Dallas Area Fiber Artists

Dedicated to Advancing Awareness & Education of the Fiber Arts

Dallas Area Fiber Artists is a nonprofit organization with members who promote fiber art through education, workshops and exhibitions.

Our Mission

The purpose of Dallas Area Fiber Artists is to:
  • Promote and advance fiber art through the education of its members and the public with the help of exhibitions, workshops, wearable art–style shows and educational activities.
  • Promote mutual understanding and cooperation in artistic endeavor among fiber art organizations.
  • Promote mutual understanding and cooperation in artistic endeavor among art organizations in Dallas–Fort Worth.
Art by member and president Lu Peters.

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Board of Directors Biographies

Lisa Covert Head Shot
Lu Peters, President
Lu Peters is an art quilter, wearable artist, and mixed-media fiber artist whose work has been exhibited in galleries and juried local and national shows and published in several art quilting publications. She has curated and juried fiber art and mixed media art shows in Dallas, Keller, Tyler, and Austin Texas.

Lu is passionate about encouraging the global community of fiber artists through communication and education and maintains a comprehensive website, www.lupeters.com, an extensive resource site for fiber artists. Additionally, she is an avid fan and contributor to ExploreFiber.com and is a committed volunteer for DAFA and the Quilter’s Guild of Dallas.
Cyndi Watson Head Shot
Cyndi Watson, Vice President
Cyndi is a mixed media art quilter who incorporates her hand dyed and painted fabrics into her original fiber designs, and also pursues oil, acrylic, and encaustic painting. As an invited artist in the Plano Art Association CONTEXTURE : Fiber and Fabric invitational fiber show in 2015, she discovered DAFA and is now our VP of Fund Raising.

She also brings her administrative and leadership experience to our Board of Directors as a lawyer who specializes in business/corporate law, estate planning, probate and guardianship and as an active volunteer in the Prestonwood Rotary Club, and Quilters Guild of Dallas.

Cyndi loves to travel, enjoys the outdoors, and collecting fiber art treasures!
Carrie Noess Head Shot
April Soncrant, Secretary
April Soncrant is a mixed media fiber artist who incorporates textiles, ephemera, and embellishments in her projects.  She started her artistic career with acrylic painting.

Her abstract acrylics were featured in a two-woman show.  Her paintings hang in private, local area businesses.  Her fiber work is in private collections and has been included in juried shows.

Her current textile paintings are a Garden Series, using re-purposed silk to applique fantasy floral scenes onto hand-dyed backgrounds, then embellishing them with sequins, beads, and other sew-ons.

April served on the board of directors for The Visual Arts Guild of Frisco and was a representative to the Frisco Association of the Arts.  For three years she served as a judge for the annual Frisco art competition, junior and senior high school divisions.  She has held a number of offices with the Dallas Area Fiber Artists and is currently the Secretary. 

Diana Pease Head Shot
Carrie Noess, Treasurer
I am a craftsman. I am an embroiderer who enjoys the rhythmic process of stitching. To relax I enjoy cross stitching monochromatic alphabets.   

My interest in embroidery grew out of my love of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Inspiration for my original work includes the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau movements, Charles Rennie Macintosh, William Morris, May Morris, Water Crane, and Frank Lloyd Wright. I hold a Certificate in Hand Embroidery from the Royal School of Needlework. Currently studying (stitching) historic samplers and embroidered caskets.

I embroider: blackwork, shaded blackwork, whitework: pulled thread, drawn thread, hardanger, broider anglaise, richelieu and trailing stiches, needlepoint, goldwork, Jacobean crewelwork, surface embroidery, needlelace, stumpwork, silk shading, tapestry shading, and samplers (cross stich and specialty stitches).
Traci Hutton Head Shot
Lila Warman, Membership Director
Lila is a self-made crafter.  She has never seen a craft she didn’t want to try. She has worked with embrodery and cross-stitching since she was a little girl. She enjoys sewing and made a lot of her daughters’ clothes when they were little.

Recently Lila has discovered the art of card making. Lila made felted Calla Lilies for a wedding along with other fun items. She has shared the love of crafting with the Girl Scout troops and day camps she led over 20 years. Lila was the Activity Coordinator for Newcomer Friends of Greater Plano in 2015. She also led a group called Handmade By Me 2016-2018.

April Soncrant Head Shot
Kathi Jahnke, Programs Director
Kathi is a mixed media fiber artist who enjoys creating art quilts based on digital manipulation of her photography. She is an artist member of SAQA and has contributed several works to their trunk shows and traveling exhibitions.  Her work has also been featured in Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines.

