Fibrefest Marks 21 Years

Mark the weekend of September 10th (10 am to 5 pm) and 11th (10 am to 4 pm), 2016 on your calendars because you won’t want to miss the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum’s 21st annual Fibrefest. At two locations—the Museum and the Almonte Arena—visitors will find demonstrations, vendors, and exhibits—a full two-day festival of fibre arts! Local guilds will demonstrate spinning, knitting, weaving, rug hooking, lacemaking, smocking, felting and quilting. Vendors include spinners, weavers, and fibre artists from across the province, as well as quilt shops and alpaca farms.

The Friends of the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum will offer their popular tea room services, featuring homemade goodies, beverages and sandwiches at very reasonable prices.

While visiting the Museum, explore the permanent history exhibit “Fabric of a Small Town,” which interprets how a piece of wool becomes a piece of finished cloth and includes industrial machines used throughout the process.

Featured Artists Grace Noël & Diane Lemire

Grace Noël
Grace is the surface pattern designer behind her company Creatively Graceful. After recently earning a diploma in Interior Decorating from Algonquin College, she is transitioning from Ottawa to Almonte, Ontario. Her hand-drawn designs are best described as whimsical. They are largely inspired by nature and vintage items, and are layered with detail. She loves to convey a story through her art. Grace's designs are currently available for sale as fabric, wallpaper, and gift wrap through her shop on Spoonflower. Her Scallop fabric was used on a collection of shoes by Milk and Honey (Now Shoes of Prey) in Fall 2013, and her Cirque fabric was used in an exhibit at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Spring 2014. Grace has also designed a collection of quilting fabrics for Moda Fabrics called With Glowing Hearts in celebration of Canada's upcoming 150th Anniversary. She loves to make people's days, and offers a Custom Design Service. Her ultimate goal is to Make Everything Beautiful through her work. 

Diane Lemire
Diane draws inspiration from the world around her to create mixed-media sculptures, textile art, and paintings that subtly evoke a sense of memory, time, and place. For the past 15 years she has been discovering and experimenting with the numerous techniques of felting, allowing herself to be seduced by this ancient craft of working with raw wool, incessantly exploring the fusion of natural fibers with recycled materials.

PARADOX is a show about embracing the bitter-sweet truth of nurturing, through installation, sculpture, and art work. What challenges transpire when you are one of 12 or 14 children? Or, on the other hand, are the hard-working Mother?

In her unique style, Diane will be honoring a period of time when women gave birth to many children. Being one of 11 children herself, she will share her memories and stories based on her perspective of nurturing. Story-telling is central to each and every piece in the gallery. Her mother’s left-behind materials are part of the core of this work. Beautiful patterned and printed textiles, her mother’s clothes, and discarded found objects of no great importance. Like a chameleon they undergo a transformation, becoming part of a narrative of the senses: emotion and tactile beauty welcome everyone who wishes to enter this journey.
Diane Lemire was born in Val D’Or, Quebec (Canada). She has spent her formative years traveling and working abroad, and consequently studied Fine Art at the University of Ottawa. In 2010 and 2014 Diane was awarded the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum Award.
She has exhibited in Canada and Europe, and her work can be found in private and public collections.

Don’t miss the Lamb Race!
At 4 pm on September 11th, hundreds of wooden lambs will be thrown over the main falls in downtown Almonte, and the owners of the first three lambs to reach the finish line will win fabulous prizes. Tickets for the race will be on sale at the Museum well ahead of the event.

Whether you are interested in art, history, clothing, or textiles or want to get a head start on your Christmas shopping or are just looking for a great day out and about, Fibrefest will have something for you.

Admission to Fibrefest is $5.00 per day, which includes access to all sites. Admission tickets available at the door only at both locations.