Photo by Marilyn MooreThe Seattle Weavers' Guild meets on the fourth Thursday of the month, with exceptions for holidays and the summer break.
Covid - 19 Guidance
The Seattle Weavers' Guild is a community organization that meets in a church hall. The Guild follows State, County, and City requirements that apply to community organizations and public events. For current local guidelines, please visit King County Public Health.
Meetings are located in Bloedel Hall, behind St. Mark's Cathedral: 1245 10th Ave East, Seattle, WA.
The meeting starts at 10am, followed by "Hot Off the Loom" (members exhibit their latest work), and the morning program. Program speakers typically bring woven samples to accompany their talks, which are displayed on tables in front of the stage. After a lunch break at noon, the afternoon program follows, sometimes a hands-on project.
- 9am - 2pm - Library open (SWG members may check out materials)
- 10am to 12 noon - Business Meeting, "Hot Off the Loom", Morning Program
- 12 noon - Lunch
- 1pm to 2pm - Afternoon program
For more information about Seattle Weavers' Guild Programs, contact programs@seattleweaversguild.com
The 2022-23 programs are currently under development. More information about each month's presentations will be added as it is available.
September 22, 2022
Elizabeth Moncrief
Morning Program: Weaving Loom Compendium
This program offers a 2-hour discussion with examples of some of the best information available regarding your weaving equipment: Looms in general, shed mechanisms, shafts, treadles, reeds, shuttles, benches and tips/tricks to help you achieve a better handwoven product...and it'll make you feel more comfortable at your loom. Weavers of all levels will benefit from this discussion of tools that are so important to our work. I've repaired and rehabilitated looms for twenty-five years, and have worked on nearly every make and model available. This past couple of years I've had the opportunity to write blogs on all of the above for Handwoven Magazine and have now compiled many of these tips into a focused program for guilds and groups. The staff at Handwoven Magazine often forward questions to me regarding loom issues and malfunctions and I'm a regular referral if an owner needs to identify a loom or loom part. I've also had the pleasure of offering this program to eleven guilds in the PNW including 4 in Canada these past two years through virtual presentations and am scheduled for this presentation as a seminar for the ANWG 2023 conference. The program will include one hour for the morning session covering loom types, recommended looms for specific weaves, shafts, treadles, lamms, and heddles.
Afternoon Program: Weaving Loom Compendium-(continued)
The afternoon session will expand on braking mechanisms, reeds, beater assemblies, and how to fit the proper shuttles and smaller tools not just to your weaving project but to your hands and body movements.
Elizabeth Moncrief
Elizabeth Moncrief is a Washington weaver specializing in hand-woven home decor: rugs, pillows, table runners and wall art. She is represented by the Museum of Northwest Art (MONA), La Conner, WA and Schack Art Center, Everett, WA.
October 27, 2022
Erika Morey
Morning Program: Egyptian Textiles
Erika Morey
Afternoon Program: Sale setup. No Afternoon Program
December 1, 2022
Patricia Donald
Morning Program: What One Might Want to Know About Southern Counterpanes
Southern Counterpanes were produced in America from 1800-1900. They can be defined as handwoven white on white cotton bedcovers with one or more weaving structures that provide relief. This distinguishes them from other handwoven white bedcovers such as weft loop, stuffed, Bolton, and Marseilles. Unlike coverlets, Southern Counterpanes do not include overshot, summer and winter or Beiderwand weave structures with a few exceptions.
Evidence of the importance of counterpanes can be found in the number of weaving drafts found in archives. Museums, especially small museums, more often have the textile than the weaving drafts whereas larger museums often have a mix of drafts and textiles. When only drafts are found, as in historic drafts generally, only the threading is given. The modern weaver must determine tie up and treadling. Without the textile matched to the draft, it is not possible to determine if the textile produced matches the draft. There are exceptions where weavers have worked out the draft from the textile including Bargmann, Benson and Redford, Brown and Schillo, and Jemian.
