Play pretties from the Vail Hotel.

I am pretty sure this was made by Marilyn Hoisington.  If I ever figure out how to do this, the world will be my oyster!  Now, let's see what else is hanging out here at the Vail.  Bear in mind that my information that I should put with the items is out in the car, and it is dark and scary out there.  I will try to put names on stuff tomorrow, but for tonight, just enjoy the pictures.

This is a weird looking bird and I am betting that Janet Anslovar had a hand in this.  If not, I will correct it tomorrow.  Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow!  Mother taught me that.

This is made of wire and I poked my tiny little finger on one of the wires.  Need to be careful around sharp wires. Mother taught me that also.  That and not to run with scissors.  I listened to mother and that is why I am still alive today!  It is gold and red wires.

Button made from an antler.  That is too cool!

Bookmarks?

An apple that used to be a gourd.  I made that!

This is almost see through.  I like the little pieces of color and the texture is subtle.

Ok, I am going to grab a glass of milk and go to bed.  I promise I will do better tomorrow.  (Bet you have heard that before!)  And you will hear me say, as I disappear from sight,

Merry Wednesday to all and to all a good night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Handwoven Holiday Sale is open at the Vail Hotel!

I jumped up this morning, ran through the shower and headed off to the Vail Hotel in Historic downtown Pueblo to work my shift at the sale.  First I had to have Patty Lynn braid my hair and this time she braided the ribbon in with the hair.  Cute, huh?

Here is the Handweavers Sale sign against the backdrop of the beautiful, historic Vail Hotel.  Did you know Clark Gable spent the night there with Carol Lombard, his wife at the time?

This is one of the beautiful stained glass windows that are in the room we have the sale in.

This shot is out the window towards the El Pueblo Museum.

 

Out this window we can see the Sister Cities Plaza.  Behind it is our Senior Center (SRDA)  Lots of demonstrations have taken place here over the years and I might have attended one, or maybe two.  Maybe.

But in here is a real demonstration!  Here we have Marilyn Hoisington giving a demonstration on the floor loom. I do not remember what this pattern is called, but it is on the 4 harness loom.  Since it is the  Hand weaver's  sale, we are always in search of people wanting to learn to weave.  We also do spinning, felting, crochet, knit, basket weaving, dying, and decorate gourds.

This is a close up of what they are working on today.

Over the next few days I will introduce you to a few of our ladies.  Not many men in our guild at all!

This is Colette Wright who is honchoing the upper room, where all the bookkeeping stuff goes on and I am glad she is doing that and not me!

Each year we set aside a "donation table" and the proceeds from that table go to a worthy cause.  This year they are going to Los Pobres Migrant Center in Avondale and dear Sister Nancy Crafton dropped by today to leave some brochures.  I love that woman. 

These are the ladies running the checkout table today.  Tomorrow we will get more personal!  Stay tuned!

But for tonight, a good night to you all.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, I think I did this right!

Testing one, two, three...

Ok, I think I   have found the address for the picasa slide show!  It is 5:15 in the morning so I am going to publish this one after while and see if it works.  This is the river by Sherman's house and I think it was taken the spring of 2012, but it might have been 2011.  Anyway, here it is!

 

Janet Anslovar and her many talents

See the lady in the center?  That is Janet Anslovar, a very nice lady.  She has been with the guild like forever (which means longer than me!)  Seems that every thing she touches turns to a work of art.  In the center she is giving a weaving demonstration on the Baby Wolf loom that is owned by the guild.  I was her little helper and we had a very good time.  Would have had a better time if I could have stayed setting and left the cookies alone!

Janet has won many awards for her dolls and other works of sheer genius that flow from her fingers.  Today I am going in and buy one of the dolls.  My favorite was a fellow she had a couple years ago named "Harley"  and just try to guess what he was setting on!

The sale is going to end this Saturday at 3:00 PM so if you have not been there yet you better get to hopping.

This little guy came in yesterday from Colorado Springs PAWS which trains animals to be service animals.  Cool huh?  I forget his name.

Just never know what you might happen upon when you get a bunch of weavers together!

 

As promised!

Donna Graham, like the cracker!

Drum roll, please!!!!  This is Donna Graham from Walsenburg, Colorado.  She is standing beside her art work that was actually in a New York Gallery.  Oh, I am hobnobbing with the big girls now!  I am so honored.  She explained to me that these three items are actual things she crocheted, knitted or wove and then saturated with something ( big words and my mind closed up ) and then draped them on somthing else.  See, the best part about art is that you actually have to see it and touch it.  I seen this and touched it and I was impressed.  She may be an artist and hang her work in New York, but she is still a Colorado girl!

