What is a Fibershed?

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Come learn about it at our April meeting!
Tuesday 4/28/26, at the Congregational Church of Harvard, 5 Still River Rd
Presentation starts at 7:30, but please come early!

Michelle Parrish and Peggy Hart will introduce us to the concept of a fibershed, their history, and details about the Western Mass Fibershed.

Western Mass Fibershed is a local affiliate of the broader Fibershed movement, working to rebuild regional textile systems and build thriving and sustainable regional fiber economies. Western Mass Fibershed is committed to understanding and strengthening connections and collaboration between farmers, fiber processors and spinning mills, weavers, dyers, and other fiber artists, clothing and shoe designers, retailers, and consumers. As part of Fibershed’s soil to soil philosophy, Western Mass Fibershed utilizes wool from western Massachusetts to create products ranging from soil-enriching waste wool pellets for gardening to blankets and fabric, to yarns for knitting and weaving. We have recently incorporated as a 501c3. For more information please see our website.

Peggy Hart and Michelle Parrish are two of the Western Mass Fibershed organizers and board members. Peggy is a textile designer and weaver who weaves on 1940s vintage Crompton and Knowles dobby looms to create limited edition blankets and throws and custom blankets for farmers using their own wool. Read more about her work on her website. Michelle is an educator with a passion for plants, fibers, and understanding more deeply how we’re all connected on this beautiful planet. You can check out her natural dye and flax projects here.

Schedule for the evening:

  • 7pm – Library browsing, social time, snacks, and show & tell
  • 7:30 – Fibershed talk begins

Visitors are welcome!

Mihoko Wakabayashi to talk on SAORI Weaving

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Tuesday 24 March 2026 in person only at the Congregational Church of Harvard, 5 Still River Rd, Harvard MA
Start time is 7pm, with the program beginning at 7:30.

Mihoko Wakabayashi

SAORI Weaving is a contemporary improvisational weaving from Japan. It is based on Zen principle of spontaneity and simplicity. There are no mistakes in SAORI. We embrace any accidental issues such as “Happy Accident”. Mihoko Wakabayashi, a Japan native and an owner of Mihoko Textiles has taught many people of all ages and all abilities in her studio and a variety of organizations and festivals for 25 years. She believes that SAORI weaving is a great way to express inner creativity, connect with others and the world, and build friendships with fellow weavers. She will explain about SAORI weaving and the activities of her studio through a slide show and demonstrate a freestyle weaving on a loom.

Mihoko Wakabayashi was born and grew up in Japan. Her major in college was education. She learned weaving by working with young people (K-12) who had difficulties in school in Japan and continued learning weaving for seven years. Since she opened her studio “SAORI Worcester” in 2000, she has taught many people including people with various disabilities and become involved in the community. Besides regular classes, she has taught many workshops at different organizations, has conducted one-week fiber camps for children, and has guided a two-week tour in Japan. She made a public art installation SAORI Bridge Project at Elm Park in Worcester in 2021 and developed a program Seed to Fashion to teach weaving with yarn dyed with indigo that people grow together for six years. She continues teaching creative weaving, spinning, dyeing, and sewing through her studio and creates her one-of-a -kind wearable art as Mihoko Textiles.

SAORI Bridge Project at Elm Park in Worcester

People gather for snacks, library browsing, and Show & Tell at 7 pm. Mihoko’s program will start at 7:30. Visitors are welcome!

February Meeting on Zoom – corrected!

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Barbara Setsu Pickett to talk on Velvet

Tuesday 24 February 2026 on Zoom only
Start time is 7pm, with the program beginning at 7:30.

Barbara Setsu Pickett will compress 45 years of research on contemporary velvet weaving practices throughout the world into her Power Point presentation. She’ll begin with her Fulbright Fellowship at the Foundation Lisio and highlight her explorations in 10 countries at ateliers where the 40 masters of velvet weaving work their artistry. She’ll conclude with how a studio artist in the USA can approximate the process using standard looms and equipment.

