Potomac Fiber Arts Guild

Saturday’s guild meeting promises to be filled with a lot of fun and some amazing presentations – and a Stay and Stitch! We have lots of announcements to share and we’ll hear from our Engagement team about the Handwork 2026 initiative/exhibit followed by a presentation from the Dye Study Group.
And then our headliners, Kyrie Garretson and Marina Welch, will share their presentation about “Weaving with Maximo Laura in Peru”. These images are Kyrie's and Marina’s weavings and we are in for a real treat with this presentation!
Kyrie and Marina will share their experiences with both the Level 1 and Level 2 Maximo Laura workshops in Peru. The Level 1 workshop takes place in Yucay, 8,000 feet high in the Sacred Valley and the Level 2 workshop in the vibrant Miraflores district of Lima.
Kyrie Garretson has a BFA in painting from Maryland Institute. For many years, her primary textile involvement was in knitting and spinning, but in 2016, she lucked into a Baby Wolf loom and started weaving. Weaving left all the other disciplines far behind! She joined PFAG several years ago. Kyrie shows regularly and won the Complex Weavers award at MAFA in 2023. She has studied with many excellent weavers, most recently taking a Second Level Tapestry Workshop with Maximo Laura in Peru.
Marina Welch is a member of Pinellas Weavers Guild. She became interested in tapestry weaving just before COVID closed down the world so she learned through online courses. Her interest was mostly in small format pieces, which suited both her lifestyle and her available space. In 2023 two opportunities for in person tapestry classes presented themselves. First was a workshop by Elizabeth Buckley titled Hachures in Contemporary Tapestry and then, later in the year, a tapestry weaving workshop with Maximo Laura in Yucay, Peru. In March of this year, she was able to return to Peru for a Level 2 tapestry workshop with Maximo and his team. Marina has also done a bit of weaving on a rigid heddle loom and on an inkle loom.
Continued in comments!

If you missed it today, you can go tomorrow to the Open Studio event at
A photo to remind you to enter from the back of the building.
Some teaser photos of items on display made by some of the felt artists in our guild. can tell you what classes featured which techniques and the artists' names are on the items.
Full disclosure, I had a wonderful time chatting with several fiber arts who have studios and are also members of the guild.
This is also a great way to get a bit ahead for Mother's Day (or any day) shopping!
The event continues Sunday from 10am-5pm.

Tomorrow’s guild meeting is going to be a great one! We have quite a few guild updates to share and you won’t want to miss the Group G Weavers study group presentation!

We know you’ll really enjoy our feature presentation - Harvesting Local Hues: Unveiling the Chesapeake Fibershed’s Journey in Revitalizing Our Textile Heritage.

In an effort to explore the rich palette of our region, Lisa Check and Kerstin Zurbrigg launched a local dye project focused on discovering which dye plants can be foraged or cultivated in the Chesapeake area. Each month, they selected a different plant to study, approaching the work with a scientific mindset—testing variables and producing 15–20 dye samples per plant. These beautifully documented results were compiled into a local dyebook that highlights the colors, processes, and potential of regional dyes. In this presentation, Lisa and Kerstin will share their journey, the plants they’ve explored so far, and the vibrant, hand-crafted books that showcase their findings.

Meeting location: St. James Episcopal Church, 11815 Seven Locks Rd, Potomac, MD 20854
9:30 am - Library opens
10:00 - Business meeting
10:30 - Program

For more info, please send a DM to this account or check the links in our bio!