Textile Arts Council
In support of the Textile Department
of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
We are a support group of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco with the goal of advancing the appreciation of the Museums' textile and costume collections.
A Bay Area forum that provides lecturers, workshops, events and travel opportunities for artists, designers, aficionados and collectors of ethnic textiles, rugs, tapestries, Western costume, and contemporary fiber art.
All Power To The People
(after Man with Afro, San Francisco, California by Leon A. Borensztein, 1984)
2023 Bisa Butler
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
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Calendar
Lectures, Tours and Workshops
Tour
Saturday, May 17th, 2025
Explore the Intimate Details of Corset Making
Autumn Adamme's Tour of
DARK Garden Corsetry Store and Workroom
​By Autumn Adamme​
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Saturday, May 17th, 2025
10:00am PST
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Dark Garden (321 Linden St., San Francisco)
Fee: $30 Members or $35 Non-members
(Maximum 12 participants)​
Join us for an insider’s look at the lavish and saucy corsets Autumn Adamme creates for her Hayes Valley boutique DARK Garden store.
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The tour begins in the colorful retail space with a brief history and introduction to modern corsetry, followed by a look behind the curtain into the sewing studio where corsets are made to order.
This is a unique opportunity to peek into the creative process of corsetry in one of San Francisco’s finest bespoke studios.
Lecture
Saturday, May 24th, 2025
How to Use a Quilt with Joe Cunningham
After a lifetime of study in quilt history and technique, Cunningham has developed his own unique style of quilts as art.
Saturday, May 24th, 2025, 10:00am PDT
Via Zoom
This is an online event only. TAC members do not need to purchase a ticket. A Zoom link will be emailed to you before the event. A recording will be available for 14 days following the talk for TAC members and ticket holders.
Because of the great amount of labor they required, along with their significant use of once precious materials, quilts once represented luxury goods for the upper classes in Europe.
There were professional quilters and tailors to make them for those who could afford such rich home furnishings.
When they started to become fashionable in North America late in the 18th century, quilts were at first only for the wealthy, but quiltmaking soon came to represent a significant part of American folk culture.
Women developed thousands of new patterns and many new techniques to make quilts that could show love for the recipient, patriotism, political dissent, artistic creativity, and other impulses as well as memorializing public or private events.
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Please see the green link above to continue reading.​
The Patch Forward, 2023, 72 x 72
By Joe Cunningham, Photo by Henrik Kam
Workshop
Saturday, May 31st, 2025
Hand Quilting Party with Joe Cunningham
Join us at Joe's studio in San Francisco for 6 hours of instruction around an old fashioned frame.
The studio is located in the Lower Haight/Mission district area of San Francisco. Joe will teach a basic hand quilting stitch for large or small stitches. He will demonstrate how to make several simple designs, such as leaves and flowers, pinwheels and stars. At the end of the day students will be able to quilt by hand in a hoop, a frame or even loose in the lap.
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Students will learn how to use a thimble for:
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1. A stab stitch for ultimate ease of quilting
2. A rocking stitch for small or big stitches
3. How to quilt in all directions
4. How to start and stop without knots
5. How to create simple or complex patterns freehand, with no markings
Joe will provide all materials, needle, thread, quilt sandwich, thimble and scissors.
For beginning to intermediate quilters.
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Joe Cunningham has been a professional quiltmaker, author, lecturer and teacher since 1979. His quilts hang in major museums and many private collections. He has written or contributed to a dozen books, appeared widely on TV and internet shows, and has produced his long running Quilt Freedom Workshop from his gallery and studio in San Francisco.
After a lifetime of study in quilt history and technique, Cunningham has developed his own unique style of quilts as art.
Lecture
Saturday, June 28th, 2025
‘Este Dechado’
The Making and Meaning of Mexican Samplers
In this richly illustrated presentation Dr. Lynne Anderson will provide an overview of girlhood samplers made in Mexico across time.
Saturday, June 28th, 2025, 10:00am PDT
In Person and Via Zoom
Koret Auditorium, DeYoung Museum
This is a free in-person lecture for all. The lecture will also be streamed and recorded over Zoom for which you can purchase a ticket. A Zoom link will be emailed to all ticket holders before the event begins.
TAC members do not need to purchase a Zoom ticket. A Zoom link will be emailed to you before the event. A recording will be emailed out and available to watch for 14 days following the talk, for TAC members and ticket holders.
Mexican sampler made by Anacleta Galves in 1869. Collection of Lynne Anderson. Image courtesy of the owner.
“Este dechado” means “this sampler.” It is a phrase often found stitched on the schoolgirl samplers of girls and young women living in Mexico. With these words, the young sampler makers ask us to pay attention to their work - look carefully, interpret the meaning, understand the process, and appreciate their accomplishments.
In Mexico, as in all western European countries and their colonies, needlework was an extremely important part of female education – all girls were taught to sew and most were expected to demonstrate their embroidery skills by creating a sampler.
In the 18th- and early 19th-centuries, elaborate dechados made from sumptuous material by daughters of Mexico’s elite socio-economic classes were viewed as testaments to the girls’ religious virtue and a culmination of their needlework instruction.
As the Mexican government assumed more responsibility for the education of its citizens, the making of dechados became more widespread and the importance of fancy needlework gradually changed.
Mexican sampler made by Doña Maria Dolores Palma y Montero in 1826 under the instruction of Doña Josepha Garibai. Private collection. Image courtesy of M. Finkel & Daughter.
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In this richly illustrated presentation Dr. Anderson will provide an overview of girlhood samplers made in Mexico across time – the materials, formats, needlework techniques, instructional sequence, and possible meanings underlying some of Mexico’s distinctive motifs.
In addition, she will introduce a few of the girls who embroidered Mexican samplers; provide insight into the educational options available in urban and rural areas; and discuss the impact of an increasingly secular educational system on the production and appearance of Mexican schoolgirl needlework.
Using images of Mexican dechados from her own collection, as well as collections in Mexico and the United States, Dr. Anderson will present a curated view of Mexican schoolgirl samplers – their making and their meaning.
In Person Premiere
Saturday, June 28th, 2025
Bay Area Fiber Artists Video Premiere
TAC will host the premiere of its newest Bay Area Fiber Artists video, featuring Ana Lisa Hedstrom & Judith Content.
Saturday, June 28th, 2025, 12:00pm - 3:00pm
Attendance is free and open to all.
In person
Kimball Gallery
de Young Museum
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA
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The Textile Arts Council invites you to the premiere of our newest Bay Area Fiber Artists video,
“Ana Lisa Hedstrom & Judith Content: Continuum in Cloth/
Approaches to Contemporary Shibori”
Since 2021 TAC has been producing short videos about exceptional Northern California fiber artists. This is the fourth video in the series. The first three, on artists Alice Beasley, Kay Sekimachi, Jean Cacicedo, and Janet Lipkin, will also be shown. For further reference, they can be viewed on the Textile Arts Council YouTube channel.
After the video showings, meet Ana Lisa and Judith, as well as our other Fiber Archive Artists, with Lucy Arai representing Kay Sekimachi.
We hope that you can join us to celebrate these master craftswomen.
To add to the festivities, we invite you to wear your most fabulous art wear ensemble.
Attendance is free and open to all.
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