SEAMSIDE: Exploring the Inner Work of Textiles cover logo

HOW TO DANCE IN A QUILT with performance-quilter Leslie Rogers

1h 5m · SEAMSIDE: Exploring the Inner Work of Textiles · 22 Feb 12:48

Leslie Rogers is an unpinnable butterfly of a human. Her creative practice flits from quilts to performance to garment-making to puppetry. She’s a deeply thoughtful artist whose often whimsical or jarring pieces are underpinned by hours of historical research. Leslie and I met at Penland, and if her name sounds familiar, it’s because she came up in my conversation recently with Paolo Arao. That episode, HOW TO BRING IT ALL TOGETHER is a treat in and of itself and I’d encourage you to give that one a listen too.

In this conversation, Leslie and I discuss:
①how to set fire to quilts without burning them up
② how to make quilts float on water, the old-fashioned way
③ the nonhierarchical thingness of things

WHY LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE?
Leslie Rogers merges quilts with performance, breathing life into textiles and exploring profound historical and social narratives that create rich story-telling that often belies a whimsical appearance

SEAMSIDE EXTRAS: Get more out of this episode! Find free resources like images, reflection questions, and more, all at the website below: https://www.zakfoster.com/seamside/leslie/

HELPFUL RESOURCES
→ Join the QUILTY NOOK: A Curious (and Sometimes Feral) Online Textile Community https://nook.zakfoster.com/
→ Top Ten SEAMSIDE Episodes Guide https://gift.zakfoster.com/pzp
→ Weekly Email Goodies from Zak https://nook.zakfoster.com/newsletter/
→ Visit Zak’s website https://www.zakfoster.com/
→ Follow Zak on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/zakfoster.quilts

The episode HOW TO DANCE IN A QUILT with performance-quilter Leslie Rogers from the podcast SEAMSIDE: Exploring the Inner Work of Textiles has a duration of 1:05:51. It was first published 22 Feb 12:48. The cover art and the content belong to their respective owners.

More episodes from SEAMSIDE: Exploring the Inner Work of Textiles

BACKSTITCH with Coulter Fussell

It’s been a year since Coulter Fussell and I first chatted here on SEAMSIDE. In that conversation, we talked about the South and family history, the role of community in her work, and how she maintains hope in the face of conflict. You can find that first conversation, HOW TO WORK WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT, in your feed below in March 2023.

In this new SEAMSIDE conversation, Coulter and I reconnect and explore:

① why in the world she’s making headboards

② the traditional magic of making dolls

③ why Coulter thinks the world’s first sculpture was made by busy mothers

→ Get your free trial to the QUILTY NOOK
→ Claim your free copy of 10 THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE I STARTED QUILTING
→ See images and more at the EPISODE WEBSITE
→ Follow Zak on INSTAGRAM

BONUS Convo with Tyrrell Tapaha

In this raw and unedited conversation, we talk about Tyrrell's newest work along with three artists he thinks everyone should follow

→ Get your free trial to the QUILTY NOOK

→ Claim your free copy of 10 THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE I STARTED QUILTING

→ See images and more at the EPISODE WEBSITE

→ Follow Zak on INSTAGRAM

HOW TO TEND THE FLOCK with weaver and sheepherder Tyrrell Tapaha

Tyrrell Tapaha, a sixth-generation Diné weaver and sheepherder, will tell you there’s nothing in his work that specifically belongs to him. And while it may be true that there’s nothing new under the sun and that all artists draw from deep wells of collective experience, I can’t help but think that there is something special about Tyrrell’s work—the use of text, the collage-like shifts in weaving patterns, the subject matter—that sets his work apart.

In this SEAMSIDE conversation, Tyrrell and I discuss: ① the intrinsic differences between sheep and goats ② how his great-grandmother’s loom fits perfectly on top of his car ③ how to balance preserving tradition and forging new pathways

WHY LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE? In this conversation we explore Tyrrell’s personal and cultural experiences with weaving, with insights into how he combines a practice that’s deeply rooted in tradition while simultaneously creating new and unexpected work

→ Get your free trial to the QUILTY NOOK

→ Claim your free copy of 10 THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE I STARTED QUILTING

→ See images and more at the EPISODE WEBSITE

→ Follow Zak on INSTAGRAM

GENERATION: Eroding Foundations and Making It Right

Time continually marching forward. Each new day just piles on top of yesterday and gets buried further back in what we have come to call history.

I think there's a problem with thinking about time that way, and that's what we're exploring today on SEAMSIDE. I'm going to share with you a quilt that I made called Generation. It's part of the Southern White Amnesia, a body of work that I've pulled together in the last couple years, exploring the stories that Southern White families tell each other and the ones they don't.

In this SEAMSIDE conversation, we explore:

① what to do with treasured but unusable family quilts

② how every quilt has something to teach us

③ how time plays with quilts

→ See images and more at the EPISODE WEBSITE

FREE ADVICE with Maura Grace Ambrose

My good friend Maura Grace Ambrose joins for me for this SEAMSIDE special episode I’m calling FREE ADVICE where we answer your questions on quilting and the creative life.

In this episode, we share our thoughts on the following questions:
➞ how our quilt aesthetic has changed over time,
➞ how to learn quilting without spending a lot of money or time
➞ what to do with random experimental pieces
➞ how to help objects made from imperfect salvaged materials look their best
➞ Maura offers a fool-proof method for getting started with natural dyes
➞ do you need a quilting hoop to hand quilt?
➞ what’s it like to quilt professionally?
➞ our favorite podcasts

We’re recording this on the one-year anniversary of our first SEAMSIDE chat, HOW TO GIVE AND RECEIVE which you can find here.

→ Claim your free copy of 10 THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE I STARTED QUILTING
→ Get your free trial to the QUILTY NOOK
→ See images and more at the EPISODE WEBSITE
→ Follow Zak on INSTAGRAM

A special thanks to the folks whose questions made this conversation possible: Marie from Canada, Amy from Pittsburgh, Teresa from Losa Angeles, Sherry from Kentucky, Judy from Florida, Kara from Maine, Adelaide from the Twin Cities, and Polly from North Carolina

Every Podcast » SEAMSIDE: Exploring the Inner Work of Textiles » HOW TO DANCE IN A QUILT with performance-quilter Leslie Rogers