MAWS Conference Report June 3-8

The Billings Weavers Guild and Prairie Handspinners want to thank MAWS members, vendors, and teachers for the participating in Under the Rims held at Montana State University—Billings. We had 118 people registered for the conference and 82 participants for pre and post conference classes including 19 people who did not register for the conference.  We offered beginning spinning and weaving pre-conference classes which had 18 registrants.  Participants came from 8 states and 3 Canadian provinces.

We found MSU-B a very good venue with the dorms, food, and all classes in one complex.  On Thursday night, our 25 vendors opened and we had a great Spin-In hosted by the Prairie Handspinners. The conference provided many colors of merino roving.  Participants spun one color of fiber for a few minutes and then added on the next color and so on.  All the yarns were gathered up in order to make a special woven item for the next MAWS conference.

The work displayed in both our juried show, guild booths, and teacher show was quite impressive. Our judges and national teachers expressed their surprise that an organization of our size could have such a fine display of spinning, weaving, and other fiber arts.  The Missoula Weavers Guild member Nancy Edwards wove wonderful ribbons for guild booth winners from the MAWS signature yarn.  Betty Alexander considered her tradition of weaving beautiful ribbons for the juried and fashion show winners.  Our fashion show also exhibited some wonderful items including towels from the towel exchange.     

In total we offered 44 classes with 4 internationally known presenters and 18 regional teachers. Many participants expressed their pleasure with the quality of all our teachers. 

Friday night was a special night at the conference.  We headed down to the Moss Mansion, a 1903 historic home in Billings, which featured our Living Treasures Show.  The Moss Mansion holds a special place in the weaving history of Montana. Melville Moss was an original member of the Billings Weavers Guild founded in 1949. Current Billings Weaver Guild members remember Melville sponsoring their annual Christmas party at the mansion.  The show included work from 18 past Living Treasures. 

Next, we went to the Yellowstone Art Museum for a dessert party and viewing and discussion on Navajo rugs by Robyn Peterson, Executive Director.  the Billings Trolley took members from MSU-B to the Moss Mansion and the YAM. 

At the award banquet, the winners of the MAWS "Living Treasure Award" were announced and jane Fournier gave us a slide show and speech about New Zealand's vibrant fiber arts community. 

I want to thank the many volunteers both in Billings and from other guilds for working so hard to make our conference a great success.  I look forward to seeing all of you in Missoula in 2012.

Linda Shelhamer

 Below are pictured the towels that were entered in the exchange.