Cindy Kennelly has always loved art as well as soft things. So it just seems natural that she combines these two passions in her felting artwork. Felting is the process of creating items out of sheep wool using a variety of processes. Kennelly uses sheep wool in everything she creates. In addition to wool, she loves working with silks, fabrics, and yarn and adds those fibers into her work.
Kennelly has most recently been featured at Gallery Twist (Lexington, MA), TAG, the Art Gallery, in the artist’s district in Boston, MA, Artisan’s (New London, NH), Pearce Museum (Dublin, Ireland), Creative Hub of Worcester (Worcester, MA), Mosesian Center for the Arts (Watertown, MA), LexArt (Lexington, MA), the Environmental Education Center (Basking Ridge, NJ), Old Sturbridge Village (Sturbridge, MA) and a solo show at the Gallery 01760 (Natick, MA).
See more at www.cindykennelly.com
Ella Zhou is a student at Walnut Hill School for the Arts. Born in Hangzhou, China, she currently lives in Los Angeles. Her artistic practice focuses on the human figure and the layered beauty of femininity. Through her work, Ella invites viewers into an intimate dialogue between strength, vulnerability, and transformation. She has explored a wide range of media, continually pushing the boundaries of her expression. Her current piece, a blue dress on display, combines painting with apparel design. The patterns adorning the blue dress are hand-painted.
The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is dedicated to providing inspiration, fellowship, and support to quilters of all skill levels and types. We are a chapter of the National Modern Quilt Guild.
The BMQG was formed in 2010 by quilters from around the Boston and MetroWest area seeking other like-minded quilters interested in the emerging “modern” quilting movement. Fifteen years later, the guild continues to foster the ideas that modern quilting has championed including: use of bold or high-contrast colors, graphic design, improvisational piecing, minimalism, expansive negative space, alternate grid work, and adaptation of traditional quilt designs and patterns to reflect these characteristics. Members span all skill levels from novice to expert and have had their work exhibited locally and nationally in both juried and non-juried shows, magazines, journals, and books.
See more at www.bostonmqg.org
County Line Quilt Guild (CLQG) members are quilters of all levels sharing the process of creation from traditional to modern and everything in between.
The Guild focuses on learning new techniques from its members and guest presenters. Meetings highlight quilt story successes and challenges, encouragement and discovery, and appreciation of variety and individual styles. The Guild shares knowledge, resources, tips, and LOVES fabric and creating. CLQG welcomes quilters of all levels from absolute beginner to professional.
See more at www.clquilters.org
Formed in 1982 by bobbin lacemakers, the New England Lace Group promotes interest in the study, history, collection, and making of all varieties of lace, including bobbin, tatted, needle, knitted, knotted, and crochet.
NELG cherishes and makes historic and classical lace styles, as well as modern and art free-style lace designs. A NELG specialty is celebrating and researching the only American bobbin lace: Ipswich Lace. Alexander Hamilton’s papers revealed historic samples that the Group reproduces today. NELG offers public talks and demonstrations to educate, and welcomes lace enthusiasts of all kinds (history nerd, maker, scholar, or collector of historic textiles).
The NEGL holds monthly meetings on the third Saturday of each month in Sturbridge, MA and welcomes new members. The Group can also be found giving demonstrations at historic sites and fiber festivals.
ART IN ACTION: Sunday, November 16 from 2-4pm
Watch bobbin lace-making in action in the Atrium!
See more at www.nelg.us
Robin Chalfin is a Natick-based tailor who works with both private clients and in the film and television industry. Born in Peabody, Massachusetts, Robin graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with a degree in Fashion Design. After working in the Boston Ballet costume shop for over a decade, she established her high-end tailoring service, Toolkit Tailoring Studio.
In addition to her private business, Robin has worked as a Head Tailor on many films such as Knives Out, Black Mass, and Stronger. She has worked backstage for the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Green Day. Robin was awarded Best of Boston, Best Tailor in 2011. Robin lives in Natick.
The Mayflower Sampler Guild was founded in 2003 by Denise De More. Its purpose was to promote the art of sampler making, both historic and contemporary, through programs of education, the study of sampler history, and the preservation of antique needlework. The Guild is run entirely by volunteer members. The Duxbury-based Guild holds monthly meetings at 10:30 am on the second Saturday of the month, both in-person at the Duxbury Free Library and virtually.
Through designers and members, the Guild has donated over $20,000 to historical societies and museums to conserve samplers or other textiles as well as to help preserve the integrity of this fragile stitched history. Some of the recipients have been the Lynn Museum, Deerfield Historical Society; Martin House in Swansea through the NSCDA-Boston; Connecticut Historical Society; Winterthur, New Bedford Whaling Museum; Old Colonial Historical Society; Plymouth Plantation; Duxbury Historical Society and the Plymouth Antiquarian Society to name a few.
