All posts by Stefanie Selck

Program for our annual Holiday party with 50th Anniversary Celebration !

Announcements, Current Program, Programs, Upcoming Programs

Program for our Holiday party with the 50th Anniversary Celebration of our Black Sheep Handweavers Guild on 12/12 !

* This time the holiday party is one week earlier than our regular meeting date. *

Black Sheep Guild will be having our December In-Person guild meeting at
Veterans Memorial Senior Center, 1455 Madison Ave, Redwood City, on
December 12th at 7:00 p.m. Come to meet and greet fellow guild members! We
are hoping for good attendance so, if you need a ride, please let us know so we
can hook you up with someone coming from your area.

Our guild is celebrating its 50th year, and to honor it Sarah Aaron and her daughter
have put together a special presentation to celebrate our half century! We will
view the presentation, and marvel at our long history of creating gorgeous fiber.

Following the presentation, we hope others will also chime in with their own
special memories. We encourage you to bring something for Show & Tell that
reflects some aspect of your history with the guild, as well as any recent work. We
will share a celebratory piece of cake, hot teas and sparkling apple juice for the
occasion.

Please join in our evening of merriment, and bring an edible finger food, sweet or
savory. Please label your contribution with name and ingredients for those with
dietary restrictions.
If you would like to help with set up/decorations, please come early around 6:15
to lend a hand.

There will also be our customary give away table for items you would like others
to have, but please plan to take any items not selected home at the end of the
meeting.

We did decide to not have the gift exchange due to the time needed for the 50 th
anniversary celebration.

Hope to see you there!

The program will be at Veterans Memorial Senior Center, 1455 Madison Ave, Redwood City. The program will start at 7pm, but the room will be open at 6:30 for those who want to visit
beforehand.
COVID note: Masking is optional, but please wear a mask if you have any respiratory symptoms, even if it’s probably just allergies from everything that’s blooming.

Show and Tell November 2024

Show and Tell

Johanna G – Various Tunics with handwoven fabrics

  Gail B donated the material for this black and white tunic, per Simplicity pattern1461

   

The  Advancing Twill tunic, per Simplicity pattern 1461, is using a 16/2 Borg’s cotton warp and weft.  I did take Janet Dawson’s Advancing Twill class and made this after completing most of the class. 
 
The jacket is my third Koji jacket using previous weavings from my stash, including the Huck lace collar/lapel.  The body of the jacket has various weavings, mostly cotton.
The Koji jacket is a basic pattern that is fun to make and fits well. 
   
 
Barbara Shapiro – Maquette of Twisted Tower 2 – work in progress
 
10 x 2.5 x. 2.5″. Plaited painted watercolor paper.
 I splashed blood-red acrylic paint and India Ink on the paper, wrote phrases that expressed my reaction to current events in black ink, and then “whitewashed” the  4.5 x 30 ” pieces obscuring some, but not all of the design.
The paper was then sliced with a pasta cutter into 1/4″ strips and plaited in an extended twisted cube. pattern.
I learned the twisted cube from a pattern on Annetta Kraayeveld’s website. I am working on the full-scale version now.
 

 

Program for Thursday, November 21st, 7 pm on Zoom

Past Programs, Programs

Program for Thursday, November 21st, 7 pm on Zoom

If you ask Suzie Liles who she is, she will tell you she is the mother of 4 wonderful children, a canine parent to her beloved and always present Maltese dog, Buddy (the ETC shop puppy), grandmother of 9, weaver, teacher for over 35 years, and as most of us know,
the owner of Eugene Textile Center and co-owner of Glimåkra USA with her daughter, Sarah Rambousek.

Suzie has an MFA in Fibers from the University of Oregon in Eugene, is a member of the Handweavers Guild of America and is a regular contributor to
Handwoven Magazine with wonderfully fun projects.

Suzie loves teaching and has taught both children and adults across North America, including co-teaching with Madelyn van der Hoogt and the Weavers School in Coupeville, WA for 30 plus years. In the last several years, in her spare time, Suzie has become a tour leader for textile tours in Sweden, and Japan with Opulent Quilt Journeys, and to Egypt with her own tour company.

She will share with our Black Sheep Guild her journey from her first exposure to weaving to
present day via Zoom at our November 2024 guild meeting.
The Zoom will open at Nov 21, 2024 06:30 PM Pacific Time and the meeting will start at 7:00
pm

Show and Tell October 2024

Show and Tell

Lynn C – Woven fabric with Soumak stitch

From Lynn Curry: 8 x 14″. Woven with cotton
warp thread and pearl cotton weft. The lines
are done with soumak stitch. “I was trying out
some ideas I may use for a larger design and I
improved my technique and learned some
things from weaving this. “

In Person Program for Thursday, October 17th, 7 pm

Past Programs, Programs

In Person Program for Thursday, October 17th 7 pm

Kathleen Dickey will be the guest speaker for the October
program, talking about weaving in community: different models
of weaving together, including apprenticeships, coops, and
virtual communities. She apprenticed with three weavers over
the years, and most recently was a founding member of the
Madrone Arts Cooperative in Pescadero. She might be called an
emerging artist if those who are emerging from retirement are
included…

The program will be at Veterans Memorial Senior Center, 1455
Madison Ave, Redwood City. The program will start at 7pm,
but the room will be open at 6:30 for those who want to visit
beforehand.
COVID note: Masking is optional, but please wear a mask if you
have any respiratory symptoms, even if it’s probably just allergies from everything that’s blooming.
We will meet for supper before the program at Karakade Thai Cuisine, 5:30. 593 Woodside Road, cross street Hudson https://maps.app.goo.gl/eaQZyrGLDW8ifVou5
Please RSVP to Ally Kraus, allison [dot] m [dot] kraus [at] gmail [dot] com

