Today, I attended the Columbia Stitchery Guild. Our guest speaker was Michele Wipplinger . She is an expert in natural dyes and travels extensively to theird world countries where she lives and works with artisans, sharing her knowledge of dyes, color and design, to help them produce goods that are marketable. We saw a wonderful slide show of beautifully dressed people from several different countries. Then we got see and touch some textiles she brought with her. With her permission, I am sharing some photos of these. To see the full set, you can find them on my Flickr page.

Here is a sampling:

This is the sleeve of a top. The dark blue is pounded indigo and the cicle designis batik. The red section is embroidery.

This is a section of a sari from India. The section on the right is exquisite emboidery and on the left, is block printing.

The next two pieces are quilts with wonderful hand stitching which has really inspired me.

The next two pieces are examples of very fine embroidery. The second one looks like printed fabric from a distance, but the design is all from exquiste embroidery.

Michele is teacching a 3 day workshop which I did not get in to. She will cover the natural dyeing andsurface design markings.

We had informal show and tell before the meeting. Those with work to show put it on tables for others to see, up close and personal. I almost didn’t take anything. Then, I almost didn’t put mine out. Then, I did. So glad I did because i got such wonderful feedback o Fragments and The Thin Place. People were most interested in Fragments.

We are going to have a show in a gallery from mid-May to mid-June. This is the first time that they have done a show like this. I think it will be lots of fun. We are going to have an artists’ tea on one Saturday with demonstrations. I am going to do Altered Trading Cards and Postcards.

After the guild meeting, High Fiber Diet met to work on plans for the Japanese Garden Show and Sale in SEptember – with a Wabi Sabi theme. We also have a couple of leads on pther places where we might have shows. I guess I better get to work and make more stuff!!