As was announced at the February meeting, long time member, Betsy Goodnight, passed away and asked that her studio items be given to the Guild. Betsy joined the guild around 2001 and served as president, arranged for retreats and served the guild in many other ways. She taught weaving in her home studio and passed on her knowledge to many other weavers.

 On Saturday, Feb. 22 a small but sturdy group went to Betsy’s home in the Morganton area with a rented 15' UHaul to bring back items.

Three looms, and ~ 1800 lbs. of yarn, material, equipment and books were taken to Rusti Nichols barn. Much of that has been dispersed to students of the Haywood Community College Professional Fiber Arts Program, Local Cloth (for their giveaway to artists impacted by Hurricane Helene) and the Guild's booth at the Anything Fiber Sale. Quite a bit of chenille remains free to members who might like to peruse what's left. Contact Rusti.

Betsy was a prolific weaver and in addition to all of the other items the guild received, two large clothes hampers of woven cloth were also received. We will honor and remember Betsy in our Winter Project. The challenge is to take one or several of the pieces here and make something our of the cloth. We have been posting ideas on our Facebook group page and this year’s retreat was focused on using handwoven cloth. We hope all of this material will find a new life in your creation! 

If you missed the November meeting, please use something you already have in your stash/stock of samples, gamps, and other items and transform them into something useful or just a pretty piece of art.

Ideas and links to suggestions are posted on this Threadline.

Thanks you Betsy!