My counterpane research includes work with 14 museums across six states (Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas) and have consulted with or acquired drafts from private collections in Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In addition, I have drafts and images from North American Museum of American Coverlets and images of textiles from several locations in Georgia and South Carolina through cooperative exchange with others interested in counterpanes.
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Patricia Donald
Pat Donald has been interested in counterpane drafts since 2006 and saw her first counterpane from the late 1800s in 2008. Pat belongs to the Chattahoochee Handweavers Guild, Prince George Fiber Arts Guild and the Seattle Weavers Guild. She also is a member of the ANGW historical weaving study group as well as the Early American Coverlets and Counterpane, Early Weaving Books and Manuscripts and the Old Fashioned Way study groups of Complex Weavers. She has taught weaving workshops and given lectures on historic weaving drafts in four states. Spring 2023 her article on Southern Counterpanes was published in Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot. Pat's submission was accepted to Complex Weaver's 40th Anniversary Book: Eight Shafts: Beyond the Beginning: Personal Approaches to Design.
January 26, 2023
I studied Industrial Textile Design at the Scottish College of Textiles graduating with a 1st class Honours Degree and the Dr Oliver medal for the best design student for 1972.
I worked in industry for several years before buying a 16-shaft George Wood Dobby loom, and started my career as a commission weaver. I initially wove floor rugs, but finally specialised into weaving original fabrics for clothing and interiors for private clients. I stopped this work in 2009.
After sitting weaving yardage for 35 years, I am now concentrating of passing my knowledge on to others, by teaching courses and writing books:
The Weavers Book of Fabric Design - published 1983
Designing Woven Fabrics - published 2008. Reprinted in 2009, 2015, 2021
Exploring Woven Fabrics - published 2020. Reprinted 2022.
February 23, 2023
Mary Zicafoose
Mary Zicafoose says "Weaving is my medium, but creating decorative textile art is not my goal. Rather, it is my use of “Ikat,” the complex technique of resist dyeing and over-dyeing fibers, that best defines my intent. The term "Ikat" means to "bind" or "tie" in the Malaysian language. I create contemporary tapestry, pushing the boundary of this ancient art form, to investigate the intricacies of how we, as individuals, are tied to one another. The complexity and uncharted potential of warp and weft - combined with the alchemy of color compositions and archetypal symbols - reference the elaborate and intricate patterns of our lives and my work. Each densely woven and intricately layered textile reflects the infinite and repetitive ways that cultures, rituals and collective memories bind us all together. By evolving and transforming timeless motifs and visual language into a contemporary (con)text, I seek to engage my viewers - as well as myself - in dialogues and discussions that reawaken and tie us all to one another.""
March 23, 2023
Rosalie Neilson
Morning Program: Kumihimo: From Defense to Decoration
This slide lecture presents a history of Japan through the perspective of kumihimo or plaited silk cords. It traces the historical development of Japanese plaited cords from fossilized remains in grave mounds to the exotic Samurai era when silk cords were used to lace together the warrior's armor. It also explores the current fashion trands using cords as obijime (an integral part of securing the obi and kimono) as well as decorative neckpieces. In addition to the slides taken in Japan and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, there are also slides taken by a professional advertising photographer in Kyoto, documenting past fashions in kimono and obi. The samurai slides include the recent exhibit of armor at the Portland Art Museum.
Rosalie Neilson
Rosalie Neilson loves using color and geometric design in her weaving, her specialty being warp-faced rep. She is featured in a 2-hour DVD called Rep Weave produced by Interweave Press (now Long Thread Media). She publishes articles regularly in weaving and braiding journals and maintains an active teaching schedule.
During the past two years, she has developed a series of Zoom workshops, both in Kumihimo and Huck Lace. Her publications include three books on Kumihimo design and An Exaltation of Blocks, a two volume book with a toolkit of printed design pages and transparent overlays for weavers and designers to explore literally millions of unique symmetric patterns.
