Happy New Year, 2021!

 

The Crochet and Tatting study group has had a New Year’s gathering in the past and since they can’t have their usual meeting IRL, the guild is taking a cue from the tatters and crocheters and having an “Open House” or “Open Zoom Room” on New Year’s Day from 11:30 to 1:30. Come and go as you like, chat, show off the new tools or materials that Santa brought, or start a new project.

Hope to see you there!

December 2020 guild meeting this Saturday, December 12

Meet us on the second Saturday of  December, 2020.

Date:   December 12, 2020                           

Time: 10:00am until 12:00pm

Place: Guild Zoom Room (access information was emailed to members)

Program: Quilts of Alabama, Beth Hunter will be our presenter. Be prepared for lots of color and history!

The Yarn Ball has been bounced to next year and in its place is the opportunity to DECORATE YOUR HEAD !!!

To make our meeting a bit more FESTIVE, to entertain, brag, play dress-up or just be clever, Decorate your head!  the part of you we see in the Zoom meeting!

A tiara, crown, hat, head sculpture etc. made, recycled, repurposed, created for the occasion, or whatever.

Guidelines: 1) Fit for public viewing (and possible recording), 2) totally optional, 3)BYO Eggnog and Snickerdoodles

 

! Mailed-To-Your-Door-Prize!: A random number generator will be used to choose one members from the membership list. The winner will have the prize mailed to them at the home address on the guild member directory! All members will be included!

You do not have to be present to win!

Collective Gratitude and Weaving

Photo from Trinity United Methodist Church

During the month of November a weaving project will be in progress at Trinity United Methodist Church. Ruth Truett, a weaver, guild member, and member of Trinity Church, has organized the project, Mary Spanos loaned a Hagan tapestry loom, and Jennifer Lackey will weave pieces of fabric on which church members have written prayers of gratitude. Jennifer will weave during the week and members will see the weaving grow throughout the month of November.

November 14, 2020: Galina Khmeleva Knitting Orenberg Lace

Date:  November 14, 2020

Time: 10:00am until 12:00pm 

Place: The Guild Zoom room (guild members received the Zoom access information in the meeting notification email)

Program: Galina Khmeleva at Skaska Designs

The presentation will include a slide presentation of Orenberg shawls (different kinds, how to start knitting a shawl, what yarn to use, etc.), and a comparison of Orenberg lace, Shetland lace, Estonian lace, and the primary lace structures used by knitters today.

!Mailed-To-Your-Door-Prize!: A random number generator will be used to choose a member from the membership list. The winner will have the prize mailed to them at the home address on the guild member directory! All members will be included! You do not have to be present to win.

October guild meeting this Saturday, October 10

What's the favorite thing I crafted while Quarantined

or

What I discovered while digging in my stash during Quarantine

So, basically a Show and Tell with guidelines

Date:   10-10-2020 

Time: 10:00am until approx. 12:00pm 

Place: Guild ZOOM Room (see below)

 

 

We will also have the ever popular

!! Mailed-To-Your-Door Prize!!

You do not have to be present to win!

One lucky member will be randomly chosen from the membership list for a door prize that will be mailed to you at the address on the membership list! If you have moved, contact Jen Lackey, the Membership Chairman QUICK!

Be sure to save the second Saturday in November for the presentation by

Galina Alexandrovna Khmeleva,

Designer and Instructor of Orenburg Lace Knitting. You might enjoy previewing her website- Skaska.com

September Meeting - FIBER FRENZY!!!

 

Meet us on the second Saturday of September, 2020, for our annual Fiber Frenzy. We wish it could be the happy, loud, frenzy of past years, but maybe we will be back to meeting in person next September. So, for now, we'll meet online in our Zoom room and spread the Frenzy all over town.

Date:   September 12, 2020                          

Time: 10:00am until approx. 12:00pm

Place: Guild ZOOM Room, check your newsletter for details. It is the same Zoom room the guild has been using.

Program: Fiber Frenzy 2020 with online RAFFLE!!!

