To celebrate the textile arts, the Southern Highland Craft Guild is inviting visitors to Fiber Weekend to bring their own handiwork: crochet, embroidery, or spinning. Weather permitting, the goal is to fill the hill behind the Folk Art Center auditorium with people engaged in fiber arts. Bring a blanket and enjoy a spring afternoon of craft. This free event will take place on Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., as members of the Guild demonstrate a variety of techniques using fiber in the Folk Art Center’s auditorium. On Sunday, May 15, there will be two fashion shows, at 1 p.m. and again at 3 p.m. The art of embroidery will be explained by Susan Adams, Martine House, Laura Gaskin, and members from the local Laurel Chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America. They will be demonstrating different styles of free motion and machine. Also participating will be well-known quilter Georgia Bonesteel, alongside Sheila Rauen working on blocks and patterns. Lin Oglesby and Rita de Maintenon will have their knitting needles ready, and Mary Nichols will be at her spinning wheel with the Blue Ridge Spinners. The annual Fiber Wearable Fashion Show on Sunday is now in its 17th year of honoring fiber wearables crafted by Guild artists, with weaver Liz Spear serving as emcee. She will explain the techniques and processes used to create each piece. The Southern Highland Craft Guild is a nonprofit, educational organization established in 1930 to bring together the crafts and craftspeople of the Southern Highlands for the benefit of shared resources, education, marketing and conservation.
The Southern Highland Craft Guild is an authorized concessioner of the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 of the Blue Ridge Parkway, just north of the Highway 70 entrance in east Asheville. (Photos by Diana Gates)
