Our hybrid meeting night is the 3rd TUESDAY of each month except July, August and December.
The location of the in-person meeting is St. Luke’s Church Hall, 3821 Cedar Hill Cross Road. Visitors are welcome! Please come for a visit and get to know this vibrant fibre community.
We also meet virtually on Zoom at the same time. Members will receive an email invitation (addressed to the email you provided on your membership form) to the Zoom meeting on the day of the meeting. If your email address changes, please inform membership@vhwsg.ca immediately so you receive your invitation (and newsletter and other news from the guild). Visitors can request an invitation to the meeting by email to programs@vhwsg.ca
Doors open at 6:30 pm with half an hour to meet and chat. The Library is also opens at 6:30 pm. At 7:00 pm the evening begins with a brief business meeting, followed by a presentation. The presentation may be a guest speaker, demonstrations of a technique or skill, and/or Show & Tell. The March meeting is usually our Ruth Anstey Memorial Lecture with a special guest speaker. The May meeting is a joint meeting with the Deep Cove Weavers and Spinners Guild, and the June meeting is the Annual General Meeting and member’s sale
Past & Current Activities
- the Stash-Busting Table. (Please don’t assume that items are free – some things will be offered for sale.)
- the Library (full members can sign out books and/or magazines for a month or until the next meeting)
- items brought for the ‘Show and Tell’ table.
This is a Show & Tell meeting to enjoy seeing the garments from the Fashion Show and all the other items everyone brings to share. There will be NO Zoom meeting – come out in person to enjoy looking at everyone’s creations.
Doors open at 6:30 so you can peruse
- the Free Table (items brought by guild members to be taken home by others without charge),
- the Library (full members can sign out books and or magazines for a month or until the next meeting) and
- items brought for the ‘Show and Tell’ table.
The business meeting will begin at 7 pm.
Welcome back to regular Guild meetings! Hope you had a great summer.
At the September meeting, the tea towels and mug rugs made for the “challenge” will be displayed and prizes will be awarded. Don’t forget to bring your matching mug.
Please feel free to bring other work that you did over the summer (Saanich Fair entries, anyone?) to share with fellow guild members.
Doors open at 6:30 so you can peruse
- the Free Table (items brought by guild members to be taken home by others without charge),
- the Library (full members can sign out books and or magazines for a month or until the next meeting) and
- items brought for the ‘Show and Tell’ table.
The business meeting will begin at 7 pm.
A Challenge for the September, 2024 meeting,
We challenge to you make a tea towel or mug rug to match your favourite cup or mug. Please be ready to display your item with the cup or mug at the Guild meeting on September 17 th. (Hint: This can be after they have been entered into the Saanich Fair.) There will be prizes!
Our guest speaker for this year’s Ruth Anstey Memorial Lecture will be Diana Sanderson from the Silk Weaving Studio/Sanjo Silk on Granville Island, Vancouver. She will present works from the Ann Sutton collection of Junichi Arai and Nuno weavings which is hosted at the Silk Weaving studio. In 2013, Diana Sanderson acquired the Ann Sutton collection of Junichi Arai and Nuno works with the promise that it would be made available for viewing to anyone interested. Over the last two decades Diana has made a dozen trips to Japan, deepening her interest in Japanese contemporary textiles. Darlene Ochotta and Diana look forward to sharing the collection with the guild.
[Note: Ruth Anstey was an original member of the Guild and was President 1957-58. Read more about Guild History.]
Doors open at 6:30 so you can peruse
- the Free Table (items brought by guild members to be taken home by others without charge),
- the Library (full members can sign out books and or magazines for a month or until the next meeting) and
- items brought for the ‘Show and Tell’ table.
The business meeting will begin at 7 pm.
We will hear from Catharine Ellis author of Art and Science of Natural Dyeing.
Catharine Ellis has been a weaver and a dyer for over 40 years. After three decades of teaching the Fiber Program at Haywood Community College in NC she is now dedicated to studio work, focusing on natural dye processes. She also does specialized, selected teaching, in the U.S. and internationally. Recent projects include teaching natural dyeing in Guatemalan through Mayan Hands.
Catharine is the originator of the woven shibori process and author of the instructional book, Woven Shibori Updated in 2016 to include natural dyes . Her textile work is shown extensively in exhibitions and shows. She is currently working collaboratively with the Oriole Mill in North Carolina to produce specialty Jacquard fabrics.
You can read more about her and her latest work at https://blog.ellistextiles.com/
This meeting is via Zoom only. Members will receive their Zoom invitation by email.
Links to the recording of Anne’s presentation and handouts have been sent by email to all members.
DUE TO POTENTIAL ADVERSE WEATHER AND ROADS, THE DECISION HAS BEEN MADE TO MOVE THE JANUARY 16 GUILD MEETING TO ZOOM ONLY. There will be NO in-person component. A zoom invitation will be sent out to all guild members.
We will hear from Saori weaver Anne Richmond who makes amazing fabrics and turns them into clothing.
