Events 2026–
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October Guild Meeting: From Maker to Market
How do you turn creative work into a thriving livelihood? Our “From Maker to Market” panel will bring together artists and entrepreneurs at different stages of their journeys to share their experiences, challenges, and lessons learned.
Co-Creating With Nature: Leaf Embroidery Retreat In The Garden
Spend a creative day outdoors with Kathy Leader in this intimate one-day retreat combining nature, mindfulness, and fiber art. Participants will gather fallen leaves, learn simple embroidery stitches, and transform each leaf into a unique piece of art to take home framed.
Embroidered Brooch at Explore Ecology
Learn simple embroidery stitches to make a small-scale scene to frame in a wooden brooch! This beginner-friendly workshop will introduce you to techniques you can use in your own creations, and you’ll take home an embroidery hoop and thread to sew your next project. All tools and materials are provided.
September Guild Meeting: Dye Day Sharing
For our meeting in September, bring your dye day results to share! Our president, Tim Cardy, will also share a report of his experience at this year's HGA Convergence in New Orleans. Tim will also lead a mini project to decorate personalized name tags that we can each bring with us to future guild meetings.
Sew a Catchall at Explore Ecology
Sew a stylish and useful catchall! Choose fabrics from our vibrant collection and come away with two handy pieces to store your phone, keys, wallet, and other essentials. This is the perfect project for people just beginning to sew.
25th Annual Santa Barbara Studio Artists Open Studios Tour
The 25th Annual Santa Barbara Studio Artists Open Studios Tour returns Labor Day weekend, September 5–7, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This self-guided tour invites visitors into the studios of local artists throughout the Santa Barbara area.
Family Workshop with “Remixed” Exhibition Artist Basil Kincaid
Join artist Basil Kincaid for a hands-on family workshop at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art inspired by A Day at Victoria Glades (2021), a quilted work. families will create their own collages. This workshop is designed for children and their caregivers to create art together. Ages 7-12.
Dye Day 2026
We gather in Tucker’s Grove for our annual celebration and joint experimentation into botanical dyes. This year, we will have pots of indigo, cochineal, mushroom, logwood, and weld.
Weaving Workshop with Barbara Shapiro in her San Francisco Studio
In July, there were three of us that were fortunate enough to make the trip from Santa Barbara to Barbara Shapiro’s San Francisco studio to experience her two-day basketry workshop immersed in her “inner sanctum” of fiber art. This workshop was a chance to learn and explore the hexagonal weaving technique from someone who has studied basketry in Japan and learned from master weavers.
Felt Again! Let’s make a bag!
Valerie McLean invites us Saturday, July 18th to Felt Again! Let’s make a bag! In this full-day workshop, you’ll learn fiber layout, resist techniques, cord making, and how to add inside or outside pockets.
July Guild Meeting: Ellin Klor
In July, we welcome Ellin Klor, a board member of the Textile Arts Council of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and producer of the Bay Area Fiber Artists Archive Video series.
New Sewing Classes at SBCC
This fall, sewing classes at SBCC return to the Wake Center, where the sewing room has been renovated with all new equipment. The curriculum has changed, too. More classes have been added, daytime and evenings, with simpler registration.
June Guild Meeting: Melissa Leventon
We are excited to welcome Melissa Leventon, founding partner of Curatrix Group and a specialist in European and American costume and textiles.
CNCH 2026 Handweavers Conference
With 13 instructors who will inspire you to pitch yourself, arms wide open, further into the fantastic world of fiber. Join them at CNCH 2026, May 14 – 17, at Asilomar Conference Grounds.
Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta
Treat yourself, your family and friends to a day of Fiber Fun. Our quality vendors will be returning to fill your fiber stash wishes. We will have sheep shearing demonstrations, fiber related classes and short make and take activities.
May Guild Meeting: Julia Ford
We’re pleased to welcome Julia Ford, local fiber artist and educator. Known for her innovative and expressive woven work, Julia explores weaving as a dynamic art form. She will share her work along with her methodology and approach to teaching weaving.
Lecture: Film, Fabric, and the Feminist Imagination
In her lecture Film, Fabric, and the Feminist Imagination at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art artist Sabrina Gschwandtner examines the intersections of film, textiles, and feminist histories in her moving-image practice.
Arizona Fiber Arts Festival
Guild member Deborah Jarchow will teach a seminar on joining handwoven panels and a two-day double-heddle workshop for expanding rigid-heddle skills.
HGA Small Expressions Call for Entry
The Handweavers Guild of America (HGA) invites fiber artists to submit work for Small Expressions 2026, a nationally juried exhibition celebrating innovative fiber work at an intimate scale. Deadline: April 6, 2026.
Obscure Noteriety Exhibition at OCCCA
Guild member Becca Licha is included in the Obscure Noteriety exhibition at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art from April 4 to April 25, 2026.
April Guild Meeting: Barbara Shapiro
We’re thrilled to welcome San Francisco textile artist Barbara Shapiro for our April 4th Guild meeting, sharing a remarkable body of work spanning five decades.
Wearable Art 2026 at the Los Angeles Makery
The Los Angeles Makery has an exhibit titled “Wearable Art 2026” which runs from April 2 to May 24.
Opening reception is on April 12 from 1 to 4 pm.
Postcard Play: Felt Collage
Join Remixed exhibition artist Michael Thorpe at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to create a felt collage on SBMA collection postcards. Drop in format. One beer included to sip along with the artist as you create.
SBMA Spring Exhibitions Opening Celebration
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art cordially invites you to the celebratory reception for three upcoming exhibitions: As if in a Dream: History, Fantasy, Future; Remixed: Entwined Histories and New Forms; and RANDOM-ACCESS MEMORY: Internet Art.
Explore Ecology Community Dye Bath
Get ready for natural dyeing fun at the Explore Ecology Community Natural Dye Bath. Bring an item from home that needs a new burst of color and experience the magic of natural dyeing. The cost is $5 per item.
Love Knot Hate Knit-In (in Celebration of International Women's Day)
Bring your current knitting, crochet, or stitchery project and your folding chair. Help knit together a community for greater resilience in dark times. PLEASE JOIN US! THIS IS PART OF A NATIONWIDE KNIT-IN EVENT.
March Guild Meeting: Triumphs & Challenges with Jean Morrison Phillips
We will once again rely on input from our community of fiber enthusiasts and learn from one another together find new ways forward. Collectively we will celebrate our accomplishments and also sort through solutions to problems that have presented themselves in our work.
Remixed: Entwined Histories & New Forms
Remixing transforms the familiar into something new. In the recording studio, music producers layer tracks, shift tempos, and sample old melodies, creating fresh soundscapes with the echoes of the past. Remixed: Entwined Histories and New Forms at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art explores this sonic alchemy as a conceptual, visual strategy in art that “remixes” both physical objects and immaterial legacies.
Swings and Roundabouts - Following the Thread - the work of Julia Ford, Fiber Artist
Swings and Roundabouts - Following the Thread
The work of Julia Ford, Fiber Artist
The SBCC Art Department is pleased to present the ethereal beauty of Julia Ford’s extensive body of woven work. The show features her UCSB and SBCC student explorations.
Sashiko Workshops through the Coastal Quilters Guild
Guild member Nancy Butterfield will be teaching two workshops for the Coastal Quilters Guild on February 14 and February 21—Sashiko Stitching and Japanese Rice Bag (Komebukuro)—offered together as a two-for-one opportunity.
Explore Ecology Intro to Embroidery
Learn the art of embroidery in this beginner-friendly workshop focused on creativity and sustainability! Learn how to transform simple materials into a beautiful, textured piece of art.