Crocheting, Tatting, Dyeing, Spinning, Knitting and Weaving groups will each present information and examples in 15-20 minute segments. Dyeing will run a bit longer. The "Put your tickets in the bag" Raffle will be done via an online list, 3 entries each member.

Watch for more information next week on sequencing of the presentations and the Raffle Items!

At the end of the presentations there will be opportunity to publicize your fiber related shops, sale items and businesses.

Some Lucky member will be awarded a Free Membership for next year in the Door Prize drawing!

You do not have to be present to win!

August Meeting Notice (with photographs!) - Laverne Waddington Lecture, Weaving on Simple Looms in South America

August 8, 2020 Meeting Announcement

Time: 10:00am until 12:00pm

Place: Guild Zoom Room

Program: A SHOW OF IMAGES AND VIDEO ON WEAVING ON SIMPLE LOOMS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Sit back and relax as we take a 90 minute virtual trip to South America with weaver and teacher, Laverne Waddington:

From the coastal plains to highland valleys, up to the dizzying heights of the Andes and down to the tropical lowland jungles, indigenous and mestizo weavers create intricately patterned cloth on a variety of simple looms.

 

 

We will explore these regions and the weavers who inhabit them while learning about the different kinds of materials, looms, techniques, colors and motifs that are used. Along the way I will share stories of the weavers with whom I have studied and my love of the basic, yet often surprisingly complex, backstrap loom.

 

 

This is a one time opportunity as no recording will be made for later viewing. Laverne has taught workshops for our guild several times and we are so happy to see her again, even online from her home in Bolivia.

August Guild Meeting, Laverne Waddington and Weaving on Simple Looms in South America

August 8, 2020 Meeting Announcement

Time: 10:00am until 12:00pm

Place: Guild Zoom Room

Program: A SHOW OF IMAGES AND VIDEO ON WEAVING ON SIMPLE LOOMS IN SOUTH AMERICA

Sit back and relax as we take a 90 minute virtual trip to South America with weaver and teacher, Laverne Waddington:

From the coastal plains to highland valleys, up to the dizzying heights of the Andes and down to the tropical lowland jungles, indigenous and mestizo weavers create intricately patterned cloth on a variety of simple looms. We will explore these regions and the weavers who inhabit them while learning about the different kinds of materials, looms, techniques, colors and motifs that are used. Along the way I will share stories of the weavers with whom I have studied and my love of the basic, yet often surprisingly complex, backstrap loom.

This is a one time opportunity as no recording will be made for later viewing. Laverne has taught workshops for our guild several times and we are so happy to see her again, even online from her home in Bolivia.

July Guild Meeting: Photographing Fibers

Learning to take photographs of textiles is like making textiles, it requires thought and practice. 

For our July program on Zoom (same room, same numbers), we will have four textile photographers with different experiences and perspectives discuss how they take photos. We hope that this will help all of us improve our fiber photographs and, maybe, encourage more members to upload more photographs to our guild and other fiber social media hangouts. 

We also plan to have an online version of the guild’s fall show and hope that this will help everyone participate.

June Guild Meeting, Sheep Farm Tour on Zoom!

Plan to join us on Zoom as we gather for an extra special meeting this Saturday. Heather Carter, our friendly local shepherd, will be giving us a tour of her sheep farm!

Join us in the guild's Zoom room, use the same access information as for past meetings. You'll find these codes in the email sent out to guild members about this meeting or in the Zoom thread in the guild's Ravelry group discussion threads. We can't post those codes here without risking unwanted, non-guild related postings to our Zoom meetings.

The meeting will begin at 10:00 Saturday morning. So get your coffee and your knitting and settle down in front of your favorite screen for a tour of Heather's farm. It is going to be great!

Free Online Band Weaving Workshop

 Terry sent this info for the guild:

We talked about band weaving yesterday and this is the information I have on Susan J Foulkes  online band weaving workshop:

https://tinyurl.com/yb9qh3ux

Here is what she said about it:

online workshop for the Braid Society on Braids & Bands group  https://groups.io/g/braidsandbands  This blog is part of the workshop for week one.

