We just
completed the 12th annual Stephenson County Fiber Art Fair on
Saturday, April 19, 2008 - and had a great time! Next year's
show will be on April 18, 2009. Details on the 2009 show
will be posted in January of 2009. In the meantime, please
enjoy the following information on the 2008 show. The classes
will be entirely different for 2009, but most of the rest of the
information will remain the same.
A celebration of fiber and the fiber arts with
workshops, demonstrations of spinning and weaving, vendors
offering fibers for spinning plus finished yarn, dyes, books,
gifts, equipment, handmade soap and baskets. Also supplies for
spinning, weaving, knitting, felting, dyeing, tatting and
crochet.
Admission is $2 for adults and free for children
under 12.
Come Spin With Us!
Can't wait until April to get your
fiber-fix? The Moonspinners of Northwest Illinois
meet monthly to spin, teach, learn, and have fun! Our
Guild consists of every range of spinner from expert to
brand-new, and you are welcome to join us regardless of
what level spinner you are.
When: Third Wednesday of Each
Month, 7 to 9 pm
Where: Orangeville Methodist Church
111
S. East Street, Orangeville, Illinois.
(Please note that our monthly meeting
space is NOT in the same location as the Fiber
Art Fair. We meet monthly in Orangeville, and the
Fiber
Art Fair is in Cedarville.)
Mailing List
Are you on our mailing list?
Brochures for the 2008 show will be mailed at the end of
February. To receive a brochure about this year's show please send your
name and mailing address to Suzy Beggin, P.O. Box 54, Stockton,
IL 61085 or e-mail
Suzy@SuzyBeggin.com.
Information for Vendors
Vendor packets were mailed
on February 12, 2008. Packets were mailed to:
Anyone who was a vendor
last year
Anyone who received a
packet last year
Vendors who applied for
a spot last year, but were unable to get in (our "Waiting
List Vendors,"
click here to see the list)
Anyone who contacted me
for a vendor packet anytime between last year's show and
February 11, 2008.
The good news is we have a
popular, well-attended show, and many of our vendors say it's
one of their favorites. The bad news is we always have
more interested vendors than we have room for, and unfortunately
that means we have to turn vendors away each year. As a
result, no additional vendor packets will be mailed after
February 12th.
Vendor booths will be
assigned in this order:
First preference goes to
vendors who attended last year, and they get "first dibs" on
the booth location they had last year.
Second preference goes
to the Waiting List Vendors from last year.
Additional vendors will
be added to the Waiting List, in the order in which their
registration is received. Waiting List names are
not removed (except at your request). So if you
are put on the Waiting List this year you will retain your
Waiting List position next year and in future years.
Click here to see the
Waiting List.
Vendor
List
Below is a list our
confirmed vendors for the 2008 show.
Additional vendors will be added as their registration is
received, so be sure to check back often!
You don't have to wait for
the show to talk to our vendors, feel free to contact them
anytime to ask about their supplies or place an order.
Many of our vendors will let you place an order now and pick it
up at the show - saving you the shipping costs. Please let them know you got their e-mail
and website address
from the Stephenson County Fiber Art Fair website.
You can pre-register for
your class by mailing in a check or you can register online using PayPal.
Sign-ups will be allowed the day of FAF, but only if there is
room available. Because our workshops provide one-one-on,
hands-on instruction, class sizes are limited. Sign up
early to make sure you get a spot!
To mail in your class
registration:
Use the form in the brochure, print this page or list the classes you want on a sheet of
paper. Be sure to include your name and mailing address,
and mail it to Nancy Jones, P.O Box 5, Cedarville, IL
61013. Checks should be written to "Moonspinners of
Northwest Illinois."
To use PayPal: Click
on the PayPal icon beside the class you want. You can use
your credit card (whether you are a PayPal member or not), or
PayPal members can use their PayPal account. Please be
sure to include your "shipping address." Nothing will be
shipped to you, but we will add your address to next year's brochure
mailing list. Your PayPal confirmation (and your credit
card statement, if you pay by credit card) will list "Suzy Beggin,
Shepherdess" as the business paid. If you have any
questions regarding your PayPal transaction please contact Suzy at
Suzy@SuzyBeggin.com
or call 815-541-0897.
Click here at anytime to view your cart.
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Pocket Basket
9 am to Noon; $35
Julie Sword, Instructor
Minimum/Maximum Number of
Students - 3 / 12
Perfect for all experience
levels, come and create a pocket shaped basket to
decorate your home. This basket is thin and
can hang on your door or wall. You will be
taught how to make the basic basket and then can use
your creative side to decorate it, and you'll go
home with a unique pocket basket that you made
yourself! All basket materials are provided.
