Author: beckoningdesigns

Chenille Weekend Weaving Workshop at Thistle Hill Weavers

Taught by Rabbit Goody, this workshop is open to beginner through practiced weavers. We will be weaving luxurious rayon chenille in beautiful colors for scarves, shawls, and garments. The workshop will take you through warping, threading, sleying and weaving chenille scarves or yardage. We will finish the chenille and learn the trick of making it bloom! Dates: February 8 – 9, 2014 9:30am to 4:30pm. Tuition: $185.00, includes lunch both days and all materials.

Textile History…To Have Or Not: How Available Were Interior Furnishing Fabrics in Post-Revolutionary Rural America, 1790-1825?

August 23-25, 2013 (A 3-day workshop)Fee:$195.00 Looking at the wealth and commerce of rural New York in 1800, we’ll establish some context for examining this period of textile production and consumption: To answer these questions we will start with a short session on How do we identify textiles and how do we know what we know? Discussions will include working with these sources: probate inventories, auction records, bills of lading, account books, draft books, city directories, tax records, gazetteers, fair premiums, newspapers and court and patent records. We will look at historic interiors and interior décor illustrations – the Vogue versus the reality, and then we’ll examine historic documented textiles. Instructors will include: Rabbit Goody, Textile Historian, Founder & Owner of Thistle Hill Weavers, Jill Maney, Independent Scholar & Business Manager, Thistle Hill Weavers and Jon Maney, directer of Hyde Hall, Cooperstown, NY There will be a period dinner served as part of the program in the Briggs Tavern on the evening of Saturday, August 24 at a charge of $25.00 per person. To register for this program, please CALL 518-284-2729 or email rabbitgoodythw@gmail.com

Register for the Textile History Forum 2012

You can register two ways: click here to pay through our online store or give us a call us (518) 284-2729 Please click here to view or download the schedule for the 2012 Textile History Forum in PDF format. About The Textile History Forum: Historic Hyde Hall will be the setting for this year’s Textile History Forum, which will take place June 8-10. Anyone with a serious interest in textiles is encouraged to attend. The Forum is an eclectic gathering of textile enthusiasts: collectors, curators, scholars, weavers, spinners, knitters, quilters -amateurs and professionals – who get together to share current research, exchange information, tour area museums, and participate in workshops. They also enjoy networking opportunities and a banquet on Saturday evening, a tradition established by the Forum’s founder and director, Rabbit Goody. Goody is a textile historian and owner of Thistle Hill Weavers, a commercial mill producing accurate historic reproductions of interior furnishing textiles for museums, the film industry, designers, andhome owners.  This year’s Textile History Forum will feature presentations on Hand Loom weaving in Scotland, 1750-1825; Quilt Making during WWII; Textiles in the New Netherlands; Early Calico Production in New York State; Paisleys in Portsmouth, NH; Textile Production by African American Women on Plantations from 1750-1830; Decorated Hetchels; an original film on Cotton Fiber Art in Ecuador; a comparison of Architecture and Textile Technology; investigations of historic Mitten Patterns in New York and New England; early Spinning Mills in New York, and more.  Friday, June 8th and Saturday, June 9th are devoted to paper presentations, discussions of works in progress, textile collection tours, and workshops. Participants are encouraged to bring textiles to share and discuss. On Sunday the Forum will host an “Antiques Roadshow” style Textile I.D. day at Hyde Hall, which is open to the public and helps raise funds for the restoration of Hyde Hall. Bring your textile treasure to Hyde Hall, and for $7 the Forum’s textile experts will identify and date it. Hyde Hall, a 50-plus room stone mansion at the north end of Otsego Lake, is an outstanding representation of romantic classicism in America, one of the “two or three greatest houses in America,” according to Brendan Gill, architecture critic for the New Yorker. Designed by Philip Hooker and built by George Hyde Clarke between 1817 and 1835, Hyde Hall is a National Historic Landmark, on the National Register of Historic Places, and is a New York State Historic Site. The mansion sits inside Glimmerglass State Park, a lake front park with 42 campsites, beach, showers, boating, and picnicking facilities on Otsego Lake.Registration is $150 and includes lunch both days. There is an optional banquet on Saturday evening as well. For registration information and questions, please contact us.

2007 Textile History Forum Proceedings

The 2007 Textile History Forum Proceedings is available for $25.00 plus $2.50 shipping and handling.  We accept checks, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Please contact us to order or for more information. Contents, with a foreword by Rabbit Goody:

Upcoming Events: The Textile Forum and a Coverlet Symposium

The Textile History Forum dates are set for 2019!  Put it in your calendar: Friday, July 26, Saturday, July 27 and Sunday, July 28 at The Marshfield School of Weaving and Eaton Hill Studio, Marshfield, Vermont. This year’s Forum is a hands-on exploration of transitional technology from hand to mechanical power. Spinning, weaving and finishing technologies will all be included. Presenters Wanted: We are looking for presenters who have done research and have skills with traditional tools and process and would like to share their knowledge with others. We have acquired a few rare pieces of early technology to share including an 18th century “Slubby Billy.” Sessions will be small hands-on workshops. Its a chance to dig deep into textile process with traditional tools. We learn so much when we can actually try different methods and process to form a better understanding of the methods used in the past. Coverlet Symposium We are thinking of holding another Coverlet Symposium here at Thistle Hill Weavers and Hyde Hall in late May or early June, but first I would like to find out if there is interest again in exploring historic coverlets. The symposium would allow us to view our collection and an opportunity to examine any coverlets in your collection. The possibility of adding to the data base on coverlets would be an additional goal but mostly I would like to get together with folks who want to learn more about coverlet structures, makers, and their place in material culture of rural America. Do contact me if you are interested in the Symposium. Your responses will inform us whether to move ahead or not…..