And here is a close up of the art work as well as the tattoo she got so long ago that it had to be redone.  Seems like the original one she gave to herself when she was bored in Biology class.  Got to tell you, I have never been that bored!  Never poked myself and never let anyone else come at me with a needle either.  But as far as photography goes, I would say this picture is worth a thousand words.  We have the art work, which is absolutely mesmerizing and then we have the hand in front of it that belongs to the artist and lets us know that she is a real human.  The card from the New York Gallery which shows success.  Full Circle is what I will call it.
This is a little number that Donna knitted but first she spun the yarn.  Oh, I do envy this girl her patience.  Bet she makes Apple Pies also!                                                                                            I think this is a shawl.  I could be wrong.  Would not be the first time.  Let me go check the album captions.  Well, that was not much help because I apparently did  not know when I put the captions on the pictures.  But I will say it is Donna's until some one corrects me!
Now, I recall Donna telling me she lives in WalVeta.  That means it is the same distance from her house to Walsenburg as it is to LaVeta.  I am going to go see her next summer and hike in her mountains. She can carry a shotgun and make sure a bear does not get me!
Donna was also on the board that put this sale together.  They mostly stayed up in the inner sanctum and ran figures through the computers.  Last year they gave me an award for shutting down the computer the most times.  They gave me a pink sheep with holes all over it.  Elvira   thinks it is hers and shakes it.  The stuffing is all gone now.  I do want to commend all the ladies who made this years sale such a success.  And these are in no particular order.  Oh, wait!  They are in alphabetical order!!  Hats off to :

JANET ANZLOVAR ........DEMONSTRATIONS              

JOAN ARCHULETA.........CASHIER TEAM                  

INA BERNARD.................ADVERTISING

MARJORIE BRATZLER...REFRESHMENTS         

LYNNE GNAIZDA............ADVERTISING

DONNA GRAHAM............CASHIER TEAM-INVENTORY & INVITED ITEMS

MARILYN HOISINGTON.STANDARDS & CHECK-IN

BETTY KOCHEVAR.........PROPS & SET UP

TARA MATTHEWS...........SCHEDULING

JUDI PATTERSON.............GUILD PRESIDENT-EX-OFFICIO

TERRI ROSTAD.................GUEST ARTISTS

KAREN SMITH..................STANDARDS AND CHECK IN

COLETTE WRIGHT...........CO-CHAIR & CASHIER TEAM-TREASURER

DONNA GOWER................CHAIR & CASHIER TEAM-HEAD CASHIER

CAROLE SNOW.................SCHEDULING

CAROL SALAS...................STANDARDS & CHECK IN

                       Tomorrow I will post just a slide show of the closing day of the Handwoven Holiday Sale!  Watch for it!

This is Marilyn Hoisington who taught me to weave.

This is Marilyn Hoisington, my teacher and mentor who taught me to weave at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center up there in the class room. I had wanted to learn to weave since I was knee high to a grasshopper.  I think it went back to the days when momma would tear rags into strips, cut a slit in one end and link them together and have us kids roll the rags into a big ball.  This was then taken to the "rug weaving lady"  who took the balls and in due time returned to mother a rug six or 7 feet long.  That always amazed me.  The cost of the weaving was about $3.00.
While looking through the paper the Arts Center put out periodically I saw that I could take weaving lessons so I was all over that.  I remember how scared I was that first night.  Marilyn was very understanding as to my intimidation by the loom and all the threads. Just did not look like anything I could possibly master.  But under her tutelage I not only learned to weave, I learned how to measure a warp and warp the silly loom.  When classes were over, I bought her floor loom and it and I have become inseparable.

On the left is one of her items for sale.  It is a tapestry wall hanging of some sort.  And on the right is the tapestry work that greets the customers at the front door.  You should know that all the tapestry work she does is designed by her and she has wonderful taste.  I just kind of look at a blank piece of paper and all I see is a piece of paper, but she sees visions and all sort of designs.  And colors and dreams, I think.

Tapestry is not all she does.  She started weaving 30 years ago and the tapestry came to be her medium several years back.  I think in another life her name was Rapunzel and she spun straw into gold.  I have never seen anything come off her loom that was not a work of art.

