Save the date!

The May picnic that was canceled due to scarey weather has been rescheduled! Saturday, July 26, 10:00 to 12:00, at Blackberry Hill Alpaca Farm. Bring your own food and drink. Shared desserts are welcome!

More information will be posted and emailed soon.

Register by Wednesday, June 25!

Confetti Crumb Quilting Workshop

Date: Saturday, June 28, 2025

Time: 10 am-3 pm (break for lunch at noon)

Location: St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, Holy Family Room, 2061 Patton Chapel Road, Hoover, AL 35216

Instructor: Rosalynn Fairless

Cost: $15 per person (Guild member exclusive). Space is limited to first 20 members who fill out the registration link below.

Do you have fabric, yarn or fiber scraps that are too small for you to use but you can’t bring yourself to throw them away? Would you like a fun, gratifying low-risk, quick project playing with color? In this workshop, we’ll explore confetti crumb quilting to make a mat out of tiny scraps. We’ll make a “pocket” out of tulle and fabric-lined batting, stuff it with scraps, quilt it, and then add a binding around the edges. This is a great scraps stashbuster project.

Payment options are the same as guild dues: You may pay by cash/check or mail your check to Jennifer Lackey, 1907 Saulter Road, Birmingham, AL 35209. The fee can also be paid using PayPal. Please mark it “friends/family” and NOT “goods/services”. Use this address: paypal.me/GBFiberGuild or use our gmail account gbfiberguild@gmail.com

We’re excited to see what everyone makes! Register for the workshop by clicking https://form.jotform.com/251485030256149

Reminder: UFO Days is starting soon!

Are your circular needles tangling into crop circles? Do you have a strange feeling like someone is hovering over you as you craft? UFO Days are almost here again! Join us on Ravelry starting Tuesday, June 24, and post pictures of your UFOs (UnFinished Objects). We’ll offer support and cheers while we work on our UFOs together through Wednesday, July 2. Post a picture of your now Finished Object, and win a special commemorative sticker at our in-person UFO Days Party of Saturday, July 5 at 1 pm. (Location: TBD, but probably the Hoover Public Library).

WWKIP at Purl on the Plaza

Date: Saturday, June 14, 2025

Time: 1-5 pm

Location: Hoover Public Library, 200 Municipal Drive, Hoover, AL 35216

Our program this month is: World Wide Knit in Public Day

Join us for our annual Guild outreach at the Hoover Public Library on World Wide Knit in Public Day. Bring your project (or two) and share with others our love of all things fiber. We will have a display table set up and there will be demonstrations by guild members going on all afternoon.

The wonderful staff at the Hoover Public Library are allowing us to join in their festivities. There will be giveaways, prizes, demonstrations and comradery.

 

UFO Days

Are your circular needles tangling into crop circles? Do you have a strange feeling like someone is hovering over you as you craft? UFO Days are almost here again! Join us on Ravelry starting Tuesday, June 24, and post pictures of your UFOs (UnFinished Objects). We’ll offer support and cheers while we work on our UFOs together through Wednesday, July 2. Post a picture of your now Finished Object, and win a special commemorative sticker at our in-person UFO Days Party of Saturday, July 5 at 1 pm. (Location: TBD, but probably the Hoover Public Library).

(Psst, this is probably a great time to get some stuff off the needles so that you’re ready to cast on new, shiny things for our Christmas in July program)

 

Guild Family Picnic

Due to inclement weather, the Alpaca Farm picnic that was scheduled in May had to be cancelled. BUT don’t fret because it will now be a “Summer Field Trip”. Keep an eye out for a poll about your availability and preferences as we try to reschedule this warm and fuzzy (and hopefully dry) afternoon.

 

Confetti Crumb Quilting Workshop

Date: Saturday, June 28, 2025

Time: 10 am-3 pm (break for lunch at noon)

Location: St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, Holy Family Room, 2061 Patton Chapel Road, Hoover, AL 35216

Instructor: Rosalynn Fairless

Cost: $15 per person (Guild member exclusive). Space is limited to first 20 members who fill out the registration link below.