Prior to moving to Texas in 2017, Kathi lived in Westchester County, New York where she was a member of Fiber Art Northeast and participated in numerous group exhibitions. Thrilled to have found a new creative home with DAFA, Kathi brings ten years of experience developing and directing visual arts programs including launching Art at Concordia and serving as the Director of OSilas Gallery at Concordia College in Bronxville, New York.
Carrie Noess Head Shot

Adriana "Andie" Comini, Exhibits Director


"Slow down! Stop the car!"


These are often the words of Andie Comini as she keeps her eyes peeled for any item on the curb she might be able to incorporate into an art piece.

Andie's journey to becoming a mixed media fiber artist began with stained glass and mosaic work.  Her love of color and texture soon had her combining these elements with paper, fabric, metal, plastic, and foam along with found objects. Her art studio is filled with all kinds of materials just waiting to be brought together in a piquant or poignant piece.  Her goal is to incorporate items into something that will spark people’s imagination and produce a smile!

Andie, an active member of the Dallas Area Fiber Artists and both the Dallas and Bonham Creative Arts Centers, continues to be an enthusiastic participant in numerous art and gallery shows.

Diana Pease Head Shot

Linda Bonner, Mini Workshop Director


Linda considers herself a creative soul and enjoys working on a variety of fiber and mixed media art, sewing and writing. She is the Events Manager at the Heard-Craig Center for the Arts in McKinney, TX.

She has had several sewing businesses including Kover’s For Kids, hooded towels for children, Peacock Pouches, zippered and drawstring pouches and is currently co-owner with her sister, Diane, of Inspired Things Studio. They design and create clothing and accessories for women, children and bridal.

Linda was introduced to Art-O-Mat in 2018 when the Heard-Craig Center received one of the art-vending machines. Since then, she has created 1,000’s of miniature artwork pieces with a focus on fiber and mixed media as an Art-O-Mat artist. She has 5 active art products with Art-O-Mat and her artwork has been shipped all over the world. She also owns Linda Bonner Studios and makes custom handcrafted cards for all occasions.

She is the author of Waiting on the Sunrise: Hope and Encouragement for Families and Their Children with Disabilities. In it she shares her hopeful journey to help make life the best it can be for families with loved ones with disabilities.

Carrie Noess Head Shot
Open, Community Service Director
Carrie Noess Head Shot
Open, Communications Director
Carrie Noess Head Shot
Open, Historian

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Download 2020 DAFA Amended and Restated Bylaws Here

Download 2020 DAFA Amended and Restated Bylaws

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Our History

Dallas Area Fiber Artists was founded in 1970 after several Dallas embroiderers took a stitchery class taught by Mary Heikman. Mary was a Houston art teacher who was instrumental in forming the Houston Area Fiber Artists (HAFA) group. We were initially named “Creative Stitchers” but soon became known as the Dallas Fiber Artists, which reflected the members’ eclectic and accomplished range of fiber interests.

After San Antonio artists formed a fiber art group, known as the San Antonio Fiber Artists (SAFA), the Texas Federation of Fiber Artists was established to include all three groups. This Federation held its first exhibition in Dallas in 1972 and began holding conferences in alternating chapter’s cities. These conferences included a juried show, a variety of fiber technique classes, and many social gatherings that fostered the exchange of ideas and community.
Our first annual show was displayed at the Town East Mall and was juried by Susan Brown. Over the past 30 years, we have held exhibitions in galleries, libraries, banks, NorthPark Mall, Lovers Lane Methodist Church, Irving Arts Center and are currently hosted by The Point Center for Arts and Education at C.C. Young Retirement Center. We are also grateful to the support of C.C. Young for providing us a monthly meeting place for several decades.

Our multi-talented members are committed to our mission of educating the public, especially young aspiring artists, about fiber art.  We have provided scholarships to UNT Fibers Program graduates, high school and elementary fiber classes, Dress A Girl Around the World, Alzheimer’s Disease research funding. Currently, we are focused on Priority: Fiber Art Education, a project to provide classes and supplies to middle and high school teachers funded by auctioning fiber art online.

We celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2020.

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Meetings

In keeping with our aim to promote and advance fiber art through the education of our members and the public, Dallas Area Fiber Artists offers various programs through monthly meetings, play days and workshops. Non-members are welcome to attend.


With a few exceptions, Dallas Area Fiber Artists meets the 2nd Saturday of each month at 10:40 a.m. , with a pre-meeting mini-workshop at 10:00 a.m .


UPDATE:  DAFA events are usually held as hybrid meetings (in-person, simulcast on Zoom).


Meeting location

The Point Center for Arts and Education

Campus of CC Young Retirement Community

4847 W. Lawther Dr.

Dallas, TX 75214

Ride Share Program

Some of our members are no longer able to drive. If you can give a member a ride to our meetings, please let us know. We appreciate your support.


We look forward to hearing from you: website@dallasfiberartists.org
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