Afternoon Program: SWG Kumihimo Study Group Demos
April 27, 2023
Janney Simpson
Janney Simpson began weaving in the early 1980's. She has taught weaving at Wesleyan Potters in Middletown, Ct and at many conferences and guilds in the US. She currently teaches weaving at her barn studio in Gaylord, MI and relishes the "ah-ha" moment when new weavers throw a shuttle for the first time.
Janney is a past President, Apprentice, and Weaver of Distinction of the Handweavers' Guild of CT. Also a member of Complex Weavers and former Japanese Textile Study Group, she enjoys sharing her interest in Sakiori weaving using vintage silk kimono. She has presented many workshops and lectures on Deflected Double Weave (Convergence 2018 and 2020 rescheduled to 2022), Finishing and Embellishing Handwovens, Knitted Beaded Bags, Sakiori, and Weaving with Fibers of Micronesia. Privileged to be a student for four years in Laurie Autio's class, Explorations in Advanced Weaving, Janney strives to create one-of-a-kind pieces using a variety of fibers and weave structures on many types of looms.
May 25, 2023
Kris Leet
Kris Leet has been tablet weaving and teaching for over 40 years. Her current passion is with Iron Age and Medieval tablet woven bands, especially those created using less than four threads per tablet. She is co-author, along with Linda Malan, of The Willful Pursuit of Complexity, focusing on the Icelandic Vacant Hole technique.
Past Programs
| September | Kris Bruland | Morning | Handweaving.net: A Treasury of Weaving Drafts and More | ||
| Afternoon | Guild discussion of SWG sale issues | ||||
| October | Elizabeth Williamson | Morning | Handweavers' Guild of America: A weaver's resource | ||
| December | Fine Gelfand | Morning | The Noh Coat: A Creative Approach to Limited Materials | ||
| Tera Hernandez | Afternoon | Woven Paper Stars | |||
| January | Barbara J Walker | Morning | The Accidental Fiber Artist | ||
| Afternoon | Multiple Warp Design | ||||
| February | Alex Friedman | Morning | Along the Warp: My Tapestry Journey | ||
| Afternoon | Changing the Surface of Tapestry: A Look at Eccentric Wefts | ||||
| March | Annie MacHale | Morning | Narrow But Not Limited | ||
| Afternoon | Design Inspiration for Woven Bands | ||||
| April | Lucienne Coifman | Morning | Rep Weave and its new variations | ||
| Afternoon | Plaid Llama Sale | ||||
| May | Deborah Jarchow | Morning | Rigid Heddle Trunk Show | ||
| Afternoon | Finishing Techniques | ||||
| September | Syne Mitchell | Morning | Inventive Weaving: big ideas, little loom + science! Part I |
| Afternoon | Inventive Weaving: big ideas, little loom + science! Part II | ||
| October | Linda Kubik | Morning | Sewing Handwoven Fabric |
| December | Marilyn Romatka | Morning | Uzbek Ikat: The Personal Saga of an Exceptional Cloth |
| Afternoon | The Handicrafts of Gujarat | ||
| January | Marg Coe | Morning | Double Weave |
| Afternoon | Deflected Double Weave | ||
| February | Jennifer Moore | Morning | Mathematical Design: Geometry in Textiles |
| Afternoon | Chromatic Fantasy: Music, Mathematics and Magic in Doubleweave | ||
| March | Sally Eyring | Morning | Loom Interventions - Making That Loom Work For You |
| Afternoon | Loom Interventions--Part II | ||
| April | Susan Balascio | Morning | Oh, So Fine!-The Exciting World of Fine Threads |
| May | Denise Kovnat | Morning | Dorset Buttons: A Heritage Craft |
| Afternoon | Echo and Jin: The Possibilities of Extended Parallel Threading | ||
Click here for a table of older programs