Do you have fabric, yarn or fiber scraps that are too small for you to use but you can’t bring yourself to throw them away? Would you like a fun, gratifying low-risk, quick project playing with color? In this workshop, we’ll explore confetti crumb quilting to make a mat out of tiny scraps. We’ll make a “pocket” out of tulle and fabric-lined batting, stuff it with scraps, quilt it, and then add a binding around the edges. This is a great scraps stashbuster project.

Payment options are the same as guild dues: You may pay by cash/check or mail your check, send a note to gbfiberguild@gmail.com to get the USPS address (we are protecting the home address of our treasurer by not posting it here, it is in the email sent to members). The fee can also be paid using PayPal. Please mark it “friends/family” and NOT “goods/services”. Use this address: paypal.me/GBFiberGuild or use our gmail account gbfiberguild@gmail.com

We’re excited to see what everyone makes! Register for the workshop by clicking https://form.jotform.com/251485030256149

Rescheduling the Picnic

The guild's May picnic was canceled due to bad weather. Watch your inbox for information and a survey about possible dates for rescheduling.

GBFG May Family Picnic

 

Photo from https://www.bbhillalpacas.com/

Date: Saturday, May 10, 2025
Time: 10:00 a.m.- Noon
Location: Blackberry Hill Alpaca Farm, 6330 Saks Rd, Anniston, AL 36206

Everyone is invited to our annual May Family Picnic. Bring the whole family! Well, except for pets, they need to stay and watch the house.

This month’s gathering will be held in a new location! An award-winning alpaca farm/event venue, Blackberry Hill Alpaca is a 60-acre farm just outside of Anniston, AL.
 
If you have not responded yet, please complete the evite. We need all responses in by Wednesday, May 7.
 
The Guild will provide sandwiches and water. Pack your own drinks (non-alcoholic, please) if you would like something more. Also, please bring a dish to share; whether it is your famous pickle-salad, a mid-Western apple/Snicker salad or other culinary concoction.
 
Need a ride? Want a friend to hit the road with? Denise Stanton, Guild Programs/Workshop Coordinator, asked that you reach out to her via text (her contact information is in the emailed meeting announcement that members received. She is organizing a caravan to go to Anniston that will meet in the Hoover Church of Christ parking lot the morning of the picnic.
 
 
Ravelry Rumpus:
Star Wars Day: May the Fourth (Be With You) is Star Wars Day so this month we’re featuring our favorite light-up tools and glow-in-the-dark yarn. Show us a picture, discuss tips for fiber crafting in low levels of light, or tell us what your favorite Star Wars character would knit while waiting for their X-wing to deploy.
Mad May: May has traditionally been dubbed Mad May among Tosh enthusiasts, the month that we make sun projects out of Madelinetosh yarn. Judging from the Madelinetosh group, it may not be an official thing anymore, but we can still have our own mini mad celebration. Post your projects and pictures of your favorite colorways in this thread during the month of May.
Tra la, it’s May, the yarny month of May
That lovely month when everyone knits blissfully away
Tra la, it’s here, destashing time of year
When tons of woolly little things merrily appear
 
Looking To The Future
June: June is World Wide Knit in Public Day. We will join the Hoover Public Library for a day of sharing our love for all things fiber.
Rosalynn Fairless will be teaching a workshop on scrappy fabric mats. More detailed information to come.
July: This year, help us celebrate Christmas in July in conjunction with UFO Days. This will be an event to finish all our Un-Finished Objects (UFOs).

April 12 Guild Meeting - Sustainability

 

Date: Saturday, April 12, 2025
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location: Hoover Church of Christ, 3248 Lorna Road, Hoover also available via Zoom
Our program this month is: Sustainability

Ever wonder what to do with all those bits of leftover yarn and fabric? Jeans that are just worn out? Old tshirts that don’t fit anymore? The ever growing drawer of plastic bags?
Join us for a day of sustainability with Daly McCay and Rosalynn Fairless.

Daly McCay is a lifelong crafter and runs Craft Rescue Collective, a creative reuse business. Her focus is on making crafting more affordable, accessible, and eco-friendly through second hand craft supplies and creative reuse workshops.

