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Q & A with Leslie Fesperman

Leslie Fesperman is the Director of the Yadkin Valley Fiber Center (YVFC) located within the Foothills Arts Center (FAC) in Elkin.

To learn more about the courses offered at the Yadkin Valley Fiber Center, click here. For additional information about the Tapestry Weavers South Guild, click here.

Tapestry Weavers South (est. 1996) is an organization dedicated to advancing the art and craft of tapestry weaving. Membership is open to anyone interested in tapestry weaving.

Leslie, how did you become involved with the Tapestry Weavers South Guild?

I admire all types of weaving including tapestry, and reached out to the Tapestry Weavers South Guild in 2016 to inquire about how we could work together to promote tapestry weaving. That inquiry has led to the YVFC hosting the annual retreat and the yearly exhibit New Works by Tapestry Weavers South every year. I serve as exhibit chair.

Do you have any goals for the future of tapestry weaving at the Yadkin Valley Fiber Center? Will we (YVFC/FAC) have the privilege of hosting the show again?

The YVFC and FAC are scheduled to host this exhibit every summer for the foreseeable future. We do not jury the show and it is open to all current members.

Is there anything else we should know about Tapestry Weavers South?

The YVFC also hosts the annual retreat for TWS on the first weekend in June coinciding with the opening. We try to offer a beginning and advanced class before and after the retreat each year.

Tapestry Weaving as a Meditation: Betty Hilton-Nash

Betty Hilton-Nash is a visiting instructor for the Yadkin Valley Fiber Center. To sign up for her course in Beginning Tapestry offered on November 7, click here. Registration closes November 1

As the world locked down from the Covid pandemic in the spring of 2020, I needed an outlet for the anxiety I was feeling in the face of an uncertain future.

The second piece I completed in 2020 was “Covid-Masks.” I had been a professional seamstress for 15 years, so naturally, I started sewing masks for friends, neighbors, and eventually selling masks and donating some of the proceeds to local programs that were feeding people in need. “Covid-Masks” was simply a representation of some of the fabrics I had been using in my mask making.

I added the echinacea flowers to represent health and healing energy. Once again, tapestry weaving had helped me cope with all that was happening.