But look at this one.  She says this is a failure.  Remember when Aunt Grace gave you a baby blanket and you washed it and it shrank up to be the size of a dinner napkin?  We called that "not taking care of something handmade and ruining it."  Now they do it deliberately and they call it "felting" and it is very much to be desired.  So she was trying a new technique called 'bead leno'.  That involves using a bead between the heddles and beater, I think.  She said it did not work so she felted it or something.  I got a little confused, but here is the important part.  When she held it up to the light, a design was inside the scarf.  It could not be seen looking at it on either side, but it could be seen through the scarf. And that is just cooler than anything!

Here is our little Marilyn doing what she does best which is teaching someone how to weave with nothing but a piece of cardboard and some string.  This is called card weaving.  And see the things over on the right side of this page? Those were all made on card looms.  The round ones were made on the paper plates.  Isn't that about as ingenious as you can get?  She embellishes with beads and whatever happens to be laying around.  I think her mind goes 24/7.  The little brown bear you see in the pictures is Star and he has his own little hand woven scarf that Marilyn made on the card loom.  She says when she is away from her loom her hands need something to do and this is quite easy to pick up and requires very little equipment.  So as I left Marilyn today she was busily making another scarf for little Star. Such a good Mama Bear!

 I have decided that there are so many ladies in our Guild that need to be spot lighted that one week is not nearly enough time, so I will be continuing to present more of them to you as I can catch them and beat them into submission.  I will drag them kicking and screaming through the pages of Lou Mercer's Words of Wisdom or know the reason why!

See you tomorrow when I think I am going to corner that wily little Joanne Caldwell.

Donna Gower keeps them all in line!

This is the chair of the Chair!  Donna Gower is Chairperson and Head Cashier.  She is the one you go to when you have a problem.  She is the problem solver and problem solver she is!  I asked her if she would be in my blog and she used some kind of rough language for my tender ears.  NO was in there somewhere so I did talk her into letting me do one and not putting her face up front and out there.  I do not know why because she is a beautiful woman.  And we have a lot in common.  She loves purple even more than I do.  See that jacket?  It is actually purple.

On the left is her purple and white bowl, her purple die, and her purple stapler along with her purple cup.  At one point her hair was purple, but now it is white, which holds the purple dye very well.  On the right is her foot in it's usual position., if you get my drift?  And yes, she did knit that sock!
I finally told her, "Donna, you gotta give me something!  I have more photo's of Big Foot then I do of you."  Now this woman has a way of making her eyes very little and looking at me very mean, but I know she is a cream puff and I know secretely way far down in the inner depths of her soul, she likes me.  Or at least tolerates me.  So she turned around and spread her arms and I got this picture.  My coup de grais, so to speak!

She made this and if you could see this up close you would see some workmanship that rivals the best of them. ( I think you can click on my pictures and they will get bigger.  If not you just wasted a little finger muscle.)  She designed and made all those things hanging down herself.  I think it is knitted but what ever it is I may have to kill her and take it. 

As I recall, Donna moved here a couple years ago from back East some where.  I knew at the time, but that memory has been replaced by something else.  She fit right in the Guild from the first day she walked through the door and is a very take charge person and follows through on what she says she will do.  That is always the mark of a truly wonderful person. So highest accolades to Donna and her crew for a wonderful 27th Annual sale this year.

See, Donna, this was not so bad was it?
 And I think my spell checker is on the blink cause I did this whole page without the yellow coming on, so just ignore my mistakes.

Sharon Pollock is on the hot seat today!

Let me see how the old memory is working today.  Well, I know this is Sharon Pollock.  I know she comes from Colorado City, which is just up the road a ways.  The "road"  is I 25.  I 25 is one of the nations supply lines from Canada down to Mexico and vice versa.  And according to the paper I see it is not all legal trade either.  I am not really sure Canada exports a lot of merchandise into Mexico, but I only read headlines anyway.
Ok, now I think I remember.  This is Merino and if you click on my pictures they will get bigger.  This has a lovely design and check out the edges on her work.  They are as even and her tension on the whole thing amazes me.  I may have her come hold my little paw and teach me a few tricks.  My edges usually look like a drunken caterpillar laid them out!

