By Luisa Loi
La Conner Community News
After four years in Everett, the International Quilt & Fiber Arts Festival is finally returning to its birth place — La Conner.
This week, the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum invites expert needle wielders, casual crafters and anyone interested in learning a thing or two to three days of demos, lectures and aesthetic delight at Maple Hall.
“I’m kind of excited to see La Conner overrun with fiber artists and fiber art enthusiasts,” said Museum Director Sarah LaBarre, who is expecting close to 1,000 visitors from Washington and beyond. “The Pacific Northwest in general has a huge fiber art community.”
The festival will take place from 10 to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and from 10 to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Online tickets have sold out, but visitors can buy them in person at Maple Hall starting Friday at 10 a.m. at a price of $20 per day.
From 11 a.m. to noon on Friday, sit down for a lecture by textile artist Shelley Socolofsky; from 1 to 3 p.m., learn wheel spinning with Jane Kroger and drop spindling with Charlie Angelis. From 3:30 to 5, Sarah Benson will teach how to make a broom.
From 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Christina Fairley Erickson will demonstrate the art of free motion machine embroidery; Kathie Kerler will give a lecture from 1 to 2; from 2:30 to 5, have fun making tree prints with Colleen Wise.
Katherine Lewis will show how to make a willow basket from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday; from 1:30 to 3, learn how to embroider.
According to LaBarre, the festival will also feature a collection of 80 pieces selected from 300 entries and by artists from 14 states and four countries — the U.S., South Korea, Taiwan and Germany. Two expert judges will select the top five artworks for awards and prizes. In order to make the cut, among other requirements, artists had to submit completely original works, meaning no kits allowed, she said.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity to see a cross-section of both traditional quilting and contemporary fiber art and contemporary quilting,” she said. “Quilting has changed a lot in the last couple hundred years really, especially in the last few decades, and so it will be a really strong example of what fiber art can be.”
While she declined to describe any particular pieces in order to avoid spoiling the surprise for visitors, she recommends to “expect to be wowed.”
“I think a few pieces are really pushing the boundary of what it is to be fiber, and that’s really interesting,” she said.
Just a short walk from Maple Hall is the Civic Garden Club, which will host a market. Across the street from this charming white building is the Gaches Mansion, the 19th-century building that is now home to the Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum. Aside from its Tudor-style Victorian character, this building features new exhibitions periodically and a little shop, making it worth a visit.
For more information about the festival and the museum, visit qfamuseum.org.
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