The Woolery in the USA, has published a post about the workshop  https://woolery.com/blog/   

Her video on getting started weaving is good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHSGt9GxUfQ&feature=youtu.be

The workshop and all the printable materials are free and I think most of these bands can be done on an inkle loom with string heddles or a small rigid heddle . She is doing a complete workbook on the history and weaving of these simple bands.

Thanks Terry!

Summer Meetings

It has been a tradition of the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild to take the summer months off. People are usually traveling or busy with summer schedules. 2020 is a weird year, no question, so we decided to have our guild meetings on the second Saturdays through the summer months. We'll wait and see if it is safe to gather together or if we need to continue to meet in our Zoom room.

It will be good to see you and be together for a little while, in real life or online.

So our next meeting will be on June 13, 2020.

May Guild Meeting on Zoom!

Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild Meeting Announcement 

Date:   May 9, 2020, always the 2nd Saturday   
Time: 10:00am until 12:00pm
Place:  our Guild ZoomRoom!   Bring: Photos of your workspace at home
NEW! Mailed-To-Your-Door-Prize: A random number generator will be used to choose one or two members from the membership list. The winner will have the prize mailed to them at the home address on the guild member directory! All members will be included! You do not have to be present to win!

Program: Our Workspace at Home 

Several guild members will give us a tour of their work spaces. It will be great to see how other fiber people organize (or don't organize!) their studios/rooms/corners. Since the May program will be a ZoomRoom meeting, we are excited to make this meeting fun!

Come join us!

April Guild Meeting, 2020, on Zoom!

We will have a Zoom guild meeting this Saturday from 10:00 to noon. We'll keep it simple for our first online meeting and share the fiber projects that have helped us stay sane while we stay home.

Check back for info on how to connect to the guild's Zoom meeting room. As always, you can find us on Ravelry and Facebook.

COVID-19

Guild study group meetings are canceled for the remainder of March and including the First Thursday Spinning and Weaving meeting in April. Guild members will be meeting online on Ravelry and Facebook.

The guild can be found on Ravelry at www.ravelry.com/groups/greater-birmingham-fiber-guild.

On Facebook, you can find us at Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild.

Join in our conversations! Hope you have a happy and productive quarartine!

Changes to March Meeting

Being strong while also being sensitive is challenging!

Plans for our March meeting have changed in light of the COVID-19 situation. We have postponed Karen Ford's Spinning 201 program, but we will meet at the usual time and place (10:00 at Hoover Church of Christ) to have a Fiber Comfort and Support Group meeting.

Karen's spinning programs are too good to have when many of our members may not be able to attend. We'll schedule Karen again in a month or two, when our world has gotten back to our old normal or found a new normal.

In the mean time, if you are able and need to get out and spend time with fiber people, please bring your current project and join us for a little comforting fiber time. We'll prop the door open and you might be able to come in and stay for a while without touching anything or anyone. Bring anything you want to drink or eat, we are suspending our usual coffee and snacks this month (you know COVID is evil when it gets in the way of coffee and cake).

New Meeting Format!!

We are trying out a new meeting format at our March meeting. Show & Tell has always been an important part of our meetings. We all feel appreciated and encouraged when we get to show our work to people who really understand it and we get so inspired when we see the beautiful things our fiber friends make. As our group has grown it has become difficult to have both a program and Show & Tell at each meeting.

For the past couple of years we have tried taking a lunch break after the program and coming back for Show & Tell. Some people can't stay that long and have missed participating in everything. So we are going to try another approach. This may work or it may lead us to another idea.

10:00-10:30  Show & Tell Gallery
Bring your latest masterpiece or work in progress or new tool and place it on the long tables near the coffee pot. Put your name on a maker’s card with the item and then hang around and talk to people about your work. We hope this will allow us to keep Show & Tell as an important part of our meetings while still allowing our busy members to get everything done they need to do on meeting days.

