Education & Workshops

Maybe the First Ever Contemporary Handweavers of Texas State-Wide Study Groups:

Texas Plain and Simple & Lena’s Legacy

As we are basking in the fine memories of a wonderful conference in College Station, the 2013 conference in Dallas seems far away.  Sort of like thinking of Christmas in January.  You know it will roll around again, but it just seems too far off to be real.  So how do we keep that CHT glow alive for the next 20 plus months?  Well, how about a couple of state-wide study groups?

What could be more fun?  To be part of maybe the first-ever Contemporary Handweavers of Texas study groups – sharing weaving with sister and fellow weavers all over our great state!  And what great topics the state board has picked for us to study!  (Can you just feel how excited we are all about this?)

Let’s start with our first study group  Texas Plain and Simple – which is a hand-towel exchange.  Here’s how it will work – each member of the study group weaves towels to exchange with the other members.  Say you weave 2 towels – you send ‘em in right (all hemmed and finished) before the CHT conference in 2013, and, after the conference, get two towels back.  Ten towels?  Ten towels back!  And for the patterns?  You get to pick from more than a dozen drafts taken from authentic handwoven pre-Civil War Texas textiles.  While each has a plain-weave structure, the color effects that the early Texas weavers achieved are anything but plain.

And if that study group gets you excited, just hold onto your shuttle for Lena’s Legacy.  Lena Dancy Ledbetter was a young girl living in La Grange, Texas on her family’s plantation during the Civil War.  She was in charge of the weaving shed, where the household textiles were produced.  She left behind a diary that contained her weaving drafts, which include wonderful overshot patterns with names like Mississippi Hills, Job’s Cross, and Talbot’s Beauty.  This study group will weave Lena’s drafts in a swatch exchange, and each member will receive copies of Lena’s drafts, as well as swatches of each woven fabric.  Like touching the hand of Texas history – and a weaver’s hand at that!

The study groups are free, and are open to all members of CHT.  Details on drafts, dimensions, and dates will be sent to all those who want to join in, and will also be included in future newsletters.  Whattayawaitinfor?  Email cht2013@gmail.com to join either (or both!) group.


And then, let’s all get going.  CHT 2013 and Christmas will be here before we know it!