Programs
May 8, 2024 — In-Person/hybrid Presentation
Drawlooms and Damask Design
with Amy Blair
10:00 AM - BUSINESS MEETING
10:45 AM - AMY BLAIR IN-PERSON PRESENTATION
LOCATION: TRINITY BUCKINGHAM CHURCH & zoom (zoom link on our member resources page)
Drawlooms are amazing. The unique (and at times mysterious) mechanics of these ancient devices make them adaptable, powerful design tools for weavers who love traditional methods and decorative patterns. One of the most awesome features of drawlooms is the ease with which they can be built around a warp and reconstructed on the fly to accommodate the changing needs of the imaginative weaver. By examining the complex interplay between loom setup and design capability we can better understand how this iterative process works and gain a new appreciation for the versatility of these remarkable looms.
ABOUT AMY BLAIR
Amy Blair is a trained educator, engineer, and passionate handweaver who has dedicated her creative life to drawlooms and contemporary figurative damask. Although she is endlessly inspired by the weavings of old, her focus is on the re-imagining of traditional designs to reflect the world she sees around her. A resident of Pennsylvania’s sunny Lehigh Valley, she is as likely to include steel mills and automobiles in her pieces as the folk motifs of weavers past.
Amy’s work has been featured in Complex Weavers Journal and Joanne Hall’s book Drawloom Weaving. She was juried into Art of the State 2022, and she has been granted Master Artisan status by the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. She was also a resident artist at the Banana Factory Arts Center in Bethlehem, PA in 2021/2022. Her YouTube channel, ‘Duelling Rabbits Handweaving’, is entirely — and uniquely — dedicated to the demystification of drawlooms and the textiles they make possible.
JUNE 12, 2024 - IN-PERSON YEAR-END PICNIC
Please join us at the church and bring your latest fiber project to work on while chatting with your fellow members. Show and Tell, donation table, installation of officers and picnic lunch.
SEPTEMBER 11, 2024 — IN-PERSON MEMBER SHARING
& FLEECE TO SCARF PREPARATION
10:00 AM - BUSINESS MEETING
10:45 AM - member show & tell
LOCATION: TRINITY BUCKINGHAM CHURCH sanctuary (just this month)
Welcome back after a wonderful summer of conferences and workshops. We will be meeting in the sanctuary this month. A sign will be posted to remind members where to go. After our business meeting, members are encouraged to show their fiber work from the spring & summer in an extended Show & Tell. Don’t forget to bring your unwanted stash for the donation table.
The 2024 NJ Sheep and Wool Festival is this weekend (September 14 & 15) and we want to highlight our members talents and hopefully encourage those attending to become new members. We will need members to demonstrate and greet. This is a wonderful event to not only talk with fellow members and spread the joy of fiber arts, but you get to shop too!
Fleece to Scarf team members will meet and prepare for the weekend competition.
SEPTEMBER 14 & 15, 2024 — DEMONSTRATION BOOTH AT NJ SHEEP AND FIBER FESTIVAL - RINGOES, NEW JERSEY
OCTOBER 9, 2024 — FIELD TRIP to SFA GALLERY
IN FRENCHTOWN, NEW JERSEY
10:00 AM - BUSINESS MEETING
LOCATIONs: TRINITY BUCKINGHAM CHURCH & field trip to sfa gallery frenchtown
HWBC member Laura Womack invites us on a field trip to a special textile show she’s presenting at SFA Gallery in Frenchtown, NJ. Laura is showing her collection of master textile pieces, new and vintage, collected in Asia. There will also be handmade yarns in silk, hemp, lotus and more.
In addition to Laura’s collection, we’ll see the work of her guest artist, Carol Cassidy. Carol is an internationally known designer and weaver. As founder of Lao Textiles, Carol and her studio of master artisans have woven for the interiors of some of the world’s top luxury brands. The studio produces a broad range of hand-woven silk textiles ranging from intricate brocade and tapestry wall hangings to ikat scarves and shawls to custom upholstery and curtain fabrics.
Laura has studied pattern making, tailoring and sustainable enterprise at F.I.T. as well as weaving and dyeing with master craftspeople globally. Laura shares her collection of hemp, cotton and silk fabric and yarns, gathered from Japan, Southeast Asia and India.
Guild members provide their own transportation. Look on our Calendar Page for a map location. We encourage you to carpool. Frenchtown has a number of restaurants nearby from Frenchtown Cafe to Bamboo House.
About CAROL CASSIDY
Carol Cassidy, founder and owner of Lao Textiles, has been working with textiles and fiber art for nearly three decades. She studied weaving in Norway and Finland and earned a BFA from the University of Michigan in 1980. She then worked as a fiber/textile expert for eight years in southern Africa.
In 1989, Carol moved to Southeast Asia to work as a weaving advisor on a UN weaving project in Vientiane, Laos. Shortly thereafter, she decided to establish her own textile business to preserve and continue the tradition of hand-weaving of silk in Laos.