10:30-10:45-ish  Business Meeting
A very short business meeting so everyone knows what is coming up.

10:45-ish to noon  The Program
Special programs may run to 1:00, we’ll announce that in the meeting notices.

Guild Meeting, March 2020

Spindle Spinning 201

Date:   March14, 2020                         
Time: 10:00am til noon
Place: Hoover Church of Christ Fellowship Hall on the lower level

Karen Ford has taught so many members how to spin on a spindle. This year she will quickly cover the basics and then move on to some "intermediate" topics. We hope to have a few spindle kits for those who don't have a spindle to purchase. Everyone is encouraged to bring their favorite spindle or wheel, or their current spinning project and spin together during the meeting and program.

If you have a spindle that you can loan, please bring that, too.

In addition, we'll have a special table set up if you want to sell any spinning related equipment or fibers. Mark your price and be prepared to handle your own sales. Of course, you are welcome to bring any spinning items that you want to give away, things that need to be re-homed.

Bring: Your own spindle and wool, or bring your wheel. We hope to have a limited number of kits (simple spindles and wool) available for purchase.

Coffee, water and a light snack will be provided.

February Guild Meeting, Febuary 8, 2020

Show and Tell!!

Saturday, February 8, 2020
10:00am til 2:00-ish

Place: Hoover Church of Christ Fellowship Hall on the lower level

Program: Show and Tell (yes, it's brought forward from January)

Bring:
1) Your ONE favorite item you made last year for the Show and Tell!  Show and Tell is such a great event for this guild that we want to make it an entire program. Please bring your favorite thing that you made in 2019, or at any time, and share it with people who will understand just why you love it!
2) Coffee, water and a light snack will be provided and we will break for lunch which you may bring or go pickup from the nearby shops.

Membership Dues and Renewal
The Guild’s membership year runs January through December. Annual dues are $25. Please pay your dues yearly before February 28. Thank you! You may pay by cash/check at any meeting. Dues also can be paid using PayPal. Mark it “friends/family” and NOT “goods/services”. Use this link: paypal.me/GBFiberGuild or use our gmail account gbfiberguild@gmail.com

The Guild on the Web
This blog, and...
Facebook page: www.facebook.com/greaterbirminghamfiberguild,fb@greaterbirminghamfiberguild.com
Ravelry:
www.ravelry.com/groups/greater-birmingham-fiber-guild, rav@greaterbirminghamfiberguild.com.

January guild meeting is canceled due to weather!

The board has canceled the January guild meeting due to the weather forecast for Saturday. We hope the weather won't be as bad as predicted, but we don't want guild members to take a chance on the roads. Please take care and enjoy having a little extra time this weekend to spin, or knit, or weave, or tat, or crochet, or dye...

Weather watch and Saturday's guild meeting

The guild board has been discussing how to handle the weather forecast and Saturday's scheduled guild meeting. We plan to wait for the Friday evening news and weather forecasts and then make a decision. By that time the weather people should have a good handle on what is going to happen on Saturday. We'll post our decision about whether we'll have our Saturday meeting or not during the evening Friday and also send an email to the guild membership email list.

I just blocked a lace scarf that I finished on December 31, 2019. I really hope we will meet on Saturday so I can bring it for Show and Tell!

January 2020 Guild Meeting

Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild Meeting
January 11, 2020

Mark your calendar and plan to attend the meeting of the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild which will be held on the second Saturday of January, 2020.

Date: January 11, 2020
Time: 10:00am til 2:00pm
Place: Hoover Church of Christ Fellowship Hall on the lower level

Program: Show and Tell

Bring: Your ONE Favorite project that you created or finished

Bring: Your dues for 2020

Coffee, water and a light snack will be provided and we will break for lunch which you may bring or go pickup from the nearby shops.

***WEATHER WARNING!! Severe weather is currently forecast for Saturday. Check your online guild sources Saturday morning before heading out to the meeting. If it appears to be dangerous weather, the meeting will be canceled. Cross your fingers that the weather won't disrupt anything, guild included, on Saturday.