Please bring the following tools: 10 spring
clothespins, flat head screwdriver, heavy duty
scissors, spray bottle and an old towel.
Mittens from
Tip to Cuff on One Long Circular Needle
(Including Two
at a Time)
9 am to 1 pm;
$40
Beth Morimoto,
Instructor
Minimum/Maximum Number of Students - 3 / 8
Participants will knit a mini-mitten from tip to
cuff using a long circular needle.
Like socks, mittens can be knit in the opposite
direction. This is useful for spinners who often
make yarn that doesn’t fit a specific category
and for the knitter who hates to swatch, as it
does not require a pattern or a gauge swatch.
Knit two at a time, both mittens match exactly
and are finished at the same time; very handy
for “odd ball” knitting. They are easily tried
on as you knit, making knitting to fit a breeze.
(Did I mention that you may not have to make a
gauge swatch?) We will learn several useful
techniques: Turkish cast on, provisional cast
on, a fast and easy make 1 increase, mirrored
increases and decreases and several stretchy
bind offs. Participants will learn both how to
knit mittens without a written pattern (no gauge
swatch for this method) and how to adapt a
favorite pattern to the technique (you might
have to swatch for this method).
YOU MUST KNOW HOW TO KNIT TOTAKE THIS
CLASS—ability to knit in the round is
recommended, though not essential.
MATERIALS: 50 grams of yarn (a smooth
yarn is highly recommended); a 40” circular
needle in a size appropriate for your yarn; a
crochet hook in the size range of your needle;
several yards of a smooth neutral yarn or
crochet cotton (#3 crochet cotton works for all
weights of yarn); a basic knitting kit
(scissors, ruler, markers, pencil, etc.) Nice
to have is a double pointed needle in a slightly
smaller size for picking up provisional
stitches. The instructor will have some tools /
supplies available for use in class. (Please
have the correct length needle—slightly longer
is okay, but not shorter. The needle can be of
any material, but the join between the cable and
the needle should be very smooth.)
NOTE: If you LOVE to knit in the round
with two circular needles, you can use this
method in class—but this exception is only for
those who already knit socks and such this way.
Kumihimo Weaving
10 am to Noon; $15
Rose Sword, Instructor
Minimum/Maximum Number of
Students - 3 / 10
Kumihimo weaving is fun and
the projects you can make are endless! With
this Japanese weaving technique you can make
intricate braids for bracelets, belts, cords,
necklaces, purse handles and so much more! All
materials needed to make your own bracelet are
included.
Hooked on Locker Hooking
1 pm to 3 pm; $30
Judy Mueller, Instructor
Minimum/Maximum Number of
Students - 1 / 12
Learn the basics of locker
hooking, and then make a small project made with a
locker hook and roving. All materials included
in fee.
So You Bought a Raw Fleece -
What Do You Do Next?
1 pm to 3 pm;
$10 to Watch the Sample
Fleece, $15 to Work on Your Own
Nanette Mosher, Instructor
Minimum/Maximum Number of
Students:
Limit of 15 to Watch the
Sample Fleece; Limit of 5 to Work Your Own
Do you want to buy a raw
fleece, but wonder how you would work with it?
Come to a hands-on demonstration of sorting and
skirting a raw fleece and preparing it for washing.
Includes discussion of what to look for when buying
a raw fleece, ways to wash, suitability of
fibers for end purposes, and ideas for further
processing. A demonstration fleece will be
available, or you can bring your own and take it
home ready to wash! An apron is suggested, but
not required.
Make a Mini-Sock
2 pm to 4 pm; $25
Julie Sword, Instructor
Minimum / Maximum Number of
Students - 2 / 8
Learn how to knit a sock using
a variety of cuff, heel and toe styles.
Students will complete a mini-sock, and in the
process learn everything they need to know to make a
full-size sock on their own. Students must
know how to knit. Bring size 4 or 5 double
pointed needles. Yarn will be provided.
Yarn Painting
Drop-in anytime
between 10 am and 3 pm, $5
Mary Jo Burke,
Instructor
Pick a 50 gram skein of wool
yarn, spot-dye it with your favorite colors, and take it home!
All materials and instructions supplied. Stop by anytime
throughout the day and plan to spend from 15 to 30 minutes to
complete your yarn.
