The monthly meetings start with a social time from 7pm to 7:30pm. Meeting business and the program for the month follow at 7:30pm. The meeting location is the Hessel Park Christian Reform Church at 700 West Kirby in Champaign, Illinois unless otherwise noted. Exceptions are noted below or announced in the newsletter.

Theme: Fiber Arts: Connecting Past, Present, and Future

September 14: What I Did On My Summer Vacation: Guild Member Project Showcase
We’re starting with a classic beginning of the school year theme: “What I Did on My Summer Vacation.” Instead of an essay, it’s a show-and-tell. Bring your best projects from this summer and discuss them with your fellow fiber artists. The leaders of the Guild’s study groups will also speak briefly about their group’s plans for the upcoming year.

October 12: RSVP and C-U One-To-One
These two organizations help guild members make connections within the community. RSVP (Retired Senior Volunteer Program) is a national program that places senior citizen volunteers with organizations in their community. C-U One-to-One is a K-12 mentoring program in the Champaign and Urbana schools. Karen Bodnar from RSVP and Marilyn Mastny from C-U One-to-One will be tonight’s speakers.

November 9: Travelogue: China and Tibet
Guild member Sue Cutter recently traveled to China and Tibet. Join us for her travelogue, which will feature photographs, stories, and textiles from this once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

December 14: Holiday Potluck
Our annual festive holiday potluck, held at a guild member’s home. Bring a small handmade gift for the gift exchange.

January 11: Bourse
The January meeting was canceled due to weather.

February 8: Spurlock/Guild Inspiration
Kim Sheahan from Spurlock, will give a slide presentation about the Spurlock/Guild inspiration project and a workshop that Spurlock will be hosting. The purpose of the project is twofold: for the Museum to display objects from their collection that are currently in storage and for Guild members to be inspired by those objects to create some type of fiber art. Kim will be able to answer questions about the project AND the workshop.

March 8: Molly MacRae
Local mystery author and CUSWG member Molly MacRae will read from her latest book, "Lawn Order" (published in 2010 by Five Star) and will discuss her latest writing project--the first book of a mystery series set in a haunted wool shop.

April 12: Nalbinding
Nalbinding is an ancient, single-needle form of knitting that is still popular in parts of the world. Join local fiber artist Julie Watkins as she describes and demonstrates this fascinating textile-creation technique, focusing on early medieval textiles.

We will hold a bourse before the Nalbinding presentation. A bourse is a bourse, of course, of course... but what is a bourse? For the uninitiated, it a term derived from the Middle French word for "purse," and it's an exchange of goods. Bring your unwanted fiber arts supplies and sell (or barter)... then purchase things that you want!

May 10: Spurlock Visit, Pot Luck and Installation of Officers
Our final meeting will be held at the Spurlock Museum startig at 5pm. Spurlock staff will have the actual items to be our inspiration, available for our viewing from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.. Afterwards we will have the Guild Potluck and Meeting.

See the 2006/2007, the 2007/2008, or the 2008/2009 Programs.