SEAMSIDE: Exploring the Inner Work of Textiles

Kathryn Greenwood Swanson is the owner of Swanson’s Fabric and purveyor of secondhand fabrics. In this conversation, we discuss:
① the role of the communal stashhouse in a community of fiber artists
② the shame so often associated with our fabric stashes
③ and how to start your own secondhand fabric store like Swanson’s Fabrics

You can also watch that episode of Good Morning America from 1999 that Kathryn appeared on here. It’s incredible to see just what a powerhouse Kathryn already was at 15 🙆‍♂️

You can learn more about Kathryn and Swanson’s Fabrics on instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

You can learn more about Kathryn and Swanson’s on instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Emma Freeman catches us up with where her textile work has taken her in the last year since we talked. Have you heard our original conversation? You can listen to it here

In this bonus episode of SEAMSIDE, Sara Trail and I have a little surprise for you. After we’d stopped recording the conversation you just heard in episode 1, I asked Sara if she thought her mom, Kay Trail,— who’s obviously played a key role in her life— if her mom would be interested in talking with me a little bit. Without skipping a beat— and this probably comes as no surprise to you now— Sara had her mom on the phone, and though Sara has to run off to go to work, Kay and I chat for several more minutes. What you’re about to hear is the unedited conversation that I had with Kay Trail. I hope you enjoy.

Sara Trail, director of Social Justice Sewing Academy, shares her story of getting folks to make their first stitch. A big part of the trick she says is not teaching people HOW to sew, but rather teaching them WHY to sew: namely, to tell their own story.

SJSA can always use your help. Click here to learn more.

Nick D’Ornellas makes life-size screen prints of daily moments with his family around home. He then cuts the screen prints into thin strips and weaves them back together, distorting the original image, both sharing it with the public but also reserving the privacy of homelife.

In our conversation, we discuss:

1 the role of family in art

2 exhibiting your work as a way to connect with the viewer

3 using the white cube gallery space as a tool

HELPFUL LINKS ♡

⤷ Get the companion zine for this conversation here

⤷ Learn more about Nick’s work on his website

⤷ Learn more about the inner work of textiles in a supportive creative community, THE QUILTY NOOK

⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops

Michael Sylvan Robinson is a textile artist and a long-time activist with Gays Against Guns. In this pared-down episode recorded days after the shooting in Buffalo, Sylvan offers some hard-won wisdom from his years of activism that I hope are both a balm and an encouragement to you in doing the good work that needs to be done. I’ll update this episode page soon with further details.

Lou Gardiner is a joyful force of nature. As textile artist in the UK, she specializes in embroidery and is best known for her recent cape-making projects, including the Cloud Cape and the Cape of Empowerment.

In our conversation, we discuss:

① how her relationship with creativity shifted during her recent cancer journey

② why we need each other now as much as ever

③ the power of softness to reshape our world

HELPFUL LINKS ♡

⤷ Learn more about Lou’s work on her website and you can follow along on Instagram

⤷ Join me and Heidi Parkes for Sewing in Place at Madeline Island School of the Arts this June

⤷ Learn more about the inner work of textiles in a supportive creative community, THE QUILTY NOOK

⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops

Jess Bailey is an art historian, a collector of stories, and a quilter. You may know Jess from Instagram @publiclibraryquilts or their book, Many Hands Make a Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting.

The conversation we had was tender and joyful as we discussed:

① why representation and visibility are so important in the quilting community,

② the power of a gifted quilts, and

③ how to start a quilting practice even if you come from a long a line of quilters.

HELPFUL LINKS ♡

⤷ historic New Deal quilting bee photos

⤷ Anna's mother Ruth Higham's book, The Edge of the Land

⤷ The quilt made by the last indigenous queen of Hawaii

⤷ Get a copy of Jess’s book Many Hands Make A Quilt: Short Histories of Radical Quilting in the US and in the UK

⤷ Listen to the oral history interview from the Quilt Alliance that Jess mentions

⤷ work by Kailani Polzak, researcher of visual constructions of race in 18th and 19th century Europe

⤷ Join me and Heidi Parkes for Sewing in Place at Madeline Island School of the Arts this June

⤷ Learn more about the inner work of textiles in a supportive creative community, THE QUILTY NOOK

⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops

In this episode, slow-stitcher Victoria Gertenbach and I discuss how the rustic barns of Lancaster County have shaped her work, how artists often feel squeeze when it comes to representing themselves and their work honestly on social media, and at the end Victoria takes us a wild word-association ride that will give you a taste of her creative process.

HELPFUL LINKS ♡

⤷  Join me and Heidi Parkes for Sewing in Place at Madeline Island School of the Arts this June

⤷Watch the episode of SOFT BULK Victoria mentions in this episode

⤷  The podcast is only half of SEAMSIDE! Check out the SEAMSIDE ZINE for more insights on this conversation

⤷ Want to see the textiles pieces we mention in this show?

⤷ Learn more about the inner work of textiles in a supportive creative community, THE QUILTY NOOK

⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops

In this episode, I sit down with textile artist Beverly Smith and we discuss how making quilts can often be like a magic carpet ride, how our work can exist on the physical plane as well as higher planes, and how memory lives beyond trauma, buried safe in our hearts and minds. (Heads up: Around minute 26, we briefly touch the topic of suicide and how it has influenced Beverly’s work.)

⤷ The podcast is only half of SEAMSIDE! Check out the SEAMSIDE ZINE for more insights on this conversation

⤷ Want to see the textiles pieces we mention in this show?

⤷ Curious about Beverly’s work?

⤷ Learn more about the inner work of textiles in a supportive creative community, THE QUILTY NOOK!

⤷ Theme music: Roll Jordan Roll by the Joy Drops