CHT Conference 2017

Have you spent two years waiting for something and then suddenly it’s here and gone? That’s how I feel about the conference this past weekend. Two years of seeing the planning and helping in a small way, and it is all gone and past so quickly.

I think one of the fun things with a conference is seeing others responses. I watched as a new member realized we got goodie bags and what wonderful things came in them donated by vendors and guilds. Yes, these bags are worth a bit on their own.

My goodie bag haul along with table favors and door prize

The last conference I took a picture with all my accumulations in one shot. Alas this year was a bit much for that. So above is some quite practical goodies along with some just wonderful creations with woven fabrics, felting, and dyeing. The bag of fiber is a silk and baby camel mix that I received as a door prize from Red Fish. I got their door prize at the Austin conference as well. Such lovely fiber they turn out. I talked with the gal and learned a bit about spinning this particular blend. It will be dreamy and will need a special project. I could say something about each item, but for space I won’t, but I do enjoy looking at all these items here.

Class items and money spent

Now for the picture of what came home with me otherwise. I do highly recommend if you are a spinner or lover of touch, watch where you stick your hand. Now I like black and white and grey and seeing some fiber with such coloring, I went over and touched it. (Don’t you love an obsession that vendors want you to touch because … well follow on.) I stuck my hand in a tub full of wonderful softness. Touching clouds of silk and merino. Such loveliness that, yes, it didn’t take two seconds to look at the price and say, “I’ll take three ounces of that.” Then while waiting, yes, there was a tub of some brown lusciousness. Mistake again. I stuck my hand in it. It was Yak and silk. Lord have mercy (aren’t we thankful He is merciful), I added an ounce of that to my order. So have three new bags of wondrous spinning fiber when I didn’t mean to bring any home. As per weaving fiber, I also bought some more navy blue and natural cotton for a project that will need more.

Now I might add that I only used my egg money (plus some demonstration money) for any spending while at the conference. Don’t you love having chickens and people who will buy eggs and then you get to be old fashion and use your egg money to buy what you would love to have.

The color card and color-aid sheets were from a class that was great in the sense that, yes, I had heard a bit of it before, but actually messing with colors hands on was a revelation in many ways. I was amazed at what happened and want to actually do all the exercises over again. Great mind blowing day on Saturday. Also got to play with embroidery ideas for textiles on Friday. That was fun to experiment outside the box as I do quite stay in a box there. Many of us in the class had done needlework in our distant pasts and all agreed that dipping our fingers in again made us want to delve back in on our own created textiles.

Now if ever I wanted a raffle basket it was this year. Tall Pines was the guild I began my fiber journey in, and I have several friends there. We gathered at this conference and roomed together, ate together, gad-abouted together. It was great seeing them again. They put together a basket to dream about. It had a log cabin theme and was full of foods as well as log cabin woven textiles of different types. I wanted that basket. Alas, when the name was called it went to Jane. It stayed in the group but not to me. It was a bit disheartening. Alas afterwards as we were getting to see it all together, Jane shared the wealth as there were things in it she couldn’t eat or was gracious enough to share. So she gave me the three small cones of cotton as well as some whole wheat flour that missed the picture. The small log cabin bag was one she had woven for the basket so she gave it to me as well. I loved the way the pattern looked in it. I love log cabin and all of its various variations. Could you just weave it the rest of your life and never repeat a pattern?

Now I went this whole conference without taking pictures. Never thought to take a single one until after the fashion show, and I wanted a picture of us all together. So asked Marian if she would snap it and here we are after a wonderful day and evening. Thanks, Marian, for a great picture.

So here is the Friday to Sunday Tall Pines contingent who hung out together at the conference.