we love guilds at the Fair... guilds keep the arts alive, sharing their passion, teaching, inspiring, fostering fellowship.

presenting the demonstrating and teaching guilds of the 2011 Fair:

The Foxy Lady Rug Hooking Guild, affiliated with the Association of Traditional Hooking Artists (ATHA), draws hooking artists from the greater Chicago area. The guild provides a place for rug hookers to meet and hook together, exchange ideas, learn new techniques, and give and receive encouragement. Because rug hooking materials and hands-on teaching advice are not easy to find in the Chicago area, the guild provides a pleasant and relaxed meeting place for new and experiences rug hookers.

The guild holds an annual members’ workshop designed to enhance hooking skills. The guild is also happy to provide demonstrations and displays for area historic and artistic events, including, annually, Lisle Depot Days held in September.

Guild meetings are held the second Saturday of every month (except Dec.) from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm at the historic Beaubien Tavern at Lisle Station Park, 921 School St., Lisle, Il. 60532. Members pay dues of $20.00/year, plus ATHA dues of $26.00/yr.

Contact Beth Morris at cahbam@sbcglobal.net for more information. Note: Access to the Foxy Lady website, located on Yahoogroups.com, is limited to guild members only. However their group homepage is: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FoxyLadyRugGuild/.

The Hollow Tree Spinners Guild welcomes spinners, would-be spinners, and people who don't even understand centrifugal force. It's all about the fiber. If you want to run your fingers through fiber, come play with them. They offer workshops, open spinning, and each fall, a judged and juried show in Woodstock. The show is co-sponsored by the Woodstock Weavers Guild.

Guild Meetings: Join us at our regular meetings, every second Saturday, from 10:00 am until about 3:00 pm at The Fold in Marengo, IL. Yearly dues are $25.00. Curious non-members are always welcomed.

Contact: Barbara Bundick: barbrev@earthlink.net; or Toni Neill: thefold@mc.net.

Village Quilters of Lake Bluff/Lake Forest draws members from northeastern Illinois who create and share a diverse array of quilts and wearable quilted art, host workshops, invite speakers, and participate in service projects. Membership is open to anyone who is interested in making, studying, or collecting quilts.

Monthly guild meetings include show-and-tell (where guild members share their latest work) prior to a featured speaker. Village Quilters has a strong program schedule, hosting approximately eight speakers from outside the guild each year. Many of these speakers also hold day-long workshops for guild members. The cost of these workshops is subsidized by the guild.

Each year members participate in a different service project, and the guild also helps to match members with smaller support groups (quilting bees). Village Quilters maintains a lending library of quilting books.

Every two years, the guild holds Quilts from the Village, a show that shares their work with the public. This year, Quilts from the Village will be held at the Lake County Fairgrounds on October 14-15. The large show displays approximately 300 beautiful quilts and includes a silent auction, boutique items, merchant mall, and quilting demonstrations. This year, Mary Fons (co-host of the PBS program "Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting" and the online show "Quilty") will be speaking at the show.

Guild meetings are held the third Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m. in Grace United Methodist Church (244 East Center Avenue), Lake Bluff, Illinois. Yearly dues are $40. Guild meetings are open to the public (visitors are asked to contribute $5).

Contact: Membership chair Rae Bradley at membership@villagequilters.org. The Village Quilters web site has a list of upcoming speakers and information about the guild and the upcoming show: www.villagequilters.org.

Windy City Knitting Guild is a membership organization that encourages and fosters knitting in the Chicago area. They currently have over 300 members.

Guild meetings are the third Tuesday of each month from 6:45 pm- 8:55 pm. Meetings are held at Sulzer Regional Library, 4455 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60625. Membership meetings usually include: refreshments, meeting and greeting, Guild Business, a program/mini class, and Show & Share.

