Alaska Fiber Fest Journal

In 2004 a group of women in Anchorage, Alaska started putting on a week long Fiber Festival. (They've been putting on one every other year since and are planning one for 2010). They brought in teachers and exhibits (art dolls, quilts, purses and clothing) from all over the world. I flew up to take some workshops and participate in all the activities with my friend Deb (who lives there). We didn't waste anytime sleeping, when the day was done we "played" in her quilt studio till the late hours of the night. One of the first classes we took was from Patti Medaris Culea, a doll artist I believe from California. In the class we made covers for a fabric journal. Her pattern called for 3 women on the cover, I made two, Deb and me. The cover uses commercial fabrics but all the pages inside I used my own hand dyed fabrics. The following are the pages for my journal made to show the samples from my classes. This first page uses some hand dyed fabric I over-dyed with Deb when my husband I were there for a visit in 1999, the picture is us when we camped in Denali. The little piece to the left was from a workshop with Jan Beaney (from England). It's a little piece I did on washaway stablizer and the sewing machine. It's "Denali in Autumn". The fish Deb made and represents our day halibut fishing. The stamped "sunshine" on black silk filled with Angelina fibers. Natural dyed wool geese flying over.

The next page background I sun-printed with snowflake confetti sprinkled on. The picture is Deb's cabin in the foothills outside of Anchorage. The three machine work pieces from Jan Beany's class, all thread work done on wash away stabilizer, the one is the northern lights.

We spent one day watching the start of the Iditarod race, some native women in their traditional outfits, beautifully made by their mother. The bone face I beaded around. I used Angelina fibers and machine stitching for the northern lights.

Deb and I in Jan's class, the little piece I made the grid in class and hand wove funky yarns in later. The background fabric I dyed 2 years later (at Fiber Fest) in a 3 day workshop with Ann Johnston, dye painting. Deb made me the little pin.

Shibori samples made in another 3 day workshop with Joan Morris, (she did the shibori costumes for the Disney's Lion King on Broadway). These are two little samples I made to fit in my book, their done by hand. The background fabric I dyed at home.

Background fabric I dyed then hand stamped with my antique wood block. (2006 Ann Johnstons class). The lizard I cut out of some fabric I batiked at home.

Back up for the 2006 Fiber Fest, we took a 2 day workshop with Larkin Van Horn. She does fabulous bead work. She gave us a bag filled with different fibers, beads, trims etc. and taught different ways to work with them. Deb and I each took ours and made a little picture, mine is "under the sea" which I later added glass fish beads on. Background fabric I dyed at home.

Another day playing around with beads and trim, The black peacock fabric is antique put on some of Deb's hand dyed batting. I sprinkled square confetti on and layered it all with tulle and machine embellished it all, it looks like some kind of mythical animal. The black "snake" was a piece of wire we covered with thread by running it through our sewing machine. Lots of fun.

Also, in 2006 a group of women came from Korea. They brougth a goup of fashions they made for the exhibit and some for the fashion show. We took a class from them making silk pin cushions from silk they brought with them from Korea. They also brought with them some antique piecing samples to show. Even though we spoke different languages we comunicated wonderfully through textiles. The background for this page is my dye clean up cloth.

This page will hurt your eyes, the background I did in Ann's class and added pictures of Deb and I during the class. Deb is dye painting her feet blue to stamp her fabric for a piece called "Cold feet Quilter" (her blog name).
This weekend I will put 2 rivets along one edge of each page and then put "funky" yarn through to hold the book together. Hopefully next year I'll be adding a few more pages.
I hope this wasn't too many pictures for you to view, I didn't know if I should do it in one day or two, I choose one!