Spinning and Weaving Week
October 2-6, 2006

Sample Press Release Number 1

**********PRESS RELEASE********

For Release: Before October 1, 2003
Contact: Merry Weaver, (333)444-5555

LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOINS INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATION

The Quirk County Historical Society, in conjunction with the Homespun Weavers Guild, will be joining spinners, handweavers, dyers and basketweavers around the world in observance of Spinning and Weaving Week, October 4-10.

The Historical Society will sponsor a month-long display of antique coverlets and antique spinning and weaving tools, side-by-side with modern counterparts, at the Quirk County Museum, 305 North Main Street. Museum hours are 10-4, Tuesday through Sunday. Docent-led tours of the exhibit, with demonstrations of spinning and weaving, will be held Friday-Sunday from 1 until 2 p.m., throughout October.

A special lecture on "Coverlet Weaving in Quirk Country, 1784-1984" will be presented by Mary Ann Ostrander on Friday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Blue Room of the Museum. Ms. Ostrander, a handweaver and a resident of Millville, is the author of Colonial Homecrafts in Quirk County.

Weather permitting, a Sheep-to-Shawl contest will be held on the Museum lawn, starting at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 9. Three costumed teams, each consisting of a sheep, a shearer, three spinners and a weaver, will race to see which one can shear the sheep, spin the wool, and weave a six-foot shawl in the shortest time span.

A traveling display will visit the five grade schools of Millville, Midtown and Riverton October 4-10. Homespun Weavers Guild members, Susan and John Landes will demonstrate for the school children spinning, dyeing and weaving as they were done in colonial days. The children will have the opportunity to try some of these activities themselves.

These special activities were made possible, in part, by a grant from the Early American Interior Design Studio, 111 Maple Street, Midtown. Spinning and Weaving Week is an annual event sponsored by the Handweavers Guild of America, Inc., a membership organization with affiliated guilds in all states and 28 countries. Its offices are located in Duluth, Georgia.