Woven Into Our Heritage: New Guild Brings Fiber Artists Together

Some traditions are passed from one generation to the next around a kitchen table, on a front porch or during a quiet afternoon with a grandmother.

For Tammy Love, it began when she was eight years old.

“My grandmother taught me two things,” Love recalled. “She taught me how to do a circle and a square.”

That was enough to get her started.

Love has now been crocheting for 55 years. And today, she is helping create a place where others can learn, share and celebrate those skills through the newly formed Shady Valley Quilt & Fiber Arts Guild.

Love, who serves as president of the new guild and also directs the Shady Valley Festival of Quilts, said the idea began taking shape following this year’s Festival of Quilts.

After three years of building the festival, organizers realized there were a lot more people in our area creating things with fiber — and they wanted to include them, too.

“Our natural next step was to become a guild,” Love said.

So, what exactly is a fiber artist?

Think crocheters, knitters, weavers, embroiderers and cross-stitchers, along with quilters and others who work with fiber and textiles.

Many of those skills have been passed from one generation to another for decades. They are, quite literally, woven into the culture and heritage of Appalachia.

And while we sometimes think about quilting, crochet, knitting and similar work as something our mothers and grandmothers did, Love says younger generations are picking up those skills, too.

She saw that particularly during COVID, when young people turned to YouTube and other online resources to teach themselves how to crochet.

“Now it’s just so exciting to see the new things they come up with,” she said.

That combination of preserving traditional skills while making room for a new generation of artists is a big part of what Love hopes the guild can become.

Giving fiber artists a place to be seen

One of the things that came through clearly in talking with Love is her desire to recognize fiber artists whose work doesn’t always receive the same attention as other art forms.

“Sometimes these things are unseen,” she said.

Think about a grandmother who crocheted afghans for everyone in the family, or someone who has spent years knitting, embroidering or weaving beautiful pieces. They may never have entered a competition, won a ribbon or had anyone outside their family recognize the skill involved in what they created.

Love would like to change that.

“We’re so happy to be able to expand this to the fiber arts because it’s just as important as making a quilt or making a piece of artwork — a painting,” she said.

The guild also hopes to create opportunities for people who want to learn.

Love envisions guild members sharing their own expertise, bringing in instructors and creating opportunities for both young people and adults to learn these skills.

“You’re never too old to learn,” she said.

And there are plenty of other ideas already being talked about — meet-and-greets, relationships with yarn and supply companies, highlighting the artisans who create yarn and other materials, and potentially creating additional opportunities for fiber artists to show their work.

Growing beyond the Festival of Quilts

The new guild is also becoming the organization behind the Shady Valley Festival of Quilts, which held its third event this year.

Love hopes that relationship will eventually allow the festival to grow beyond quilts and incorporate more fiber arts.

“That is the plan if we can get it together in time,” she said.

She would especially like to see crocheters and other fiber artists have more opportunities to compete for prizes and ribbons.

Love said she has never personally seen a competitive show offering money and ribbons specifically for crochet.

“I’d love in my lifetime to see that,” she said, “because I think it’s just as important as other forms of art.”

But competition isn’t really the point.

“It’s really about being able to share your joy and your love of your art with the world,” Love said.

Want to be part of it?

The Shady Valley Quilt & Fiber Arts Guild will hold its first Quilt & Fiber Artist Meet Up on Thursday, September 3, at 6:30 p.m. at Harmon Chapel Church Fellowship Hall, 1415 TN-133 in Shady Valley.

Quilters, crocheters, knitters, weavers, embroiderers and other fiber artists are invited — and you don’t have to live in Shady Valley or even Johnson County.

“We don’t care what county you’re from,” Love said. “We just want you to be in this region.”

Those attending are encouraged to bring something they’ve created.

“We can brag on them and hooray them for what they’ve created,” Love said. “It helps us to get to know one another better that way.”

The gathering will serve as an introduction to the new guild and its plans and give those interested an opportunity to become members. Membership is $10.

And if you don’t know a crochet hook from a knitting needle but have always wanted to learn, don’t count yourself out.

That’s part of the plan, too.

The Festival of Quilts has shown over the past three years that there is an interest in preserving and celebrating these traditional arts. Now the Shady Valley Quilt & Fiber Arts Guild is widening that circle — bringing more artists together, giving their work a place to be seen and creating opportunities to pass those skills along.

Just like Tammy’s grandmother did when she taught an eight-year-old little girl how to make a circle and a square.