Join the St. Marys Museum for a fun afternoon of kicking off the summer season on Saturday, June 1 from 12:00 – 4:00 p.m. Enjoy children’s crafts, sweet treats, and view our freshly renovated exhibit spaces. Try your hand at fibre arts in our new exhibit that celebrates the 75th anniversary of the London District Weavers and Spinners Guild, who will be providing demonstrations of their craft. There is no cost for admission to the Summer Open House, but donations are always welcome. The LDWS weaving & spinning exhibit will be at the Museum until Labour Day.
Location – 177 Church Street South, St. Marys, Ontario
Hours – The Museum is open for drop-in, self-guided tours: 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Monday to Friday year-round 12:00 to 4:00 pm on Saturdays and Sundays in June, July, and August.
On Sunday November 6th the LDWS Outreach committee hosted a successful event.
from Amie: We had 12 people come to the poppy plate activity! We are very proud of ourselves about this! Many did two poppy plates so we left the extra finished poppy plates for ELCC to display for Remembrance Day
Great fun was had at the Home County Music and Art Festival this past weekend. True to form, the weather ranged from terrible to fabulous.
This year, we borrowed a canopy from the Old South Community Organization and set it up (in pouring rain) on Friday, July 19. OSCO also lent us tables and chairs to help with our event, since Home County no longer can supply equipment or the very welcome honorarium we used to receive. Home County sponsorships have been dwindling in the past few years, and they have redesigned the craft demonstration activities to accommodate the decline in financial support.
So Home County invited us to create an interactive area at the Festival. We were given space at the north end of Victoria Park, where we set up a “yarn sculpture” event. We made a wooden structure using 5 foot sticks, consisting of three large tripods connected for stability. We spread out a variety of yarns and some delightful crocheted woolly worms for kids to use to decorate our structure.
Saturday was hot, hot, hot, and we had only a few participants. But after the thunderstorm Saturday night (during which the canopy blew down) Sunday dawned bright and cool, and the pace picked up. Lots of kids came to help decorate our structure, and stayed to learn corking, finger knitting, arm knitting, and various other fun with fibres. Participants shared their knowledge with us and a good time was had by all.
The yarn structure has been taken off to Circle R Ranch, where summer camp participants will set it back up and will help decorate it even more. It’s wonderful what a bit of yarn, some imagination, and some caring adults can do to enrich a music festival!
Spinning yarn on drop spindles and on the spinning wheel
This year, we were at Fanshawe Pioneer Village in August, instead of our usual June date. We had a great display table in the brewery (still no beer…….), and there were three spinners and two weavers present to greet the public and represent LDWS.
Meg Cheesman, Deb Eppel, Lynda King, Dan Lajoie, Edith McGregor and Diny Warren had a lovely day spent in rustic surroundings. There was a wedding ongoing and a bluegrass-style band, along with the usual horse-drawn wagon rides and antique tractors. Two food trucks were on site as well for us to patronize.
As usual, lots to see and do. I always look forward to this outing, even though the crowds are somewhat lacking. It’s a great day to enjoy a few historical moments and meet the public.
I think Dan tried to channel his inner Thomas Alder, as he worked quite hard on the barn loom in the weaving shed. It was a hot day, and Dan was happy to find a way to open windows in there to get a breeze through.
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