On the left is a hand dyed scarf that Sharon made.  On the right is another she made and went to a lot of work tying this into a knot that the ladies have learned to tie and I have not as my attention span is not that long.  I have even forgotten who taught them how to do it, but I knew at one time.  Oh, I remember, it was Jennifer some one.  Hang on and let me go to Youtube and see if I can find the video.  It is called Jennifer ties one on.   Found it.  I will post it at the end of the blog. 
Back on topic.  As I recall, both of these scarvers were white and she hand dyed them at one of Joanne  Caldwell's "Dye Party's".  Remember when we used to throw Tupperware Party's?  Now we just throw Tupperware.
I know Sharon has worked two days at the sale already.  Maybe more.  She is a very good salesperson.  She is a Guild Lady!  And I am very happy I got the chance to work with her at least the one day.  I enjoy working the sale as it gives me a chance to get to know all the ladies better.  So here we have Sharon at the end of her shift and I could be wrong, but I think she may have dozed off on me.  My stories do get a bit boring!



See ya tomorrow!!   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiB6HtZNXb8

Tara Matthews is showing off her wares today.

I would like you to meet Tara Matthews.  She is showing off a something or other here that you pull over your head.  She told me what the name of this is but the vacuum between my ears was so loud I missed it.  I think it is like a shawl kind of.  I do know it was very pretty and very soft.  She did a very good job, but then she does very good work.

Now this is a very lovely scarf.  Tara likes to makes scarves and I like to buy them so we have a lot in common there!  Tara has been with the Guild off and on, sometimes here and sometimes moved a way  for about 15 years.  Oh, I like her fingernails!  I usually dine on mine.

When the elections are held next month, I think, Tara will be our second vice president.  First we have a president, then a vice president and then a second vice president.  I think that is how it goes.

Can you see that purse back there?  I did not get a very good picture of it, I am sorry to say. The colors in it are abosolutely vibrant.  Now, what else did you make Tara?

"Oh, let me see!  Hmmm.....I forgot."  I know that feeling Tara, so don't feel bad!  I have never seen so many handwoven pieces in one room before.  I do not even know where mine are.  So I want to thank Tara Matthews for being my subject for today.  And a very good subject she was!

OK, I am going to call it a night and hit the sack.  Remember to set your clocks back an hour.  One year I set them the wrong way and I was two hours early for church.  Course I had 3 grandkids with me and they were little and just figured I was old and addled so I just let them think that.  But now that I am old and addled I have to act like I am not or they will revoke my park pass!!

Have a lovely evening and I will see you tomorrow when I once more go the Vail Hotel and run down some innocent little Guild member and embarrass her to tears.  I am so worthless!

The Weavers Sale is going to start tomorrow and I am there!

 




This is what my towel looked like on the loom. This is the finishing end of it. I made this one with a cotton warp and Pigtail Cotton Chenille. It is 100% cotton and weighs 2 pounds and 4 ounces. This sucker is big and it is soft and I thought about keeping it myself, but I am so money hungry it makes me sick.

This is what it looks like after it is washed, blocked and then tossed in the dryer for a little fluffing up job.  My daughter has a towel I gave her three years ago that I made out of Island Cotton.  She is going to bring it over so I can see it.  She says she uses it and loves it and washes it and it is just like the day she got it only it is softer and more absorbent than ever.  Sure makes me feel good when some one actually likes something I do. 
Course it is a little hard to beat anything that is home made whether it is a tea towel, a shawl or a bowl of mashed potatoes.  I had a friend once named Judy and she always brought mashed potatoes to the pot lucks.  I think that pound and a half of butter that she added finally caught up with her because she moved to California and promptly died.  And what all that has to do with the Weavers's Sale I have not a clue, but here is the deal for you!
I am going to stop by the sale tomorrow afternoon and take lots of pictures.  Then I am going to download those pictures into my Picassa.  Then I will spend three or four hours trying to figure out how that slideshow works.  And when I hit the publish button I will also hit the notify button and send it off to Joanne Caldwell who will send it out to her contacts.  So you ladies better be ready because I am going to snap your little pictures for the next week and then all my friends out there who read this will get to meet you.  This is going to be so much fun!!
But if you are a reader of my blog and not a member of the Handweavers Guild of Pueblo, and you live in this area, I fully expect you to pop in and visit at the Vail Hotel,  217 South Grand (at Union), in Historic Pueblo, Colorado.  Hours are from 10:00 AM-6:00 PM.  And keep a sharp eye out here cause I am going to devote a lot of digital snaps to this sale this year.
I love these women in my Guild and never cease to be amazed at what wonderful work they do.  Oh, and hey!  They let me sell my soaps and lotions at the sale.  I feel so special!

