From our Guild President, Diana Collins

Greetings all! As summer comes to an end, it is time for first meeting of the Wichita Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Guild. We have an exciting year planned with spinning and weaving workshops and other hands-on craft events at our meetings! One of the events that you need to know about before our first meeting is “Our Bag Lady Exchange.” We found this idea in Handwoven magazine and thought as a Guild we should try it.

The “Bag Lady Exchange” begins with you putting together a bag full of fiber that you have such as fun novelty yarns, cottons, wools, etc. Bring it to the first meeting. Someone will take your bag home with them. You will also get to take a bag home. You will have until the December meeting to finish a project from the bag you received. The December meeting will then be a fashion show of the item you made for that person. The person gets their fiber back in a project you have made for them. Mary Utting-Booker and I did a couple of “Bag Lady Exchanges” over the summer and we will have our wild and wacky scarves to show you!

Our first meeting will include the “Bag Lady Exchange” and tie-dyeing with our vice-president Paula Smith. We will be meeting on Saturday, September 10, 2011 in Mary Sue Foster’s classroom in the McKnight Building on the Wichita State University campus.

We will have a brief social time from 9:30 to 10 a.m. followed by show and tell. We will exchange our fiber bags for the “Bag Lady Exchange” and then let the dyeing begin!

Please bring any cotton item you would like to dye such as a t-shirt, canvas bag, cotton warp, etc. The items must be pre-washed.  Paula and the guild will provide all the supplies, dyes, etc. Dress in old clothes as dye may splatter.

Directions of the McKnight Building are as follows: exit off of Hillside onto Alumni Drive. The McKnight Building will be on your right. Enter on the north wing through the brown double doors that face Hillside. Parking is available in the lot north of the McKnight Building. Signs will be posted.