Barbara Setsu Pickett, an Associate Professor Emerita in the Art Department at the University of Oregon, focuses her art and research on velvetweaving, shibori, book arts, and natural dyeing. She has studied velvetweaving in Italy, France, Spain, England, Japan, China, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and India. Currently she is investigating the Andalus connection between Valencia, Spain and Fez, Morocco. She has received support from the NEA, Fulbright Commission, Institute of Turkish Studies, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation/Bellagio, and Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. She and her son run Mihara Shibori Studio and create highly textured silk scarves. Her current research trip is supported by two grants, the Dee Brown Memorial Grant and the HGA Mearl K. Gable II Memorial Fund.

A Zoom link will be sent to all current members before the meeting. Visitors should contact us to get the link.

Happy New Year!

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Churro sheep

Our first meeting of 2026 will be on Tuesday 27 January on Zoom only!

Myra Chang Thompson will present

The Connection Between Spanish Colonial Trade and the Role of Churro Sheep

In this presentation Myra will introduce the textile trade during the Spanish Colonial Period (1650 to 1800) which importantly involved the Churro sheep.

Spanish colonists were completely stranded from their mother country, Spain, geographically, economically, socially and, linguistically at various times during the Colonial period. It is then that a realization that their survival greatly depended on how they reacted to their situation. With many of the technologies and skills from the Old World, the colonists adapted to their surroundings and the natural environment in which they were settled. The textile “cottage Industry” played a large part in the colonists’ survival. The Churro sheep consequently were at the center of it all.

Myra was born in Northern New Mexico. Her maternal grandfather raised sheep in New Mexico. She has had a lifelong interest in fiber of all sorts. She was a member of the Stockton, CA Weavers Guild. There she met and learned from E. E. Gilmore, loom builder. Eventually she and her husband, Bill, moved to Massachusetts. She taught special education in various public schools and joined the Weavers Guild of Boston. She loved the changes of seasons but missed the longer summers.

Family events led to a return to New Mexico. Myra has been active in the Fiber 2 Finish Fiber Arts Guild of Valencia County, serving as president for 10 years. She is also a member of Las Arañas Spinners and Weavers Guild in Albuquerque for 20 years and is the current president. She’s been a member of HGA for more than 40 years. She teaches regionally and nationally (Convergence Knoxville and Wichita.). Her guild experiences have given her a unique appreciation for learning, creativity, volunteerism, team building and lifelong friendships. She maintains a studio in her home under the careful eyes of two sister cats and a loving dog. She teaches a variety of classes at Fiber Arts on Fourth in Albuquerque.

A Zoom link will be sent to all NVWG members before the meeting. If you are a visitor and would like to attend, please email programs@nvwg.org.

Snow Policy

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Hopefully we will not have to deal with this on Tuesday, but just in case, here’s what you need to know:

Generally, if the Harvard Public Schools are closed, we do not have a meeting in Harvard. We’ll also send an email to membership. If you’re not a member and are wondering about a meeting, please contact us before venturing out.

Of course, in January and February, our meetings are on Zoom, so they happen regardless of the weather!

Weaving with Found Objects in December

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Tuesday 2 December, starting at 1 pm (NOTE THIS IS AN AFTERNOON MEETING!)

Location: Congregational Church of Harvard, 5 Still River Rd, Harvard MA

Come weave with found natural materials! Beautiful seedhead from the side of the road? Irresistible piece of driftwood? Intriguing porcupine quills? Here’s the opportunity to play!

Guild member Fran Levi will lead participants in making small woven creations off the loom with items found in nature. She will bring wisteria and grape vine wreaths and straight and forked sticks for making primitive looms and lots of dried flowers, birchbark, feathers, wasp nests, snake skins and more to share. Hemp, linen, wire and other warp options will be available.

Participants might bring collage scissors (not your good fiber scissors!), pruning shears, a tapestry needle, crochet hook, scraps of hand spun, a portable warped loom or a started basket and whatever you’ve found in nature that might be fun to weave.

Fran is a juried member of The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. She is one of the leaders of the weaving program at the Townsend Senior Center.

Fran is also looking for a few people who can commit to arriving at 12 to help get transfer supplies from her car and set up, and people who can stay afterward to help clean up.