Ghost Walk on Union Avenue wore my little legs out quickly!

Oh, yes, I love to walk. Last night I got a good one. I went with a friend to the Ghost Walk on Union Avenue. Well, it was really not Union Avenue as we started at the Museum and proceeded to the River Walk and then crossed Union to Victoria and down Victoria to the train station and the Heritage Center. Made 10 stops for reenactments. That is the part that got me. See, I can walk for miles at a brisk pace, but when I do the meandering thing and the stopping and standing, I am shot. Not good.
The Ghost Walk is put on every year at this time and is sponsored by the Domestic Violence Community Task Force which is compromised of Community Representatives and headed up by the YWCA Family Crisis Shelter.
For more info go visit the link I made for you.  Hope it works and it usually does. Google is so good!   click here to visit thier web site.
This was my first time going on this walk, because I am normally not a person who does anything after dark.  See I knew this started at 5:30 and I was sure I would be home before dark, but alas, such was not to be.  So I called the current SWM and told him I would pick him up.  Course he was all eager and what man in his right mind would not be?  So, we embarked on our journey and it got dark and then darker and I began to get antsy.  Finally it was over and all I wanted to do was go home.  Now he wanted to go get a root beer float. I told him I had to get home and shut up the geese so the fox would not eat them.  Know what he said?  "I have seen them geese and a fox would have to be friggin' nuts to go in that pen!  I would not go in that pen!  God himself would not go in that pen!"  But I left him standing on the curb shaking his head and I rushed home to my babies.  Poor guy.  LOL
I have decided that if my current volunteer work comes to an end, which I strongly suspect it will, that I will go work with the YWCA and the Family Crisis Center.  Maybe ACOVA as well.  Guess I could stay home and clean house........or not.  That is women's work.
Ok, got a ton of stuff to do today.  Have to go pack up and pick up a load of stuff for the scholarship fund and bring it home.  And since the kids are moving on Monday I need to fill some boxes with stuff they will need, like silverware, blankets, towels, toilet paper, paper towels, dishes, and cooking oil.  They love grease.
So I am whoooooshing on out of here!  Have a good one.

It is the annual Handweavers Guild of Pueblo Sale at the Vail Hotel!

I would like to cordially invite you to the 26th Annual Handwoven Holiday Sale

November 5th – 13th

10:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M. Daily

Historic Vail Hotel, 217 S Grand Ave, Pueblo, CO

(Union & Grand Downtown)

The sale will showcase one-of-a-kind hand-crafted items, including handwoven kitchen and bath towels, table linens, rugs, blankets, tapestries, hats, bags, wall art, jackets, scarves, wraps, basketry, gourds, exquisite pottery and jewelry, handmade cards, ornaments, roving along with hand-spun, hand-dyed yarns and more…..There will be demonstrations of weaving and spinning at 11:00 and 2:00 daily.

If you ever just wondered how to go from the first picture to the second  picture your are going to get your chance to learn.

All you got to do is show up at the Vail Hotel on Friday the 12 of November at 11:00 AM. Well any time between 11 and 2 cause I am going to be there to give you a demonstration. Oh these demonstrations are so much fun! Did you happen to pick up that the first 5 letters of the word spell DEMON? I have been told by the avante guard that I am to behave like a lady! That failing I am not to get too far out of line! I am not sure that they told everybody this, but they might have. There are a couple other women there that we need to caution from time to time and the one in particular knows who she is!

I guess what I am telling you is this sale runs a full week and we have us a good time! Not rowdy, mind you, because I would never do anything to embarrass my dear friends, but this is an event that you need to attend. We work all year getting ready for this sale and there is beautiful workmanship in all our products. All I can say is it is a very good thing that some of the members work harder than I do! Could not pay the hall rental on my meager showing, but I have my lotions and soap there, so that buys me a spot.

And then there is the table over by the door with cookies, coffee and hot apple cider! These people are not only damn good weavers, knitters, gourd decorators, artisans, craftsmen, but accomplished bakers as well. And trust me on this, they all try to out do each other so there will be some cookies on that table that will make Betty Crocker green with envy!

So I hope to see some of you there and when you show up be sure and tell somebody that Lou Mercer sent you! Got to get my brownie points in, you know. A good time will be had by all!