SEAMSIDE: Exploring the Inner Work of Textiles

Christi Johnson and I have been floating in each other’s orbits for a few years now, but you know how time passes and when I sat with her a couple weeks ago on a panel discussion, we realized it’d already been too long. Christi is a clothes-making and embroiderer with an eye constantly trained on the mysteries of the universe. She’s the author of Mystical Stitches, a book that I keep close at hand in my studio, host of the Stitchwish Radio podcast, and now a mother of a precious four-month-old human. In this conversation, we discuss: ① how raising a child is like working with fabric ② the beauty of raw silk and double gauze ③ how you can sew magic into your work

You can learn more about Christi Johnson here

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⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops

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Print-maker and weaver Nick Dornellas joins us for an episode of BACKSTITCH. If you haven’t heard our first chat a year prior to this one, you can hear that on episode 8.

In today’s conversation we discuss:

① his big show in Philadelphia this year

② how he’s finding balance in refinement and looseness

③ why this July is such a special month for him

You can learn more about Nick on Instagram

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⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops

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My good friend Heidi Parkes 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:
① How do you prioritize which project to focus on when there’s so much to be excited about?
② How do you keep from getting overwhelmed with your stash?
③ How do you manage your time?
④ I have to travel a lot for my new job. How can I use that to my advantage in my quilting practice?

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I grew up in Southern Baptist churches sitting through long sermons and studying the banners hung around the sanctuary. Those hours spent as young person put down roots into my creative core that would come to bear several years later as an adult meaning-maker. Alice Gabb’s work fully embraces the lineage of the banner, but from an entirely different source: the social protest movements of the last century. Her creative path is founded in years of calligraphy, and so, in many ways it was a natural and short jump to start making banners. In this conversation, Alice joins us from her new studio in East London, and we explore:

① gathering poetry in everyday life

② using color to tame hearts and minds

③ maintaining joy in the face of long and protracted struggle

You can learn more about Alice on their website and Instagram

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⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops

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Deb (Instagram) and I dream up a quilt that ① belongs in a secret garden, and ② knows just what to do with bad hair days

Want to be on the show? Call the CRAZY QUILT HOTLINE open 24/7 at (828) 278-8211‬ and leave me a message anytime of day or night

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My good friend Heidi Parkes 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:

① How do you play?

② What does ‘making progress’ mean to you?

③ What DON’T you share on social media?

④ How can we get more young people into quilting?

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There are certain artists that you remember vividly the first time you saw their work. Julian Jamaal Jones is one of those artists for me. When I saw the body of work he produced at Cranbrook, these all black quilts with bold and colorful marks, I felt like I was seeing a brand new thing in this world.

In this conversation, we discuss:

① how to create intimate inner circles with your audience through your work

② how to bring a spirit of joy and gratitude to your practice

③ and what his grandma really things about his quilts

You can learn more about Julian on Instagram.

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⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops

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In our last SEAMSIDE conversation on Episode 5, quilt historian Jess Bailey aka @publiclibraryquilts and I discussed the role of storytelling in art history and the power of visual images to convey narratives, experience of feeling seen and recognized through images, and we talked about why Jess would rather her quilts be considered sturdy rather than soft.

We catch up now a little over a year later to share our favorite quilt book recommendations, personal stories from recent quilting bees, and I share a vulnerable moment that Jess indirectly helped me understand one of my own blind spots in regards to the improv quilts of Gee’s Bend.

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SHOWNOTES OF THE GODS (thank you, Jess)

You can see the Ascott Martyrs Quilt if you visit the People's History Museum in Manchester or you can learn more about the Martyrs story and early union history through this resource. Big thanks to Fi Ashley at Gresshenhall for amplifying material culture histories of unions and first telling PLQ about the Ascott Quilt.

Zak shared his copy of the standby of any well-stocked quilt library: A Communion of the Spirits: African-American Quilters, Preservers, and Their Stories by Roland L. Freeman. Remember, if you can't find an out of print quilt history book, its always worth checking Worldcat - a search engine that aggregates the world's library collections!

Two must read quilt history books of 2023: Out this June from University of Washington Press, Professor Lisa Gail Collins' Stitching Love and Loss: the story of a Gee's Bend Quilt promises to encompass the power and role of quilts across a human life.

Professor Janneken Smucker's A New Deal for Quilts will be published by the International Quilt Museum in October. Jess has had the pleasure of reading an advanced copy and everyone needs to see the stunningly beautiful early 20th century photographs of quilts in this book. You can preorder it at the link above.

Jess & Zak are a Sharbreon fan club in this episode! If you'd like to read Dr. Sharbreon Plummer's Diasporic Threads published by Common Threads Press, you can find it here. Jess & Sharbreon have some projects up their sleeve, in the meantime explore Sharbreon's quilt work.

You can watch Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi’s lecture at the International Quilt Museum here (and maybe spot Zak in the front row!)

Oh and did Jess mention an upcoming quilt fundraiser & raffle? Stay tuned for more from Jess & her collaborator Ashley J. May (@grassrootsmorning) as they prepare for the Kin Folk Library Quilt fundraiser funding a library of children's books amplifying the rich histories of Black feminist writers and Lil' Free Bird story times at the Salt Eaters and other bookshops.

Stephanie (website, Instagram) and I dream up a quilt that ① provides financial abundance gremlin-style, and ② is made from cash money, namely Canadian loonies

Want to be on the show? Call the CRAZY QUILT HOTLINE open 24/7 at (828) 278-8211‬ and leave me a message anytime of day or night

⤷ Get your free trial to the THE QUILTY NOOK

As an a Southern expat living in a northern state, it’s often nice to connect with somebody from home. We see things about our roots now that perhaps we didn’t when we were growing up immersed in the culture, and how we make sense of all that, for me and Clare at least, requires the help of textiles.

Clare Hu was born in Atlanta to parents who’d immigrated from China in the 1990s. Clare now lives in Brooklyn, and in this conversation we explore:

① the role movement and immigration can play in an artist’s work

② how we can build bridges to the past no matter where we find ourselves in the present

③ how we can take up space in this world and exercise our power

You can learn more about Clare on their website and Instagram

⤷ Get your free trial to the THE QUILTY NOOK

⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops

⤷ Subscribe to SEAMSIDE and you’ll get a note as soon as a podcast posts