OUR HISTORY

When he retired from his engineering job in the late 1980s, Ralph Miller already knew he wanted to spend his retirement weaving. An avid weaver, he had previously built an immaculate “loom room” and had woven all the beautiful draperies throughout his house.

Word soon got around the Sandhills craft community, and gradually other weavers in the Pinehurst, NC, area gravitated towards him. They started to meet regularly in his home and became known as The Sandhills Handweavers and finally The Sandhills Handweavers Guild.

Most of those early Guild members are no longer with us, but our venerable member, Claire, remembers that when she first met Ralph in the early ’90s, he told her how pleased he was she had joined them because, “It’s time we got some young blood around here!”

What was true then is just as true today. So, whatever your age or skill level, if there is a fiber artist buried deep inside you somewhere, join us and give expression to your latent creativity.

OUR MISSION

Our Guild’s mission is three-fold: To preserve our fiber heritage, to foster creativity in a supportive atmosphere and, finally, to encourage education both among ourselves and the general public.

OUR LOGO

It’s different! We don’t have a fiber-related picture in our header, However, the long-leaf pine is emblematic of North Carolina’s Sandhills region. It is a beautiful tree, of which there are very few stands left. Consequently, we decided to use it as our logo.

So, although it has nothing to do with fiber or fiber arts, here’s a little toast for your consideration:

Here’s to the land of the long-leaf pine.

The summer land where the sun doth shine,

Where the weak grow strong, and the strong grow great.

Here’s to “Down Home”…. The Old North State.