Windy City Guild membership entitles you to receive the monthly Windy City Knitting Guild Newsletter. It is loaded with announcements about knitting events, book reviews, knitting website reviews, yarn store reviews from all over the United States, class and teacher reviews, knitting patterns, tips, hints, facts and fun. Many knit shops in the Chicago area give a 10% discount to Guild members. Members also pay a reduced price for the fantastic workshops the guild sponsors. Dues are $25 per calendar year. You are invited to attend one of their monthly meetings if you would like more information about the guild before joining.

Contact: Membership chairman, Worna Haywood at worna@ameritech.net. Web site: www.windycityknittingguild.com

The Woodstock Weavers Guild is an active fiber arts guild that promotes hand weaving in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. Members of the guild share hand-woven projects ranging from household linens, to rugs and draperies, to "art to wear" clothing. They encourage the development of artistic and technical skills in hand weaving, and promote public knowledge and appreciation of hand weaving as both a craft and as an art with tangible market value. Through guild activities artist/weavers are provided opportunities to explore the historical development of hand weaving as well as the many forms and techniques of hand weaving employed throughout the world. Opportunities for the general public to view the work of local, national and international hand weavers are also created.

Guild meetings are from September through December, on the first Wednesday of the month at McHenry County Farm Bureau, 1102 McConnell Road. January through June meetings are held at the Woodstock Library on Judd Street. You can visit their website http://www.woodstockweaversguild.org for meeting details as well as find their membership form and information on their yearly dues. They sponsor several hand weaving workshops each year and publish an informative monthly newsletter. They'll be presenting their 13th annual Fiber Arts Show this October at the Old Courthouse Arts Center on the square in Woodstock. The Show is free and everyone is invited. They also have special interest groups including a Tapestry Group, an Inkle Weaving Group and a Color Study Group.

Contact mayd2weave@hotmail.com for general information about the Weavers guild and its activities. Website: www.woodstockweaversguild.org

fiber arts, fiber art fairs, women, and activism have a long history in the United States. Sayings, including the one above were embroidered into quilts and other household goods and sold at Great Fairs in the North to raise money to support the abolitionists prior to the Civil War. In the South, women sold Gunboat quilts to raise money for the army. Groups like the Woman's Relief Corp that existed right here in Crystal Lake, IL, all got into the prewar effort.

Further back in American History, we all remember and learned about the Boston Tea Party, but tea wasn't the only or the first sticking point between the Colonies and the British government. More festering still was the bitter battle over the colony's efforts to begin and sustain textile production. In 1699 the British passed "The Wool Act" which basically prohibited the colonies from selling textiles to anyone but the British government, who in turn sold it back to the colonies. In protest of this act, the ladies of Boston marched out on the Commons and spun yarn in defiance and...in public!! (the first "sit in"?)

other interesting fibery facts: do you know...

• according to an article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal on April 19, 2008 53 MILLION Americans are now knitting. Woo Hoo!!
• knitting, especially those active between the ages of 40 and 60, may help stave off Alzheimer's disease (according to a study presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 52nd Annual Meeting).
• knitting could help alleviate major trauma effects (according to British psychologist Dr. Emily Holmes).
• "a group of mathematicians is taking a new look at some old problems and using crafts like knitting and crocheting to solve them. From the way the atmosphere generates weather to the shape of the human brain, knit and crocheted models have provided new insight into the geometry of the natural world." Read article
• knitting and crocheting have been proven to reduce stress according to a study done by Harvard Medical School Mind Body Institute and another study done by University of Toronto.
• there's even research that suggests that knitting induces a meditative state similar to that of Nepalese monks - who increase the capacity of their brain through meditation.

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"Many thanks and kudos to all you Hollow Tree Spinners who joined in the demo activities during the last three days at the Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair!  Every time I pressed my ear to the “wall” of my booth, there you were explaining it all to interested folks.  You were entirely generous to share your time and expertise with the public, and I appreciate your investment in helping our craft to grow."
   Toni Neil to Hollow Tree Spinning Guild