Alliance YWCA Women's Fiber Fest

The Third Annual Alliance YWCA Women's Fiber Fest will be held Saturday, March 13 from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The event celebrates traditional skills and the use of fiber and fiber products. It's an opportunity for participants to re-connect with our heritage through an array of demonstrations, workshops and a vendors' marketplace endorsing the exchange of regional artisans and their goods. For the last two years participants, from Alliance and surrounding counties, have flocked to the YWCA to share a day of workshops, shopping, lunch and fellowship and this year's festival promises to be equally exciting. And expanded offering of classes in spinning, knitting, crocheting, quilting and dyeing will be held at Studio 214, the Red Cross, and Rodman Public Library as well as the YWCA.

The Marketplace will feature a variety of handmade items along with yarns, dyes, roving and other fiber related articles offered by over a dozen local and regional artisans. Special features of this year's festival include a silent auction of wool and alpaca fleeces as well as an antique quilt raffle. The 2010 Fiber Fest raffle prize is a local heirloom, a summer quilt donated by Mrs. Elizabeth J. tice. Elizabeth's mother pieced the quilt, then hand-quilted it in the "Shott Pattern," designed and drawn directly onto the quilt by Elizabeth's brother, Carl Shott an employee of Bethlehem Steel in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The quilt has never been used and is estimated to be approximately 80 years old. Proceeds from the auction, raffle and festival will be used to support the YWCA of Alliance in its mission to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.

The Alliance YWCA cordially invites you to celebrate Women's History Month and our fiber arts heritage. Take a class or two, shop the marketplace, or bring your needles, spindles or spinning wheels to join us for lunch, conversation and crafts on Saturday, March 13.

Class descriptions, the class schedule and workshop registration form are all available from the YWCA website: http://allianceywca.org. Interested participants may also contact the YWCA directly at 330.823.1840, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.