Thanks to the Quilters' Guild of North Dakota, we will host a special exhibition of And Still Counting, a memorial installation conceived of and coordinated by Caron Lage of St. Cloud, MN.

Back in 2007, Caron was inspired by an exhibit  at Reed College in Oregon. Flags had been placed in the lawn, a red flag for every American who died in the Iraqi war, and a white one for every six Iraqis. There were 3055 red flags, and 112,000 white flags.

She decided to make something similar in her chosen medium of quilting. Her idea was to have a small quilt for each American who has died, and on that quilt small french knots to represent each Iraqi. That meant 3055 little six-inch quilts with 212 french knots on each one.

Presently, there are over 2600 little quilts made. They make a powerful visual representation of the lives lost, and we are still counting.

Caron will be on hand to answer your questions and talk about the memorial. Check out her blog.

This schedule is subject to change.

◊ these demonstrators also sell their work

*these demonstrators will help you try their techniques

SUNDAY

gates open noon to 5

food, soft drinks and coffee available

demonstrations:

in Dawson Hall

machine embellishing, Julie Richardson, Halleigh Larson

machine knit a dishcloth, Dorothy Rosman◊*

crazy quilt embellishing, Virginia Dambach & Aura Lee Mohror

treadle machine sewing, Lexie Mohror

commercial machine quilting, Clem Buzick & Chelce Detert

in the airplane hangar

weaving,  Jenny Yearous and others*

sprang, Anna Baird*

wet felting, Pamela Davis*

origami, Nick Abbas*

naalbinding, Ramon Ledesma*

survival bracelet, Stephen Baird◊*

toothbrush rugs, Kristin Newman◊

spinning, carding, Northern Prairie Fiber Artists

temari, Megan Rheault    sponsored by Nordic Needle

embroidery, Kris Boland

rag rug weaving, Mark Bernstein◊

Marsue Silk, dye your own silk scarf to keep (fee is charged)

in Arthur Town Hall

spinning, Woolly Women◊

yo-yo making, Doreen Lee (fabric puffs, not the toy)*

knitting Barbie doll clothes, Susan Nordin◊

sock knitting machine, Pam Burkhardt, Paula Sebelius

machine embroidered lace, Donna Harles◊

in the Main Museum

bobbin lace, tatting, Heritage Lacemakers, Linda McShannock

Native American wing of museum

videos: short subjects and Quilts in Women's Lives

on the grounds

basket weaving, Debbi Gerecke (log cabin porch)

classes:

Hand painting yarns in the morning (only the classroom is open at this hour)

Kumihimo, Japanese braiding, in the afternoon

This is a good question, and the answer is rather broad. Fiber Arts has come to be the general term used to cover items made of thread, filament, cloth and/or embellishments.  This includes everything from weaving to macramé, spinning to cross-stitch and everything in between.

The Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh has this to say: “Fiber arts include, but are not limited to, basketry, beading, book arts, embroidery, crochet, felting, knitting, jewelry, mixed media, quilting, paper art, rug hooking, sculpture, surface design, stitchery, wearables and weaving.” And the definition is ever-expanding. These days fiber arts go wherever artists want to take them.

Some people use the term “textile arts” instead. Another term is needle arts, which includes those fiber or textile arts that utilize a needle.

The basic building blocks are

raw hemp fiber

hemp yarn

However you define fiber arts, the group Friends of Fiber Arts International declares that “fiber is the art medium of the 21^st century.”

hemp herringbone weave (above) and knitted hemp (below)