It must have seemed like forever since I dropped out of sight and stopped posting on my blog. Well, it’s not your imagination; it has felt like forever – for me too.
Many of you know (and for those who don’t), I spent the last 66 days tethered to an IV pole and a hospital bed with some “House”- like (remember the TV show?) ailment that eluded doctors and rendered me helpless.
It started with 103-degree spiking fevers and chills once or twice a day. The fevers were often high enough to cause my eyes not to track and mild hallucinations – I could see the room, and people but nothing made sense. I was out of it. (But I really wish I could remember some of those Age of Aquarius visions and feelings … for my art, of course).
Finally, after bone marrow biopsies (looking for cancer), kidney biopsies (looking for my kidney transplant rejection), a Bronchoscopy, multiple MRIs, x-rays, CAT scans (good news, I don’t have to turn on a light when I get up at night for the bathroom – I glow), talk of removing my spleen, and finally a major surgical jaunt into my lungs (yup, there were clouds forming – but not until 2-weeks after I was hospitalized!), an answer was found.
I spent a great deal of the time in isolation. My white blood cells fell dangerously low making me even more susceptible to anything and everything flying by. Then, not to be outdone, my red blood cells took a nosedive, which meant several platelet and blood transfusions.
Over two months alone in a room, with the exception of Mr. Electric who tried to balance a fulltime job, a household and a very sick husband. I was losing it.
I was finally diagnosed with something called histoplasmosis and is also known as Ohio Valley Disease. Histoplasmosis is a disease caused by a fungus. Symptoms of this infection vary greatly, but the disease affects primarily the lungs] and it can be fatal if left untreated. Here’s the rub: There are areas of the country where certain fungi live comfortably. There is a fungus in the Arizona area. Another in the San Diego area. Another type in the Minnesota area. And another in the Ohio Valley where I grew up (Pittsburgh). These fungi are endemic to the specific areas and many, many people carry the fungus in their bodies them their whole lives.
I haven’t lived in Pittsburgh since September 1975, but guess what settled in my lungs? It wasn’t until I became immune suppressed due to the kidney transplant anti-rejection drugs that this fungus among us reared it’s ugly, and rare, head. Lucky me.
While the cure is almost worse than the disease (the side effects of the IV drip were nothing less than horrifying and torturous), I will be being treated for this using massive (and also somewhat rare) antibiotics for at least a year.
Two days ago I was sent home.
After months in a bed, I have to tell you I’m as weak as a kitten and can barely walk or get up or down stairs (it’s going to take fortitude), I’m extremely emotional (crying 24/7 and I don’t know why), I am having a hard time walking, and also have a slight tremor in my hands, which I hope is temporary.
And just like Jesus (sorry) I have a hole in my left side with stitches from where the lung tubes and cameras and tools were forced into my chest (and it still hurts like a moth …. never mind).
I want to thank everyone for their prayers, and messages, and cards (which were all hung on my wall and amazed everyone who walked into the room), flowers, quilts, cupcakes, and gifts.
When the going gets rough I go inward (you might find this hard to believe but I’m an introvert at heart). I didn’t post much, but your thinking of me meant the world to me and kept me going when I didn’t want to – or when I never thought I’d leave that hospital without a hearse (yes, it got that bad).
The Future
The medical team demands that slow down and take it easy for the next several months so I will be forced to cancel several gigs (and I’ll get by on my looks, I guess).
The experience, while frightening and grueling, was also so illuminating and such an opportunity for spiritual growth, that I am reminded once again – no matter how bad it gets, there is ALWAYS something to learn, an opportunity for growth, and a silver lining.
Most importantly, the greatest lesson I learned through one particularly high fever and I was sure I was closing my eyes for the very last time …. There is nothing to fear in this world, and nothing can stop your dreams if you just go for broke. When our end does come, nothing matters or makes a difference except how much you have loved, how much you have given of yourself to others. The rest is all illusion. The rest is just bullshit.
The first Slow Stitching Movement Getaway was held at the Lambertville Inn in Lambertville, New Jersey in April. It was a transformative experience for many of those who attended as well as a relaxing, reflective, and educational 4 days.
There were 30 attendees and the Slow Stitching Movement Getaway sold out in a matter of hours after it was announced. It was intimate, inclusive, beautiful, and supportive.
Participants travelled from Virginia, Colorado, Washington, Florida, New York, Iowa, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Illinois, Massachusetts, Kansas, all parts of New Jersey … even as far away as the United Arab Emirates. And new, sure to be life-long friendships were made.
Allie Aller conducted relaxed and easy-going workshops in various crazy quilting and stitching techniques.
Liza Lucy conducted workshops in English Paper Piecing.
Meg Cox presented an entertaining and insightful lecture in how to photograph our quilts.
Each day begun with a cup of coffee or tea, Morning Process Pages or automatic journaling, a technique inspired by The Artist’s Way author, Julia Cameron, and a Continental breakfast.
A lot of emotions were processed and shared, and creative and emotional blocks were beginning to heal.