The Mayflower Sampler Guild strives to keep the craft of using a needle and thread to forge friendships and as a reminder of the women who lived before us and the work they endured.
Supporting a theme of An Embroiderer’s Toolbox, this display includes stitched items reflecting tools an embroiderer would use, such as a strawberry emery, a needle book, and a huswif.
Rebecca McGee Tuck is a fiber artist, sculptor, and a dedicated ocean activist. Her artwork serves as a visual narrative, transforming discarded materials from our throw-away society into environmentally-aware works of art. Tuck's collaborative project, Sculpture Monster: Creature from the Plasticine Era, was featured in Fiber Art Now Magazine for receiving their grant for public art in the summer of 2024. Her work has been juried in exhibitions across the northeast, including the Cape Cod Art Museum, Fitchburg Art Museum, Boston Sculptors Gallery, Viridian Artists Gallery in New York City, and the St. Botolph Club in Boston.
Tuck has held artist residencies at the New Bedford Whaling National Historical National Park, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and the DNA Residency in Provincetown, MA. Her series, “Along the Wrack Line,” addresses the pressing issue of debris and plastic pollution on New England beaches, highlighting the environmental challenges faced by our coastal regions. Tuck is a member of the Natick Art Association and an MFA Candidate at Clark University.
See more at www.rebeccamcgeetuck.com
Stephanie Oddleifson learned to weave at a summer camp in Maine when she was 12 years old. She fell in love with the kaleidoscope of colored yarn, the fragrance of the wool, the rhythmic clack-clack of the floor looms, and most of all, the miraculous wonder of making cloth out of yarn. Oddleifson bought her first floor loom when she moved to Boston in 1986, and began weaving in earnest.
In addition to weaving scarves, blankets, tea towels, and table textiles, Oddleifson specializes in designing handwoven liturgical textiles, including pulpit hangings and stoles for ministers. She taught weaving at the same summer camp where she learned the craft, and now teaches weaving classes at the Natick Community Senior Center.
Oddleifson is a member of the Weavers Guild of Boston, the Handweavers Guild of America, the Natick Art Association, and has exhibited at the New England Weavers Seminar.
ART IN ACTION: Wednesday, November 5 from 2-4pm AND Wednesday, December 10 from 2-4pm
Weaver and fiber artist Stephanie Oddleifson sets up her loom right in the Atrium.
Cynthia Donnelly Walat is a mixed media fiber artist specializing in repurposed, discarded and found materials with an emphasis on single-use plastic.
As a native New Englander, Cynthia spent her career as a facility space planner specializing in biotech and research laboratory spaces. She recently retired from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. Her work has been shown in galleries throughout Metropolitan Boston since 2021.
The Waste We Create is a total of 164 square feet of painted, layered, stitched, cut and woven plastics. All together they are 20.11 pounds of non-recyclable post-consumer waste that has been diverted from the landfill. This took ten months to create with plastic generated by one, two-person family. Items incorporated into this work range from a lobster flotation device, nylon vegetable bags, plastic straws, mailing envelopes, bread bags, and bags of frozen vegetables.
See more at cynthiadonnellywalat.com
The Morse Institute Library (MIL) Stitchers is a diverse group of knitters and crocheters whose main focus is service to others. Since 2013, MIL Stitchers have knitted, crocheted, loomed, and donated hundreds of handcrafted items to local organizations.
In honor of the 2025 Fiber Art Exhibit, the Stitchers have crafted 51 scarves of many colors, shapes, and sizes. At the Exhibit's conclusion, the scarves will be donated to local organizations to provide comfort and warmth this winter.
MIL Stitchers is open to all, beginners and pros. Meetings are held at the Library the first Saturday morning of the month.
The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center (DEVCOM Soldier Center) is a team of world-class scientists, engineers, analysts, technicians, and support staff who are fully focused on empowering America’s Soldiers today and in the future. Natick Labs leverages cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum effects, autonomy, robotics, advanced energetics, and synthetic biology to give soldiers the ability to see, sense, decide, and act faster than adversaries.
Known locally as Natick Labs, DEVCOM Soldier Center has been working on all types of textiles, fibers, and fabrics for the Army and other services since 1954. Examples of materials developed and tested/evaluated by Soldier Center include all types of Army uniforms from physical fitness to combat uniforms to dress uniforms to personal protective equipment including body armor, chem/bio protective suits and flame-resistant uniforms. The Soldier Center also develops personnel and cargo parachute systems, tents and shelters, high performance fibers, flexible photovoltaics, and e-textiles.
This exhibit features the evolution of Army combat uniforms from 1954 (when the installation opened) to the present.
See more at army.mil/natick
Interested in exhibiting at the Morse Institute Library?
HOURS
Mon-Thurs:
9am - 9pm
Friday:
9am - 6pm
Saturday:
9am - 5pm
Sunday:
1pm - 5pm
LOCATION
14 E. Central Street
Natick, MA
01760