Welcome to the West Alabama Fiber Guild Newsletter

Next meeting: Sunday, August 7, 2016, 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Location: 1000 28th Avenue, Tuscaloosa

Topic: Spinning Sunday

Bring any project that you would like to work on, or just come and chat.

The Wet Felting Workshop has been postponed until the Fall.

Last meeting: Sunday, July 17, 2016

Topic: Tapestry Weaving

Fifteen members were present.

Carol discussed the possibility of buying another tent for the guild to use at Kentuck.

Jesse's shop, Weaving Alabama, may be moving to a new, larger location.

Weaving supplies for sale: Warping reel ($100), warping board ($25), rigid heddle loom ($100), swift ($30), shuttles ($10-25). Contact Carol if you are interested in any of these items.

Tori brought four DPN holders that her husband made on his 3D printer for prizes in today's drawing. Thanks, Jon!

Henry Glaus provided a trunk show and demonstration of Tapestry Weaving. Here are some of the things we learned:

Tapestry weaving is also known as weft faced or flat woven. All of the warp threads are covered. Shapes can be inserted across the row to make a design.

Samples of tapestry weaving go back to the 3rd century B.C. in Greece. The basic tools and techniques haven't changed since the 14th century for hand-woven tapestries.

Warp threads need to be strong, as they will be under a lot of tension. You can use nearly anything for the weft, including yarn for knitting or needlepoint, embroidery floss, and any fiber content.

The full-size pattern used for tapestry weaving is called a cartoon. The design can be traced from the source image, such as kid's coloring books, patterns for stained glass, photos, line art, etc.

You can start out tapestry weaving cheaply by using a canvas stretcher frame for the basis of the loom.

Thanks, Henry!