What We Did Over the Summer and the Brown Bag Challenge

 The guild has been quite busy this summer, and our Show and Tell and Brown Bag Challenge were lots of fun, many interesting projects and new techniques.

Any additons or corrections please send to Wendy  at  wendyrice49@gmail.com

Brown Bag Challenge

For this challenge we exchange bags that contain 5 to 6 sometimes up to 15 different items, and we are challenged to make something out of them.  Some were quite challenging as Nancy found out with no fiber in her bag just recyclable plastic.

Janice made this wonderful double knitted wall hanging, inserting
her bag challenges in the little pockets.

Diane made a wallhaning for her bathroom with the
bits and pieces from her bag.

Judy made her fourth challenge doll, such a fun idea. Check out
her top too.

Jane put her items in a long string and added some beads.

Judy made a wonderful display box.

Julie challenged herself to make a doll because she liked
the fabric so well it had to be a dress.

Sherry overdyed her bright fabrics and used them to make
the pods for our other challenge we were asked to do.

Priscilla made a very modern looking doll with her treasures.
Great hair.

Jennifer worked really hard making these two wonderful art pieces.

Nancy collaged her plastic into these 2 little pictures.
So clever.

Wendy had a great time with the dyed scarf, suede, raw wool,
bits of yarn and buttons.

Show and Tell

Let the Show Begin

Judy made this felted (but not rolled) neck piece in a 
class that she and Nancy took.

Nancy also made this interesting felted piece.

Welcome back Miranda and thanks for showing us your experimental
knitting technique.

Lin is having fun Eco-dyeing with leaves

These are her felted squares from our workshop with 
Kathy Forzley in May.

Pam was kind enough to bring her new wardrobe that she made this
summer.  Her favorite patterns are Independent Pattern companies
like Sewing Workshop. she uses only a few patterns to make all these different
garments.

Jane has been busy dyeing and stitching.

Jane dyed and stitched 29 squares and then made this wonderful top.

Priscilla has been busy dyeing and weaving. She printed and dyed
 the center of  her top

These wools were all hand dyed.

She dyed the warp for this and then did an inlay weaving.

She is on week 44 of her tapestry challenge. Her notes and pictures
are amazing.

Alice is very proud of her rust dyeing technique.

Jennifer has been finishing lots of small projects with embroidery.

Julie took a class on felting a landscape, which she loved but
she added some of her own stitching and techniques to it.

This is Julie's dinosaur quilt that was in the AQS show
in Grand Rapids.

Nancy is taking a great class online at
Fibre Arts Take Two

She recommends you check out this site.

These are Nancy's felted leaves.

Gargi's Shibori pieces that she made into a quilt.

Gargi won first place in the Art category at the Lighthouse Quilt Show this summer
in Grand Haven.  She painted the butterfly and quilted it.  Her first ever ribbon.  She aslo got a second place on the quilt below.

Eileen, a new member, wove this wonderful
table runner.

Wendy made this challenge quilt for the Lighthouse Quilt Guild Quilt show 
last summer.  The challenge was to reuse something.  She used 
men's ties for the butterfly and the flower was one she made 2 years ago.
She got a first place in the challenge category.

Sue made these unusual art pieces from cashmere that she
gets from Mongolia. Very interesting I thought.

Patsy made this quilt of a reminder of when she lived in Santa Fe.

Linda, a good friend of Jennifer's, visits us once a year and brings
wonderful show and tell.  She is embroidering a school of fish, she
wants to make 100.  

Unfortunately for us we did not get to see the two pieces below in person that Priscilla made. They are on display in a Museum and they have both sold.  Not surprised, those are both works of art.

The Past/Present/Future of Folk Art

Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum

July 11, 2025 – January 11, 2026

Priscilla Lynch 

Saugatuck, Michigan 

“Leaves and Blossoms” Transparent Weaving

All my grandparents immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900s, so my childhood was filled with Norwegian traditions, food, and craft. When I started weaving in the 1970s, it was natural for me to study and emulate Norwegian weaving techniques and design. I have two large tapestries in the Vesterheim collection. 

I was inspired by a Japanese stencil design to create this weaving using Norwegian weaver, Frida Hansen’s transparency technique. I grew up in Japan, so it was a way of uniting my Japanese and Norwegian worlds, illustrating, I hope, the connectivity of our global textile traditions. 

Priscilla Lynch

Saugatuck, Michigan

“Høst” (Autumn) Transparent Weaving

Frida Hansen was part of the Art Nouveau movement. I have re-interpreted a typical design from that period using a Norwegian technique and wool as my medium. Our artistic past continues to inform my present and future work”

link to Museum Display

Wendy