Upcoming Programs 2024/2025

Upcoming Programs

Upcoming Programs 2024 / 2025

*The information provided is preliminary and might still change *

  • 09/19, In-person Meeting featuring Ally Kraus sharing about her work.
  • 10/17, In-person Meeting featuring Kathleen Dickey sharing about her work and Madrone Arts Collective. 
  • 11/12, Zoom Meeting featuring Suzie Liles of Eugene Textile Center.
  • 12/12, Holiday party and Guild 50th Anniversary Celebration
  • 01/16, Zoom Meeting featuring Judith Shangold, “Weave, Knit, Wear&quot”
  • 02/20, Zoom Meeting featuring Kris Bruland of Handweaving.net
  • 03/20, Zoom Meeting featuring Natalie Drummond, Deflective Doubleweave
  • 04/17, In-person Meeting = Round Robin with guild members: Lynn Curry, Barbie
    Paulsen, tbd
  • 05/15-In-person Meeting Bahira: Miko Kami dolls
  • 6/18-In-person Meeting CNCH show and tell

Dinner Gatherings are back!

Announcements, Upcoming events

Dinner Gatherings are back!
by Gudrun Polak
When Covid hit us in 2020 we lost the wonderful opportunity to enjoy dinner with our fellow Black Sheep friends before the guild meetings. It had been great socializing and lots of good ideas were hatched out. Often it gave us a chance to spend an extra hour with our speaker.
It is time to get back into this habit and the time is NOW, this month. Update your calendar, write down the guild meeting and add “Dinner at 5:30 pm” to your list. As I look at the locations where we used to meet I find that our favorite Thai restaurant in Redwood City is no longer listed. I do find the Japanese restaurant that I liked just as much:

ASYA – 3215 Oak Knoll Dr. After consulting with our local gourmet, Jodi, I added two more choices:

– Big Brother’s Burgers – 2137 Roosevelt Ave                                                                                                  – Villa Lucia’s – 1725 Woodside Road

Please check out their locations, websites and menus.
Then let me know what you prefer and I’ll make a reservation.
Gudrun

In Person Program for Thursday, September 19th, 7:00 pm: Ally Kraus

Past Programs, Programs

In Person Program for Thursday, September 19th, 7:00 pm:

From Text to Textiles with Ally Kraus

The speaker for our September meeting is our own Ally Kraus. She will be discussing her journey into art, her current work, and her future plans. Her website is https://www.allykraus.com/
Ally Kraus is a fiber artist – weaver, sewist, and dyer – based in San Jose, CA. Originally an instructional writer and designer, Ally left her corporate job in 2022 to focus on
textiles full-time and apply her professional skills to a creative setting. She spent a year visiting craft schools across the United States before returning to the Bay Area with plans to open a textile hub in Silicon Valley.
Ally is the Vice President of the Black Sheep Handweavers Guild, on the Leadership Team of genets Silicon Valley, the Administrative Editor of Complex Weavers Journal, and a textile instructor at Maker Nexus. Her work has been shown at Bay Area galleries, including the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, Sanchez Art Center, Olive Hyde Art Gallery, Pacific Art League, Works/San José, and Noble Gallery.

Veterans Memorial Senior Center, 1455 Madison Ave, Redwood City. The program will start at 7pm, but the room will be open at 6:30 for those who want to visit beforehand. If anyone would like to bring something finger-edible to share, that would be lovely. We don’t send around a signup sheet for monthly snacks any more. COVID note: Masking is optional, but please wear a mask if you have any respiratory symptoms, even if it’s probably just allergies from everything that’s blooming.

Show and Tell August 2024

Show and Tell

Gail B – My Cottolin Project

I finally completed the Cottolin project that began as an attempt at a set of dishtowels. It instead morphed into a shawl, which I hurriedly finished with twists to wear to a June family wedding.

Over the summer, I also tied a new color scheme onto the center of the remaining warp to make a scarf. This week, after finishing its twists, I forced myself to better align the knots on the shawl as well, at last trimming the ends cleanly. It was fiddly work – after 224 twists in all, I’m ready to move on to a new project. 

The shawl wet-finished softer than the  scarf, even though they’re both Cottolin of identical sett. I think I gave the shawl a hot-water wash, while the scarf got a cold one, so I may eventually rewash the scarf. 

Stripes are woven in a 3/1 twill between areas of basket weave. 

***

Donna D. – Dancing Blocks

These were intended to be a set of dinner table napkins.  The warp was a neutral linen that I bought in Latvia.  The weft is 5/2 cotton in various colors. 

The pattern was from handweaving.net ( # 16103 ) with the addition of the plain weave border.  I called it “dancing blocks”!

 

In Person Guild Meeting on Aug 17th – Bring a Friend!

Past Programs, Programs

In Person Program for Saturday, August 17th 10am – 1 pm

For August, we’re having a Summer Social meeting. It takes place on Saturday, August 17th from 10am-1pm in our usual room at the Senior Center (1455 Madison Ave, Redwood City, CA 94061).

Come when you can, stay for as little or as long as you like. New members are especially invited!

Friends, family, and prospective guild members are welcome to attend.

Non-guild members can RSVP with this form: https://forms.gle/rF1RBNhRX6ZQ3383A (not mandatory but very much appreciated so we know how many folks to expect).

This meeting will be an informal social event. Bring a fiber project to work on and chat while your hands are busy. You are also encouraged to bring a project for show-and-tell – we’ll set up a little gallery along the windows.

Ally will also create some signage about our programs, library, study groups, etc., for non-members – get in touch if you’d like to help (allison.m.kraus at gmail.com).