Our program this month highlights Sandy Fisher from Chico, CA. Her program will focus on her mission, “The Chico Flax Project”, to bring the flax industry to Northern California, and thus to the United States. She’ll have slides, and dialogue with us on her vision, and offers a hands-on opportunity to experience Brake, Scutch and Hackle flax. She’ll also bring finished linen yard and garments, some of them for sale.

Sandy’s website, at http://www.sandyfisherwoven.com, describes classes she teaches, as well as listing galleries and shows where her work can be found. There is also a section which explains her working principles and values for four different types of fiber art. The bags and handbags section celebrates sustainability, while table mats and runners show off her signature weaving with linen warp, using weft of blended cottons and paper (yes, washable). The Baby Wraps combine traditional twills learned in Scotland, and a unique, personally developed hand dye technique. Pictures below come from her website.

Please remember that doors at our usual venue, Woodside Community Church parish hall, open at 7 for set up and visiting. The program begins at 7:30. Afterwards we’ll have refreshments, Show and Tell, and a short business meeting, this month raising the need for a Nominations Committee for elections for our many service committee options.

Reservations will be made at Buck’s Restaurant in Woodside for 5:30 pm. Sandy and her husband will join us. Y’all come!

This month we feature Robin Lynde from Meridian Jacobs Wool in Vacaville, CA. She will give her “World of Wool” presentation, which will clue us into the Jacob breed and its fiber characteristics, and how that fits into other types of wool for spinning and weaving. She’ll bring samples of different wools so we can feel how they differ, and roving and fiber for sale from their farm.

Dinner reservations will be made at Buck’s Restaurant on Woodside Road in Woodside at 5:30 pm. Y’all come!

Doors open at our usual venue, Woodside Community Church in Woodside, at 7 pm. The program begins at 7:30 and runs for about an hour. Afterwards we have refreshments and a short business meeting.

Our regular meeting is held at Woodside Community Church, Woodside Rd in Woodside CA. Doors open at 7pm for set up and conversation. The program starts at 7:30 and lasts about an hour. That is followed by refreshments and a short business meeting.

Our presenter in January, Kim Davis, works at the Lace Museum in San Jose. She will give the program to us that she gave to the BRAIDS conference in 2015. In it she gives some history of how bobbin lace developed, and shows some similarity between loop braiding and bobbin lace. Her personal interest is in wire lace, as you can see in two of the example photos included here.

She brought several examples of her own work to show us as well:

Laverne titles her program for us “Woven Structures in South American Textiles”.  She promises to walk us  through the various woven structures she has encountered while learning to weave in South America.  “I’ll show examples of how I have used these in my own work on the backstrap loom”, she writes.

She elaborates, “Simple looms do not necessarily mean simple textiles. Weavers in South America use rustic looms to create complex cloth employing a wide variety of techniques using complementary-warp structures and both supplementary warps and weft. Even plain-weave textiles are not in any way “plain” when incorporating ikat or finished with intricate knotted fringes, colorful joining stitches and tubular edgings.”

Our program will be different from Laverne’s workshop (doubleweave, a structure commonly used in South America which fell into disuse but in recent years was revived by Jennifer Moore), held the previous weekend at Ruth’s house. The workshop there is full but more details will be posted.

The meeting location will be VETERANS’ MEMORIAL SENIOR CENTER, 1455 Madison Ave., Redwood City, an alternate site we have used several times in the past. The doors will be opened for us by 7pm. Our program will start at 7:30 pm. Refreshments and a short business meeting will follow the program.

Reservations will be made for 5:30 pm for the pre-meeting dinner at a restaurant new to us but highly recommended – Redwood Grill, at 356 Woodside Rd in Redwood City. It is only a 6 minute neighborhood drive from the meeting location, and it offers a variety of menu choices as well as parking and accessibility.

Our program this month will be a Members’ Show and Tell, in which each person who attends is invited to bring one fiber object which has been important to your life. Certainly it can be created by someone else and gifted to you or inherited by you, and sentimental value is just as important as artistic merit. Please be mindful of the number of people present who want to share during our normal hour of program, and limit your explanations accordingly.

For instance, during the summer Joan brought in a special quilt:

Our meeting location is the familiar Parish Hall at Woodside Community Church. Doors will be opened by 7pm. Program runs 7:30-8:30, approximately, and we’ll have a short business meeting as well as normal Show and Tell after refreshments.

Dinner reservations will be made at Buck’s on Woodside Road for 5:30 pm.