Peachtree Handspinners Guild

Home Grown, Hand Made:

A Fiber Arts Exhibit by Peachtree Handspinners and Etowah Valley Handspinners Guilds

Saturday, September 14, 2024 to Friday, January 31, 2025

The Peachtree Handspinners Guild and the Etowah Valley Handspinners Guild are hosting an exhibit of handspun textiles at the Bartow History Museum in downtown Cartersville, Georgia. This exhibit will feature a large variety of member-made hand woven, knit, crocheted, felted, braided, dyed and/or sewn textiles made from handspun fibers. Many of the yarns are spun from locally raised wool, mohair and cotton raised by guild members (see photograph).

The Bartow History Museum’s permanent collection features some of the rich textile history of Cartersville and Bartow County. You’ll find several beautiful antique spinning wheels and a loom that were used in the area, as well as the American Textile Company’s (ATCO) Cotton Mill factory and village history. Cartersville and Bartow County are on the West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail. https://westgatextiletrail.com/

Cartersville Georgia is known as the “Museum City”. It is home to the Bartow History Museum, the Booth Western Art Museum, Tellus Science Museum and Savoy Automobile Museum. It is also home to the Etowah Indian Mounds on the Etowah River and Red Top Mountain State Park on Lake Allatoona.

Bartow History Museum

4 E Church Street Cartersville GA 30120
https://bartowhistorymuseum.org/
770-387-2774

Exhibit Events:

Artist Panel Talk

Thursday, September 26, 2024 from 7pm-8pm

A guild moderator will lead a panel of guild textile artists in a discussion of their work, techniques and history.

Sheep to Shawl Educational event

Saturday, October 26, 2024 10am-5pm

All-day demonstrations of wool washing, carding, spinning, weaving and knitting using local sheep’s wool from Dry Creek Naturals Farm (@drycreeknaturals). This event is at the Bartow History Museum and is part of the Booth Western Art Museum’s West Fest Event. https://boothmuseum.org/west-fest/

Check our learn-to-spin page for more on a new class for beginning spinners.

Since COVID-19 has made such an impact on live meetings, the Peachtree Handspinners Guild has been meeting via Zoom.  Members are sent the link to the meetings.  The February 27, 2021 Zoom meeting program will be presented by Christine Cox.  The subject is Sashiko and Boro Revealed.  

Yay, it’s time for our Holiday Social, which starts at noon!! Bring a dish (salad, appetizer, main or dessert), wear your reindeer antlers or sparkly headgear if you dare, and get your jingle jazzed. After welcoming of guests and abbreviated announcements, we eat and the festivities really begin. Special visitors usually arrive to entertain us and bestow Dizzy Spinster Awards and gifts to the unsuspecting (Rumplestilskin usually brings one of his ooo-la-la sisters); will you be on the list? Be prepared to laugh and possibly blush! We also hold the biggest raffle of the year – the Teacup Raffle. Everyone is encouraged to bring a really nice, fiber-related contribution. With one or more items from everyone, we’ll have LOTS of prizes to award. Extra special items have a $1-ticket but everyone present gets one fifty-cent ticket. This meeting is a blast so make plans to be here and have a good time!

November’s program is one all long time members look forward to and new members should be sure to not to miss. Although there is no teacup raffle you won’t miss it. Our Guild Sale and Flea Market is one of the best ways to stock up on fiber supplies and have a lot of social fun. You never know what people will bring to destash but you can always find a bargain or something for a lot less than retail. In past years we’ve seen looms (all types), big bags of roving and unprocessed fleeces, fiber books, handmade sheep ornaments, pretty jewelry, felted scarves and handmade soaps, hand-thrown pottery knitting bowls, homebaked goodies and jams, and more. Be sure to come to this month’s meeting with a bit of extra cash. Oh, and don’t come late as buying often starts in the parking lot as cars start being unloaded. It’s a very fun meeting!

We will also be voting for the 2020 Officers.

Thanks to a big handful of volunteers, our annual ‘Wheel Go Round’ will happen in August for our program. For the new members, this event allows guests and members to try out different types and brands of spinning wheels, plus time to talk to the owners about their wheel(s), what they like or don’t like, what recommendations they’d make, et cetera. We usually have an antique wheel or two, sometimes a walking/great wheel, several contemporary styles, a few traditional, an ultra-portable or small wheel, and sometimes an electric wheel. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to try something new, even if you have no intention of bringing a new wheel home in the near future.

Ruth will bring some fiber for each person who has signed up but if anyone has several ounces of wool they don’t think they’ll ever use (any color or breed), a donation of 1-2 ounces would be appreciated. If you did not sign up to let others try your wheel but would like to, please email Ruth at rjrowell.ua@gmail.com before August 15 with your name, type/brand of wheel and whether or not you are comfortable with others trying it or if you prefer to demonstrate only. See y’all at the August meeting!

Spinning 101
Do you want to learn to spin?
Peachtree Handspinners Guild will hold a “Learn to Spin” class on Saturday, August 10, 2019 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm at North Decatur Presbyterian Church.
Bring your own spinning wheel (or let us know and we’ll have one there for you to spin on) and a check for $15 made out to PHG.
Preregistration is required. Reserve your space by emailing anniehall60@gmail.com with the subject heading “PHG Spinning 101,” letting us know if you’ll bring your own wheel.
North Decatur Presbyterian Church is located at 611 Medlock Road, Decatur, GA 30033.

The Peachtree Handspinners Guild will meet Saturday, March 23, 2019, 1:00 to 4:30 pm in the fellowship hall of North Decatur Presbyterian Church (NDPC).  The door will be open at 12:30 with the business meeting starting at 1:00.

The program for the March meeting will be presented by Paula Vester on Band Weaving. All over the world, people have the need for narrow strips of cloth; to wrap around bundles or packages, to trim bags and clothing, to make ties for all sorts of things people need to carry or close. You can cut strips off of old pieces of clothing, but throughout history, people have also simply woven narrow bands of cloth for those uses.

During the program-time, we will see some different tools people use to weave narrow bands. Attendees will also have a chance to weave their own narrow bands. We will use Tape Looms, backstrap looms, inkle looms, card-weaving sleds and other forms of looms to weave. If you have played with this type of weaving bring your looms and your own examples to show off.