Hand Dyed Fibers Exhibit But I'll Start With the Shopping

Well gang, I hardly know where to start about this trip.  Maybe it's just something that I should dive right in to.

First of all, I'm a big fan of Vikki Clayton's Hand Dyed Fibers.  Her silk threads are seriously heavenly.  It's like this - when you're stitching, do you ever get the feeling like, Oh my goodness this is probably the nicest stitching I've ever done.  The colors just dance on the fabric and your stitches lay so beautifully that you can't believe it's coming from your hands.  Yeah.  That's how I feel when I stitch with these silks. 

Well, this year I was able to go to the HDF Needlework exhibit.  Bright and early Saturday morning, I met my friend Deb just off the PA turnpike and off we went to see over 300 pieces of needlework, all of those yummy silks on display and ready to buy, a "tag sale" - like a consignment shop for stitchers used or unwanted supplies - and a fabric dying station.  Ho boy!  I'll tell you, we were pretty darn excited.

We had just one minor glitch.  We stopped for a coffee break when we were about halfway there and guess who lost her car keys?  And do I ever carry a spare?  No.  Poor Deb.  Gracious Deb.  I was panicking, but Deb remained cool, calm and collected.  If the shoe had been on the other foot, I would have been flipping out at the idiot who lost the keys and was wasting valuable time that could have been spent in Silk Heaven.  But lucky for me, I have patient friends and eventually I found them wedged between the cup holder and my seat.  So all's well that ends well and my blood pressure eventually returned to normal.

OK, so...I wish I taken some pictures of the outside of this very interesting factory, but I was drawn inside by some strange silken magnetic field.  As it turns out, LadyDoc from Tilting at Windmills has some nice outdoor photos.  Go here.  And here.  In fact, peruse her whole album.  We have some of the same photos, but not all.

Oh, the silks! 

The floss

And the silk ribbon

And I know this doesn't look like much, but you could stuff fill a bag with these leftover bits and pieces and seconds for practically pennies.

There were also a handful of Make It - Take It booths, but the highlight was the fabric dying station - completely awesome.  You could bring your own linens, threads and trim and Vikki had a big table set up where you could go to town.  I have a tub full of white and ivory linen and evenweave at home, so I brought a bunch and let me tell you - it was a blast.  You could buy white lace and fabric trims there at a whopping 25-40 cents a yard and dye it yourself. If I had been smart, I would have come with particular projects in mind and dyed fabrics and trims to match.  But I wasn't that forward thinking.  So we just had a good time dying whatever color moved us. Here's Deb gettin' crazy.

I created a kind of boring tan and a very lemony yellow and dyed some trim, too.

In my next post, I'll show you some of the stunning needlework that had been entered in the exhibit. Gorgeous stuff.

Oh, but I should also tell you that the show is still going on. I think it's open until July 4. It's absolutely worth the trip - we didn't regret any of our 4 hours there and 4 hours back. So GO.