We all love spinning and weaving, but after the placemats, tea towels and coverlets, cutting the fabric and making clothes can feel a little scary. Anne Richmond, a SAORI weaver, will share her experiences making clothes over the past five years, from her first simple vests into major origami constructions. This will be partially pictures and display pieces, and some hands on work exploring how handloom fabric can become comfortable and unique clothes, with minimal wastage. Anne uses the SAORI pattern books, and will bring some to show, but emphasizes that she is not a SAORI teacher. The evening focuses on Anne’s own experience as a weaver and former clothing design student (Sheridan College). She hopes people go away from the session eager to try some ideas out on their own stashes of weaving.
Doors open at 6:30 so you can peruse
- the Free Table (items brought by guild members to be taken home by others without charge),
- the Library (full members can sign out books and or magazines for a month or until the next meeting) and
- items brought for the ‘Show and Tell’ table.
The business meeting will begin at 7 pm.
November meeting will introduce a collector. Nessa Herman has been collecting since she was a teen (thanks to her indulgent and understanding parents) and has amassed an amazing collection of purses to show us. Nessa requests that the membership be masked that evening.
Doors open at 6:30 so you can peruse
- the Free Table (items brought by guild members to be taken home by others without charge),
- the Library (full members can sign out books and or magazines for a month or until the next meeting) and
- items brought for the ‘Show and Tell’ table.
The business meeting will begin at 7 pm.
Bring your finished projects and your Bingo Card, and with your hard work win a Bingo prize. Lynda and Brenda will also be leading another small challenge at the meeting.
Doors open at 6:30 so you can peruse
- the Free Table (items brought by guild members to be taken home by others without charge),
- the Library (full members can sign out books and or magazines for a month or until the next meeting) and
- items brought for the ‘Show and Tell’ table.
The business meeting will begin at 7 pm followed by the Bingo draw and show & tell.
Doors open at 6:30 so you can peruse
- the Free Table (items brought by guild members to be taken home by others without charge),
- the Library (full members can sign out books and or magazines for a month or until the next meeting) and
- items brought for the ‘Show and Tell’ table.
The business meeting will begin at 7 pm followed by members displaying items they have made and telling some details about it. Many of the items will be fresh from display and judging from the Saanich Fair. Lynda and Brenda are also planning a wee group project to end the meeting – details to be disclosed at the meeting.
Regular activities include access to the Library, a free table and lots of time for visiting with fibre friends.
Bingo Card Challenge – Bring your completed cards read on …
The Bingo Challenge is presented to you by The Organizers (Brenda, Beatrice, Raven and Jill). This will last from March to the October 2023 meetings. At the October meeeting, you can bring in at least some of the items you have created, your bingo card and with any luck win a Bingo prize.
Anyone willing to contribute a prize please contact one of The Organizers.
Doors open at 6:30 so you can peruse the Free Table (items brought by guild members to be taken home by others without charge), The Library (full members can sign out books and or magazines for a month or until the next meeting) and view any items brought for ‘Show and Tell’.
The business meeting will begin at 7:00 followed by members displaying items they have made and telling some details about it. Many of the items will be fresh from display and judging from the Saanich Fair. Lynda and Brenda are also planning a wee group project to end the meeting – details to be disclosed at the meeting.
St Luke’s Church Hall, 3821 Cedar Hill Cross Rd and virtually on Zoom. Guests are welcome.
Our last guild meeting before the summer break will be held on June 20th at 7pm. This meeting includes the Annual General Meeting with a review of the past year and the election of the Directors and Chairs for the upcoming year. After the meeting Ella Swan, a Guild scholarship recipient, will be talking about yarn construction and sharing samples from the workshop she took with Vanessa Bjerreskov.
The evening will finish with Show & Tell, a Free table, and a Stashbusting sale. The Library will be open.
Tuesday, May 16, 7pm Karen Selk will give a talk “In Search of Wild Silk”.
Wild silk is much more than the miraculous journey of metamorphosis from caterpillar to silken luxury. It is tightly woven to an ancient living culture raising tasar, muga and eri silkworms in remote forests of central and eastern India. Raising wild silkworms, reeling cocoons, spinning fiber and weaving silk cloth provides sustainable work, while protecting the environment, and supporting communities. Photos and stories captured from weavers, spinners, and silkworm farmers over thirty years of research will transport you into their homes and villages to witness the love and dedication involved in each part of the process from soil to cloth.
The May meeting will be the Ruth Anstey lecture and challenge. The challenge will be to create something that contains silk, this could be a skein, a knitted or crocheted item, a woven item or a felted piece or anything your imagination can create. Be sure to describe/ point out the silk including what kind it is, whether it’s handspun, perhaps how long it’s been in your stash, and any other interesting facts about it.
Mary Jean Betts presenting Anke Keiser-Bles’s work for the Master Weaver program and in particular her final thesis on the Theo Moorman technique.