In 1995, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York hosted an exhibition of Carol’s work entitled “Beyond Tradition: Lao Textiles Revisited”. Lao Textiles was awarded the Product Excellence Award by UNESCO in 2001. Aid to Artisans honored Carol with their first Preservation of Craft award in 2002 for her efforts in preserving silk weaving in Laos. Carol continues to advise the UN and other development agencies on income-generating activities for rural women.
Over the past several years, she has worked closely with a group of weavers in Cambodia who are landmine survivors. Traveling widely, Carol teaches and lectures on weaving and small business management and shares her personal model of weaving success with weavers and artisans around the world.
NY Times on Carol: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/travel/laos-textiles-weaving-silk.html
NOVEMBER 13, 2024 — IN-PERSON PRESENTATION
FROM PLANT TO CLOTH
WITH GIGI MATTHEWS
10:00 AM - BUSINESS MEETING
10:45 AM - gigi matthews in-person PRESENTATION
LOCATION: TRINITY BUCKINGHAM CHURCH
According to a 2016 report carried out by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, approximately 390,900 types of plants are known to science but very few can be used to make textiles. Find out how stems, leaves, and bark have been ingeniously transformed into cloth around the globe for over 30,000 years. We will also learn about modern methods used for turning agricultural waste products into usable textile fibers.
There will also be an afternoon workshop called “Gigi’s Spinning Circle.” For more information please go to our Workshops Page.
About GIGI MATTHEWS
Gigi Matthews’ keen interest in the fiber arts is a result of decades of travel to over 30 countries. Gigi has taught handspinning to guilds, at MidAtlantic Fiber Association conferences, and the John C Campbell Folk School and has published articles in Ply Magazine and Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot. She is co-host of the MidAtlantic Fiber Association's Movie Night and a board member of the Handweavers Guild of America, where her focus is on sustainability.
DECEMBER 11, 2024 — IN-PERSON HOLIDAY PARTY
Come join your fellow members in celebrating another great year of fiber fun. Activities to be determined.
JANUARY 8, 2025 — ZOOM PRESENTATION
THE THEORY AND APPLICATION OF WEFT POOLING
WITH SIDNEY SOGOL
10:00 AM - BUSINESS MEETING
10:45 AM - sidney sogol zoom PRESENTATION
Weft pooling is a technique in which the weft is strategically designed and dyed to create a vibrant dynamic color pattern that is visible throughout the width of a weaving. This technique can result in striking zig-zag patterns or more subtle watercolor-like effects.
In my upcoming talk, I cover the planning, preparation, and dyeing processes of both the warp and wefts to give weft pooling a try. I will also discuss how to weave with this weft to successfully get the color pooling. It's a fun and creative process that can lead to some really beautiful and unique designs.
About Sydney Sogol
Sydney Sogol is a skilled artisan specializing in weaving and dyeing at her company, Syd’s Threads. Her artistic creations focus on the interplay of color and pattern, drawing inspiration from her extensive background in art, ornithology, and marine biology. Each piece she meticulously crafts in her private studio is a tribute to the natural beauty and unique narrative of the creature that inspired it.
Sogol has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Weaving and a Minor in Biology from Earlham College, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Textile Design from East Carolina University. Sydney possesses a wealth of knowledge and expertise in her field. She has over a decade of experience teaching weaving and dyeing at various educational levels, ranging from high school to college classes.
Sydney Sogol is renowned for her exquisite handwoven and hand-dyed luxury wearable art and woven paintings, that utilize hand dyed and hand painted yarns. Her choice of materials, using eco-friendly Tencel or Lyocell yarn, reflects her commitment to sustainability. Through her intricate original designs and exquisite craftsmanship on 24, 16, and 8 shaft looms, she creates accessories and artworks that captivate viewers with their stunning visual narratives, much like the captivating colors and patterns of animals in nature.
FEBRUARY 12, 2025 — ZOOM PRESENTATION
COLOR and WEAVE STRUCTURES in WEAVING DESIGN
WITH JANET PHILLIPS
10:00 AM - BUSINESS MEETING
10:45 AM - janet phillips zoom PRESENTATION
There are only four ways of designing a woven fabric!
You can take a weave and re-arrange the end and pick interlacings, to create weave stripes and patterns. Twills fall into category.
You can join different weaves/textures together to create Block Weaves, such as Double Plain and Turned Twill.
You can weave a Plain Weave Cloth and float extra ends and/or picks over and under it. Overshot is the classic one. Summer and Winter is a weave structure that uses this technique to create Block Weaves.
You can weave with two colors in the warp and with the same two colors in the weft and a shape will be formed, that does not look like the weave used. This technique is called Color and Weave Effect. Log Cabin is probably the simplest one but Dice Weaves, Shadow Weave and Deflected Double Cloth are other fabrics designed in this way.
My talk will be about 4 and 8 shaft fabrics that are designed and created with Color and Weave Effect.
About JANET PHILLIPS
Janet Phillips is a Textile Designer, weaving tutor and author. She studied Industrial Textile Design at the Scottish College of Textiles graduating with a 1st class Honors Degree and the Dr Oliver medal for the best design student for 1972.
