Members of my fiber arts guild, the Riverbend Fiber Arts Guild, and I met up with the Recycle Right Raccoon at an Earth Day Celebration on April 22. The celebration was sponsored by and held at Memorial Hospital here in Chattanooga, and we participated in the event by conducting demonstrations on spinning, weaving, knitting and quilting. A spinning wheel, inkle loom, and sewing machine were set up and in operation. Examples of alpaca fibers, hand spun yarn, various inkle woven straps and belts, knitted pieces in wool and wool blends, and free-motion machine quilted quilts made of 100% cotton fabrics and batting were also on display.
Hospital employees and visitors stopped by our table and inquired with interest. They shared their personal experiences with knitting, crochet, quilting and other needle arts or reminisced about watching family members—mothers, grandmothers, and aunts—doing needlecrafts. Several people were quite intrigued with seeing present-day applications of time-honored crafts and how both manual processes (such as hand spinning and hand weaving) and machine processes (like free-motion machine quilting) are used to create contemporary pieces.
Earth Day or any day is a good day to create something with materials from nature. So dust off your needles and hooks, pull out your wheel, loom or sewing machine and start creating!
