Well the Friday Seminars were quite a success. To begin with, all the Kilt Kampers persisted in sewing right through till the end. Here's the proof:
We had several folks join us for the seminars who were not able to make it for the full week. Most of them fellow X Markers! See who you can recognize...
Barb started things off with a wonderful re-cap of kiltmaking 101, which was a very informative talk about kilts and kilt styles in general. Here she is showing a New Hampshire tartan kilt pleated both to stripe and to sett (yes, we provided tables, but she preferred to use the floor!):
Bob Martin next gave an enlightening slide-show presentation going over the history of the kilt. Lots of photos of old portraits and old kilts from various museum collections, and many Bob made himself over his 30+ year career. I didn't realize till I got home that I didn't get any pics of Bob's presentation. (Probably had something to do with the lights being out for the slides). But here he is beforehand, discussing the history of the Ross Hunting tartan with Barb. (Sorry for the back shot!)
Next, Steve Ashton (Wizard of BC) gave a two-hour long Freedom Kilts info-mercial... I mean, lesson on the contemporary kilt! (j/k Steve, though I do hope you got some orders out of the presentation). Let me say, after seeing these kilts in person, and learning about all that goes in to the construction of each one, I can definitely recommend Freedom Kilts most heartily to anyone considering a contemporary style kilt. You won't find better quality anywhere else).
Finally, I wrapped up the day with a history of the tartan, which I hoped the crowd found helpful. I dealt mainly with the development of the concept of "clan tartans" and tartan fashion both historically and today. Here I am talking about how we got the MacPherson clan tartan:
And just because I'm vain, another picture of me (actually I wanted to show off the hose my wife knit for me again!).
As I said, the kilt kampers kept on sewing throughout the presentations, and by the end of the day, many of them were almost done with their kilts. One, by Joel Gunn, was ready to wear to the Ceilidh tonight!
Joel and I had a nice chat about how good it is to wear something like this that you have made with your own two hands. He is very proud of his work, as he rightfully should be.
Finally, a shot of the collected rabble from X Marks who could make it.
Let's see... from left to right, that's TartanHiker, Greg Roth (Kiltman, I think your screen name is?), his lovely wife at his feet, me, Fluter, BarbT, Dave Dove, Archie & Joel Gunn, Splash4, and then in front Steve & Bobbie Ashton (WizardofBC and KiltedGnome).
Most of the rabble stuck around for the ceilidh and BBQ tonight but I stayed at the museum till about 7pm then had to head home to releive my patient wife who had been home with all four kids by herself since early that morning!
Speaking of which, time to get off this computer and put them to bed now!
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