Janet worked in industry for several years before buying a 16-shaft George Wood Dobby loom, and started her career as a commission weaver. She initially wove floor rugs, but finally specialized into weaving original fabrics for clothing and interiors for private clients. Janet stopped this work in 2009.
After weaving yardage for 35 years, I am now concentrating on passing my knowledge on to others, by teaching courses in my studio in Somerset, UK, and on Zoom and writing books.
Janet’s books:
Designing Woven Fabrics - published 2008. Reprinted in 2009, 2015, 2021 and 2023.
Exploring Woven Fabrics - published 2020. Reprinted 2022.
MARCH 12, 2025 — IN-PERSON PRESENTATION
DESIGNING GARMENTS AND SEWING TECHNIQUES FOR HANDWOVEN FABRIC
WITH SANDY CAHILL
10:00 AM - BUSINESS MEETING
10:45 AM - sandy cahill in-person PRESENTATION
LOCATION: TRINITY BUCKINGHAM CHURCH
1:00 PM - workshop 1
Sewing garments from hand woven fabric presents many challenges. Your base knowledge needs to include confident seaming and edge finishing skills to complete your garment and a knowledge of best practices in working with handwoven fabrics. In this guild presentation I will go through the process of designing and constructing a garment from fabric that I have woven. I will bring plenty of examples for guild members to touch and examine. I will also talk through the various sewing techniques I have applied to my production of handwoven original design garments. The conversation will include various seaming and edge finishing techniques that I have designed over the years. I will discuss and show examples of how I have applied these techniques to my handwoven garments. During and after the presentation there will be time for questions.
We are so happy to have Sandy present two 3-hour workshops for us. One will be held the afternoon of our meeting day and the second workshop, the morning of March 13. For full descriptions of the two workshops, please go to our Workshops Page.
ABOUT SANDY CAHILL
Sandy is the owner and operator of “Be Weave Me” textile art business. With her BFA in Design, emphasis Textiles, from the University of Kansas, Sandy has been a life-long fiber enthusiast and working artist. In her Parkville, MO home, Sandy works daily in her studio creating beautiful original design Art-To-Wear handwoven garments and accessories. Sandy showcases her Handwoven Textile Art in Kansas City area Art Galleries and Juried Art Shows.
SANDY CAHILL ARTIST STATEMENT: I love the tactile experience of orchestrating textured yarns into exquisite Handwoven cloth.
APRIL 9, 2025 - IN-PERSON PRESENTATION
HANDWOVEN TAPE: THE TIES THAT BIND
WITH SUSAN WEAVER
10:00 AM - BUSINESS MEETING
10:45 AM - susan weaver in-person PRESENTATION
LOCATION: TRINITY BUCKINGHAM CHURCH
Before zippers, snaps and Velcro were available in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, early American colonists were dependent on narrow bands of woven tape as an inexpensive way to close everything from clothing to sacks. Many households had a tape loom for making the family tape. Because of their strength and versatility, these narrow bands of cloth were a family necessity and used for a variety of tying needs.
Since there has been little documentation on the making of this hand loomed cloth, Susan has spent several years researching the weaving of Early America tape, as well as the different styles of looms used in the weaving process. Along with an overview of the history of handwoven tape, Susan demonstrates weaving on the different styles of looms.
About Susan Weaver
Susan has been a hand weaver for many years, as well as a weaving instructor for over 25 years. She began her textile studies at The Mannings Hand Weaving School, in East Berlin, PA, as well as at an art school in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. She worked as a Textile Educator at Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum, a PA German living history museum, in Lancaster, for a number of years, exploring many traditional textile structures. This led to the writing of her book, Handwoven Tape - Understanding and Weaving Early American and Contemporary Tape.
Susan is a member of the PA Guild of Craftsmen and Central Pennsylvania Guild of Handweavers. She sells a variety of her hand weavings, locally and nationally.
MAY 14, 2025 IN-PERSON MEETING
BEYOND BASIC WEAVE STRUCTURES - A DISCUSSION AND REVIEW
10:00 AM - BUSINESS MEETING
10:45 AM - WORKSHOP DISCUSSION & REVIEW
LOCATION: TRINITY BUCKINGHAM CHURCH
A round robin workshop called “Beyond Basic Weave Structures”, held this week, will be the focus of our discussion. After our business meeting, where we will vote in our new officers, we will move around the room and have a show and tell directly at the workshop participants looms. This workshop was a study of more advanced weaving structures that many may have not woven before. Insight into the complexities or ease of weaving each structure will be noted and any other information that might be useful to members. Hopefully, the wide variety of pattern, color and different fibers will excite the group. Please go to our Workshop Page to view all the information about this member workshop.
JUNE 11, 2025 - IN-PERSON YEAR-END PICNIC
Please join us at the church for our year-end get together. Bring your latest fiber project to work on while chatting with your fellow members. Show and Tell, donation table, installation of officers and picnic lunch are all on the schedule.