Every morning a new Slow Stitching Movement technique was introduced and practiced.
Talks on Starting a Creative Salon, Ideas for a Legacy Quilt, and a lecture for surviving creative burnout were also presented.
Free sewing time is added into every day for participants to work on their own projects.
Lunches were catered, and afterward, a walk for gathering inspiration for a future inspiration journaling technique.
An often emotional, and sometimes funny show and tell was entertainment one evening.
A milk & cookies & wine pajama party and a textile themed Yankee Swap was held on another evening — talk about non-stop laughs! I still get a smile on my face when I think of the battle of the embellished shoes, the angel statue, and the Mr. Slow Stitching portrait.
All the food except 3 of 4 dinners was catered by the hotel and it was delicious.
Jenny, a slow stitcher, generously set up a tea station and many of the participants brought baked goods and snacks for late night sewing!
Even if you didn’t feel like sewing or quilting, there was wool spinning, embroidery, watercolors, and design techniques in action.
The event was so successful that another has been scheduled…
The Slow Stitching Movement taps into our need to create meaningful pieces which satisfy at a deeper level. It is not about stitching slowly (although you may want to do that from time to time). It’s more about stitching mindfully, not racing from project to project but rather choosing and editing and creating in a more deliberate way. Mark Lipinski’s quiltmaking background gives this retreat a decidedly “quilty” orientation, but the Slow Stitching Movement tenets and techniques are applicable to all types of creative endeavors.
The Slow Stitching Getaway: Autumn 2015 , will be like our Spring Getaway in that the group will be small and intimate, so please, if you’re interested in being a part of this, do not wait to register.
Your retreat days will be filled with exercises and lessons, workshops and lectures, fun and satisfying experiences….all designed to help you achieve your own version of Slow Stitching. Formal workshops and group exercises will provide insight, new techniques and inspiration; the camaraderie of the people around you will do the same, in less formal ways. Skills will be shared with time to practice what you’ve learned, you’ll have time to stitch (or sketch or edit or build) on your own and suddenly…. you’ll have an ‘ah-ha’ moment. Ahhhhhh. Click here to view FULL DETAILS for your activities, lessons and break times.
As a part of your Retreat experience, you’ll also enjoy:
Opening: Wine and Cheese Reception and “Icebreaker” Games 4:00 PM
Dinner 6:00 PM
The Slow Stitching Movement Lecture
Quick, fast, easy. In our busy, multitasking world, those buzzwords capture our attention. But speed can kill creativity and the enjoyment of our creative pursuits. Maybe what we really need to do is slow down, enjoy the process and create pieces we’re really proud of.
With Mark as your inspiration and transformational guide, explore ways to approach your craft in a totally different way, recharge your passion for patchwork and engage the connection between your body, your quilts and your legacy. Learn to expand your creativity as you tap into your right brain to train and develop your imagination, find the creative genius in you and heal your life, your emotions and even boost your physical health.
If you’ve hit a creative wall, if you have more fabric and notions than you do inspiration, if all of your quilts are beginning to look-alike or if you’ve been quilting for years and haven’t had a recent “ah-ha moment” …. The Slow Stitching Movement is for you.
MORNINGS (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)
Process Pages with Mark
Each morning the group is encouraged to participate in effortless, non-traditional journaling. Unlike a traditional journaling, participants will learn time-tested techniques that will unlock creative blocks and open hearts and minds to a whole new process of self-examination while tapping into our higher creative selves. Mark offers several journaling techniques that will boost your self-awareness and access your creative potential through this simple exercise. 8:15 AM
Morning Yoga
Creativity often goes hand-in-hand with being in touch with your body. You’ll be encouraged to get your blood flowing and increase the oxygen in your system through guided yoga poses that can be modified for beginners, older adults and those with chronic conditions. Every morning, join the group in a relaxing environment to relieve tension, release endorphins and relax your body and mind while preparing you for the day’s increased creativity. 9:00 AM
Breakfast 9:45 AM
Mark’s Slow Stitching Workshop Techniques
Each day of The Slow Stitching Movement Retreat, Mark presents a short talk, different each day, about the various techniques he uses during his slow stitching time. Whether by hand or by machine, these exercises in mindfulness have the potential to not only elevate your stitching expertise, but to challenge and change your day-to-day life with increased health, creative, spiritual and financial benefits. 10:30 AM
Closing Ceremony (Thursday morning after Slow Stitching Workshop)
AFTERNOONS (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Lunch 12:00 PM
Walk and Inspirational Photo Gathering
Each day after lunch, Mark will guide a group ‘inspiration’ and photo-taking walk. Learn how to find inspiration everywhere, and how to access your creative vision when you’re feeling less than inspired. Be sure to bring a camera, or a smartphone that has a built-in camera. 1:00 PM
In addition to Mark’s morning lessons, two guest instructors will offer one-hour workshops each day. The group will be divided to allow everyone to take both workshops – one each day (Tuesday and Wednesday). 2:00 – 3:00 PM
QuiltWriting with Cyndi Souder
Adding words to a quilt broadens its interest and deepens its meaning. Learn about choosing words, quotes, wishes, or names, and discover the secrets to quilting smoothly on lines or curves. This lesson is all about incorporating words into free motion machine quilting – either on their own or integrated into basic meandering.