A native of Huntsville, Alabama, Rosalynn Fairless holds a lifelong avocations for fabric and fiber arts as well as for recycling and environmental sustainability. With a primary passion for lace, she knits, crochets, quilts, sews, and occasionally tats and embroiders. She is currently a Materials Engineering student at UAB. Her primary interests lie in possible recycling solutions for polyester textile waste, the applications of weaving techniques in composite materials, and the mathematical translation and applications of knitting stitch structures to engineered materians as expored in work by Dr. Matsumoto at Georgia Tech and by Drs. Niu, Kamien, and Dion at the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, respectively. She has been a member of the Greater Birmingham Fiber Guild for approximately 12 years and presently serves on the board as the primary Ravelry administrator. When she’s not studying or playing with textiles, she enjoys art song and choral music, medieval history, reading, writing fiction, and Bharatanatyam (South Indian classical dance). She lives in Hoover, Alabama with her husband of 15 years, her 8-year-old unicorn-loving daughter, and a tiny dragon who resides in her grandmother’s train case.

Farm Day at the Birmingham Zoo

Farm day at the Birmingham Zoo is Saturday April 19, 2025 from 10am-2pm at the Farm petting zoo area.

We participate yearly in this event to show how fiber arts impact our lives on a daily basis. If you participate admission to the zoo is free. You should have received an email from Jennifer Lackey; please complete the requested information if you plan to come. Also, bring your fiber craft, whether it is knitting, crochet, tatting, spinning, weaving, hand sewing, etc and join us for a day of fiber exploration and public education.

May Family Picnic

This year’s family picnic will be at Blackberry Alpaca Farm near Anniston, AL
We’ve rented the pavilion and will get a tour of the working alpaca farm. This year will be a potluck of sorts so start thinking about what side, salad or dessert you’d like to share with everyone.

Carpooling from Hoover Church of Christ will be an option so keep an eye out for your RSVP email link in the near future!

March Guild Meeting, Saturday, March 8

Date: Saturday, March 8, 2025
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location:  Hoover Church of Christ, 3248 Lorna Road, Hoover

Our program this month is:  Panel Discussion: Spinning

This month’s gathering will be all about spinning! Join us as some of our talented members share their knowledge, experiences and antidotes about spinning fiber in to yarn. The panel consists of:

Yvonne Gauntt will be speaking about Turkish Spindles. Yvonne has been spinning since 2005, when she re-spun the yarn in a chunky, lightly spun tourist shawl, full of vegetable matter and lanolin to knit a prayer shawl for her mother. She used a cheap, heavy drop spindle to do it, and was pleased with her accomplishment, but liked the idea of spinning more than the actual practice. In September of 2016, she went to Homewood Library to see a movie with her husband for their anniversary. She never made it to the movie. It was Spin in Public day, and she spent her time spinning with one of Kathryn Pitt’s Jenkins spindles. The rest is history. Yvonne now has a whole herd of Jenkins spindles, and although she uses other spindles sometimes, Jenkins Turkish spindles continue to be her favorites.

Mary Spanos will be speaking about Supported Spindles and Small Distaffs. Mary learned to spin 40 years ago and a few years later she left a normal career to live full time down the handspinning rabbit hole. She loves single treadle spinning wheels and low whorl spindles.

Clare Emily Clifford will be speaking about how to prepare a Braid for Spinning. Clare first learned to spin 25 years ago and has since fallen deep into the fiber rabbit hole. She appreciates how spinning thread & yarn connects us to people of all cultures on every continent throughout human history through the techniques, tools, and fibers we work with. Sometimes you’ll find Clare working with the technical aspects of spinning, but she always loves the meditative simplicity of adding twist to fiber, whether she’s doing so on a spindle or spinning wheel.

Karen Ford will be speaking about Drop Spindles. Karen has been spinning since the early nineties after a sheep to shawl Mary Spanos did at a local yarn shop. She loves her Ashford traditional, any and all well balanced high whorl spindles and spinning with supported spindles. Her favorite fiber is colorful and her current favorite combination is Polworth and Silk. She spins for pleasure and usually has no end project in mind. She loves it because it connects her to past generations….and it’s fun!!

Also, if you felted a bowl last month, please bring it in for show-and-tell!