Jane
Addams and the Importance of Fiber Arts
Cedarville, a picturesque little village in
northwest Illinois, was the birthplace of
Jane Addams (1860-1935), the social worker and humanitarian
who founded Hull-House in Chicago and won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1931. Our event space, the Jane Addams Community Center, is
named in her honor.
Like most Victorian women, Jane Addams was a
knitter. Many of her hand-knit items were given away to
friends, and some of her knitted work is on display at the
Cedarville Historical Society Museum.
Miss Addams also saw the value in the lost arts
of spinning and weaving, and invited spinners and weavers to
demonstrate their "old world skills" at the labor museum in
Hull-House. In her work Newer Ideal of Peace (1907),
Miss Addams notes the companionship that is created between
spinners, even from vastly different backgrounds. One
hundred years later, modern spinners
will recognize that the same spirit still holds true today:
We have made
an effort at Hull-House to recover something of the early
industries from an immigrant neighborhood, and in a little
exhibit called a labor museum, we have placed in historic
sequence and order methods of spinning and weaving from a dozen
nationalities in Asia Minor and Europe. The result has been a
striking exhibition of the unity and similarity of the earlier
industrial processes. Within the narrow confines of one room,
the Syrian, the Greek, the Italian, the Russian, the Norwegian,
the Dutch, and the Irish find that the differences in their
spinning have been merely putting the distaff upon a frame or
placing the old handspindle in a horizontal position. A group of
women representing vast differences in religion, in language, in
tradition, and in nationality, exhibit practically no difference
in the daily arts by which, for a thousand generations, they
have clothed their families. When American women come to visit
them, the quickest method, in fact almost the only one, of
establishing a genuine companionship with them, is through this
same industry.
Directions to Cedarville and the Jane Addams Community Center
The Jane Addams Community Center is in historic
Cedarville, Illinois, three blocks west of Highway 26.
Cedarville is located between Freeport, Illinois and Monroe,
Wisconsin. It's 125 miles west of Chicago, 125 miles southwest
of Milwaukee, and 60 miles south of Madison, Wisconsin - just
right for a pleasant day trip through the stateline area!
From East (Chicago; Rockford): Take
Route 20 West. At Freeport take 26 North to Cedarville. In
Cedarville, turn left at the Mobile Station onto Washington
Street. The Jane Addams Center is at 430 W. Washington Street,
which will be on your right.
From West (Galena; Dubuque, IA):
Take 20 East. At Freeport take 26 North to Cedarville. In
Cedarville, turn left at the Mobile Station onto Washington
Street. The Jane Addams Center is at 430 W. Washington Street,
which will be on your right.
From North (Monroe, WI):
Take 26 South into Cedarville. In Cedarville, turn right at the
Mobile Station onto Washington Street. The Jane Addams Center
is at 430 W. Washington Street, which will be on your right.
From South (Forreston):
Take 26 North through Freeport and into Cedarville. In
Cedarville, turn left at the Mobile Station onto Washington
Street. The Jane Addams Center is at 430 W. Washington Street,
which will be on your right.
Restaurants, Lodging, Maps, Etc.
For free information on restaurants, lodging,
maps and other things to do in Stephenson County, contact the
Freeport / Stephenson County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Please tell
them you got their name and number off the Fiber Art Fair's web
page.
Freeport / Stephenson County Convention & Visitors
Bureau
Hotel Note: Many
of our guests stayed at the Amerihost Inn last year, the closest
hotel to Cedarville and very conveniently located at the north
end of Freeport at the intersection of the Freeport 20 By-Pass
and Route 26. The Amerihost has changed names and is now
the Baymont Inn
(815-599-8510
or 877-BAYMONT). The name is new, but you will still find
all the same amenities and friendly service.
Links
The Fiber Art Fair is listed on the following
websites listing fiber and craft events. Visit these sites for
other exciting fiber events:
Craft Site Directory -
"Your guide to arts and crafts on the internet" (www.craftsitedirectory.com)
We're a member of the
Stephenson County Web Ring. Visit other sites in the ring for more fun stuff and information on Stephenson County.
Just
How is Fiber/Fibre Spelled, Anyway?
For years we had spelled the
fiber in Fiber Art Fair the old English way - fibre. We're
a laid back, earthy group and decided that "fibre" was just a
little too hooty-snooty for us. Starting with the 2006
show, we've been spelling fiber as plain, old "fiber,"
although you might still catch the former spelling in some of
our materials. J
The
Stephenson County Fiber Art Fair is hosted by the Moonspinners
of Northwest Illinois.
This
website is hosted by Suzy Beggin, Shepherdess. Learn more about
me and my sheep at
www.SuzyBeggin.com.
