The 2025 Ann Arbor Fiber Arts Expo (AAFAX) takes place on Sunday, February 9 from 10am to 5pm at the Downtown Library!

This fiber-filled day will have a full slate of demos and presentations, with a lobby full of local vendors. This year we're focusing on the history and origin of a variety of fiber arts. Drop-in for a sampling of fiber arts projects and hands-on quilting, spinning, and weaving activities.

Vendors will be on hand selling accessories, patterns, books, dyes, and all things fiber related!

Schedule of Events:

10 AM - 5 PM: Vendors - First Floor Lobby

Stop by to chat with and buy specialty supplies from our fiber arts vendors!

11 AM - 11:45 AM: Visible Mending: Lecture by Jason Krick - Fourth Floor Meeting Room

Jason Krick presents the history, importance, and basic techniques of visible mending, focusing on the sashiko running stitch. Jason will demonstrate how to get started with a project but this is not a hands-on workshop.

12:15 PM - 1 PM: From Flaxseed to Fiber with the Michigan Fibershed Project - Fourth Floor Meeting Room

The Michigan Fibershed facilitates the connections needed to build the regional supply chain around their local fibershed project. A fibershed is a geographic region, similar to a watershed or foodshed, that holds the "soil-to-soil" cycle linking all the components of regional fiber production—from raw material production (plant and animal fiber), processing, natural dying, spinning, weaving, garment making, and eventually composting back to soil. They'll talk about the Michigan Fibershed and their regional Flax-to-Linen community grow project in Ann Arbor, as well as demo flax processing.

1 PM - 4 PM: Drop-In Open Crafting - Secret Lab

Join us for drop-in crafting as we offer a sampling of fiber arts: straw loom weaving, stitched postcards, and pom poms.

1 PM - 4 PM: Hands-On Demos - Multi-Purpose Room

Try your hand at spinning on a wheel with a local spinner, working on a quilt square and machine sewing with the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild, and weaving on our giant floor loom.

2 PM - 2:45 PM: The History of Color: Lecture by Megan Croft - Fourth Floor Meeting Room

Meg Croft, a fiber historian and owner of Woven Art Yarn Shop, traces a delightful history of color through the ages. She looks at historical dyeing processes, how natural dyes like Tyrian purple and cochineal have influenced society, and the role that color has played in our lives from flags to fashion.

3 PM - 3:45 PM: Lines to Design: Lecture by Debbie Grifka - Fourth Floor Meeting Room

Join Ann Arbor textile artist Debbie Grifka on her journey as we follow her (not always straight) path from new quilter to modern quilter to quilt designer and author and to her current life as a textile artist! The presentation includes a slideshow and actual quilts.