Newsletter 000 July 1, 2025
Welcome to the Chicago Textile Center!
Welcome to the Chicago Textile Center!
The Chicago Textile Center is a hub for learning, resource sharing, community development, and creative reuse, while honoring the traditions and history of textiles in the Chicagoland area. With the multitude of knitters, crocheters, quilters, sewists, menders, weavers, embroiderers, designers, artists, shops, community groups, and beyond, we know there is so much talent in this City. The Chicago Textile Center aims to celebrate, elevate, and collaborate with as many folks as we can!
CTC is founded by Kat Sampson and Daliah Silver, two textile artists based in Chicago. We met at a quilt class, and instantly connected over our shared nerdy jazz of fabric, sustainability, community, stitching, and learning.
I’m Kat and I am a multidisciplinary artist. I’m a self-taught sewist and my favorite thing to do with my sewing machine is make garments from thrifted materials and rework thrifted clothes to make them more ‘me’! I love learning new sewing practices and recently completed my first quilt (it ONLY took about all 60+ hours). Sustainability is really important to me, so everything I make is sourced from found textiles. I’m excited to be part of this community and meet and learn from other textile artists! Hope to see you soon at one of our upcoming events!
I’m Daliah! I am a quilter, garment sewer, knitter, banner maker, and everything in between, focusing on hand made, hand stitched, folk based art and craft. There is so much fabric already on this Earth, so I aim to only use second hand or recycled materials in my work. Climate justice and sustainability are the ethos that runs through all of my work, and I use hand stitched text throughout as reminders and challenges to make radical community change. More recently I’ve begun teaching textile classes, and nothing brings me more joy than community and connections being made over stitches, so I hope you’ll join us as we build this textile community center together!
We have a variety of ways to connect: check out (and add!) to our events page on our website, a (hopefully) one shop stop for all things textiles; subscribe (and add!) to our newsletter, a bi weekly email of artist highlights, events, demos, and other goodies; follow us (and add!) to our social media, where we will post events, but more specifically highlight and promote textile artists and spaces around the area; finally - attend an event!
We don’t have our space right now, as we take this year to really identify what this community is looking for, so check out all our pop ups across Chicago. We’ll be at parks, libraries, art centers, coffee shops, wherever we can! We’re hosting networking events, collaboration with artists, community service projects, professional development, and open stitching
Once we do have our own space, expect all of the above AND: book clubs, classes, gallery shows, community dinners, demos, a creative reuse, and more!
Finally, we’re planning something BIG for this winter, so keep your eye out for an announcement, coming soon!
The newsletter will be sent out every two weeks, on Sundays. In each newsletter you should find:
A month ahead calendar of textile events, and a highlight of events in future months, both ours and others
A spotlight or two of artists, spaces, community groups
Video demos, tender saves, book recommendations, ideas, projects we’re working on, updates on CTC, oh my!
The newsletter, events page, and calendar is based on what YOU submit - so please, if you see an event, plan an event, have a regular knitting group, are leading a textile themed book club, etc, please submit to our events page submission form and highlight and promote textile artists and spaces submission form
Happy Making,
Daliah and Kat, Chicago Textile Center
You might like…
Flan’s Glass, a stained glass studio, often has classes based on quilt squares. Check out her page, and sign up for her newsletter, as the classes sell out quick!
Chicago Botanic Garden has on display their Patterned by Nature, a stunning collection of nature textiles, including a show from our friend Kristin Field - a must see!
Right now we’re reading “Worn; A People’s History of Clothing”, and we wanted to share a particularly beautiful passage with you, on a section of silk:
The most famous Chinese star lore, mythical tales about the stars or constellations, is the story of the Weaving Maid, daughter of Heaven and the Herdboy: lovers destined only to meet one night a year. The celestial pair appear in the Shijing, the oldest collection of Chinese poetry, dating from the eleventh to seventh centuries BC, where they are figured as the two bright stars Vega and Altair. The celestial Weaving Maid is the weaver not only of silk but of the galaxy itself. In a composition on the theme of the Seventh Night, a festival celebrating the lovers observed in China since at least the Han Dynasty, the Tang poet Liu Zongyuan (AD 773-819) described the Maiden like this:
Heaven’s grandchild-
Unique adept in the Sky,
Interweaving by the Dipper
Warp and woof of starry asterisms