LRAC President Tim Wheeler presents Priscilla Blosser-Rainey
with the James E. Leiss Volunteer of the Year award.

Blosser-Rainey Wins Volunteer Award

For over a decade Priscilla Blosser-Rainey of Timberville, Va., has awed and delighted visitors to the Lost River Museum as she weaves the favorite pattern of the now legendary Tusing sisters on their antique loom that now holds an honored place at the Museum. She was the unanimous choice for the annual service award of the Lost River Artisans Cooperative and the Lost River Educational Foundation.

Blosser-Rainey has organized the annual Fiber Festival at the Lost River Artisans Cooperative, directed the acquisition and display of traditional spinning and weaving tools and equipment in the Museum, and taught dyeing using native plant materials and traditional techniques. She is responsible for saving a number of traditional looms and other spinning and weaving implements in the area.

Blosser-Rainey has studied weaving in courses and workshops all over the country, but her most cherished teachers were the Tusing sisters. They lived a quiet life on their farm on the top of South Branch Mountain in the heart of Hardy County, W.Va. They followed the old ways and wove traditional coverlets so fine the Smithsonian sent specialists to study their work and feature it in the national Smithsonian Magazine. The Tusings were family friends for Blosser-Rainey, who visited the Tusing sisters on their farm many times, studied their spinning and weaving, and wrote down much of their wit, wisdom, and traditional lore.

For many years Blosser-Rainey raised sheep and ran a nationally known spinning and weaving school. Today in retirement she takes a few very lucky students in spinning and dyeing classes. She can usually be found on Sundays after 1 p.m. at the Lost River Museum weaving on the Tusing loom or spinning on one of their spinning wheels and enthralling visitors with her stories.

The Volunteer Service Award is named for James E. Leiss, an internationally known nuclear physicist, who retired to the Singers Glen, Va., area to become a magnificent woodworker, always willing to demonstrate his art and coach younger craftsmen. He co-led the transformation of the old Harper Barn in Lost River into a showcase for the craftsmen of the Lost River Artisans Cooperative and the Lost River Museum.

The award in 2010 takes the form of an engraved cobalt blue Blenko Glass water bottle, one of the signature pieces of the Milton, W.Va.-based glassmaking company.