne in black and bright colours which reminded her of cathedral windows and hung in an exhibition in the Aotea Centre so I must have bought it in the 1980s some time.  Alison is still weaving rag rugs in her studio in Titirangi which the Knitterati visited in 2012 sometime.  Alison is a member of Knitterati which had its origins in the domestic craft course at Artstation in the late 1990s early 2000s.