Doubleweave Workshop Announced

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Doubleweave Round Robin; 4 to 8 and more shafts

Thursday 3/19/26 to Saturday 3/21/26
At the Congregational Church in Harvard, MA

Doubleweave coasters woven by Gretchen Romey-Tanzer

Gretchen Romey-Tanzer will be leading this round robin workshop exclusively for members of the NVWG.

The workshop will be an introduction and expansion of double layer doubleweave. We will cover designing and drafting doubleweave structures with color interactions being the focus. Looms will be set-up to sample systems that will produce different effects depending on treadling sequences and weft colors used. Experimentation will be encouraged. A handout of all the potential samples will be included.

The workshop will be limited to 15 people. Cost will be $150 plus materials fee (approximately $20.)

Participants must be able to warp their loom (4-16 shaft table or floor loom) independently prior to the workshop. Warps and drafts will be provided by Gretchen a few weeks prior to the workshop. All level of weavers are welcome.

Signup will begin on 12/1/25. A signup link will be sent to members on that date. (No signups will be accepted before that date.) The tuition must be fully paid within a week of that date in order to hold your spot. Those who are attending the Guild meeting on Tuesday 12/2 may deliver checks or cash at that time. Others may be mailed to NVWG, PO Box 50, Harvard MA 01451.

Gretchen Romey-Tanzer has been a professional weaver, teacher and fiber artist for over 45 years. Her focus on complex doubleweave has received recognition for Excellence in Weaving from the American Craft Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Gretchen’s fiber pieces are in the collections of Art Museum collections in Boston MA, Denver CO, and Racine WI. She has been leading doubleweave workshops to New England weavers for 15 years.

2025-26 Meetings Announced

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All meetings are held at the Congregational Church of Harvard at 5 Still River Rd, Harvard, MA, unless otherwise noted.

Most meetings start with a half hour of time to socialize, snack, and browse the library books, with the meeting starting at 7:30.

DatePresenterProgram
23 Sept 2025, 7pmAll membersNEWS Review
28 Oct 2025, 7pmLeslie ArdisonBackstrap/hands-on/demo (Central and South America)
02 Dec 2025, 1 pmFran LeviGrapevine wreaths/decor
27 Jan 2026, 7pm on ZoomMyra Chang ThompsonSpanish Colonial Weaving (Churro Sheep)
24 Feb 2026, 7pm on ZoomBarbara Setsu PickettVelvet Weaving (origins around the world)
24 Mar 2026, 7pmMihoko WakabayashiSaori (Japan)
28 Apr 2026, 7pmMichelle Parish or other Fibershed repWestern Mass Fibershed (close to home)
26 May 2026, 7pmPenny LacroixNorwegian weaving
23 Jun 2026, 6pmAll! (Location TBA)POT LUCK

Guests are welcome! If you feel that you want to attend multiple meetings, please consider joining the Guild.

Rag Rugs Wrap Up “Zero Waste”

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with Mary Mandarino

In person only at the Congregational Church of Harvard
Tuesday 27 May 2025, starting at 7pm

Rag Rug woven by Mary Mandarino

Our presenter is Mary Mandarino, a weaver and teacher of Rag rug weaving with over 35 years of weaving experience. She has been the treasurer for the New England Weavers Seminar and is a member of the Weavers Guild of Boston, where she served as Special Workshop and Morning Workshop Program Chair and is currently the Publicity and Social Media Chair. Mary has taught at Spinning and Weaving Week for HGA, Springfield Weavers and Cranberry Weavers, and offers private instruction for weavers on hand painting yarns. She is currently an active member of the South End Woven Collaborative at 450 Harrison Ave in Boston.

Keeping with the theme of Zero Waste, Mary’s program will review various techniques for making rag rugs. Techniques include cutting rags for rugs on the bias, stitching technique for rag strips versus inlay, T-Shirt cutting, and making chenille for pile rugs. Rugs, Samplers and various materials will be brought for show and tell.

Library time, socializing and snacks will begin at 7. Mary’s program will begin at 7:30.

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