Cyndi will be teaching workshops on quilting with words.
This is Cyndi’s newest book, Creating Celebration Quilts, which relates to the Slow Stitching Movement legacy quilt idea
Modern Hand Stitch with Ruth Chandler
Modern hand stitch is a term Ruth uses to describe hand embroidery stitches that are not stitched traditionally. Any of the traditional embroidery stitches may be used and changed for this technique, but for today we will use a small group. Threads and fibers used will include some which are familiar to you and some that are not, as we lengthen or shorten stitches to purposely distort them, layer to give them depth and change weight to add texture.
Ruth will be leading relaxed workshops in these Modern Hand Stitching Needlebooks
A Memorable Journey Lecture with Cyndi Souder 7:30 PM
A prolific creator of memory quilts herself, Cyndi brings us her approach and some of her favorite methods in this exploration of creating personal, meaningful celebration or memory quilts. Using traditional patterns and original designs, she’ll show how you can create unique, effective pieces, carrying a theme or thought throughout. See how she works through the design process and handles unusual artifacts and mementos. Everyone will leave with at least one idea to use right away.
Group Show & Tell 8:30 PM
Each member of the group shares one fiber object (quilt, afghan, needlepoint, etc.) that tells their story or is just simply an example of what they might consider their ‘slow stitching’ or process. This is an easy-going, non-judgmental exercise in discussing new ways of looking at things, getting to know our fellow stitchers more intimately and forging new friendships. 8:30 PM
WEDNESDAY EVENING
My Creative Inspiration for your Quilting Life Lecture 7:30 PM
Are you feeling bone dry in the creative department or losing creative motivation?
Haven’t had a good quilting idea in years, or maybe your quilts are all beginning to look and feel alike?
Do you procrastinate when it comes to your quilting?
Do you have a pile of stash and no quilts to show for it?
Well worry no more as Mark guides you through dozens of ways and leads you to places so you can jumpstart your quilting and general creative inspiration.
Learning to identify sources for inspiration and tips to turn your inspiration into action is the goal of every creative spirit. Listen and learn as Mark gives you his personal recipe which will empower you to unearth your own unlimited fountain of inspiration.
If your bad quilting day has stretched into weeks, if you’re beginning to feel detached from the quilting that used to give you joy, or even if you want to simply refresh your creative juices, then this lecture is for you!
Milk and Cookies PJ Party and Slow Stitchers’ White Elephant Yankee Swap
On our last day, we will have a mindful and fun tradition for honoring our fast and speedy selves and welcoming in all of the new slow stitching information in a mindful way.
I am going to take two classes from the roster of teachers, in something I have absolutely no experience with. I urge my fellow Slow Stitching Getaway participants to do the same .Take the same classes with me if you’re interested
I’m taking or take a class in whatever you like that will stimulate your creative muses. This, too, is an exercise in getting “unstuck.” No matter how professional or proficient, one only grows from learning new, and very different things.
Author and Designer Katja Marek, Her Journey Into Patchwork, Transforming the Hexagon, and Her Slow Stitching Influences
By Katja Marek
As a young girl growing up, I thought all women sewed. I thought that you got up in the morning, brushed your teeth, combed your hair, and sewed. What stirred this belief? My mother!
I like to tell people that I grew up under my mother’s sewing machine.
I was born in Germany and my family immigrated to Canada just before I turned 8. As a way to stay home with my sister and I my mom took in alterations, but when she wasn’t ‘working’, ie sewing at the machine on other peoples clothes, she was stitching on needlepoint, cross-stitch, knitting, crocheting, sewing beautiful clothes embellished with appliqué and stitchery. In short, I rarely saw my mother without some form of handwork. She worked with purpose, with intention; putting part of herself into the things that she made. She was ‘Slow Stitching ‘ long before the words were put together to explain this movement.
“She worked with purpose, with intention;
putting part of herself
into the things that she made.”
I don’t ever remember being taught or learning to sew; I simply did. I wanted to sew clothes for my dolls, so I picked scraps from the sewing room, needle and thread, and sewed. As I grew older I simply chose to use a sewing machine. I crocheted and did needlepoint, I knit and stitched, and learned by example and osmosis.
By the time I was a teenager, I sewed many of my own clothes. Unlike many girls my age, instead of buying make-up or music, I spent all my money on fabric. Prom coming up? Not a problem, the dresses were usually sewn a night or two before. I never thought of buying dresses, I bought patterns instead, and fabric.
During another major move in my life at the age of 14, my family moved to a camp/resort, where many of the beds had handmade quilts and bedcovers. There I discovered a beautiful Grandmother’s fan coverlet. I promptly started searching out fabrics from the scrap box and old clothes that could be cut up. I pulled apart an old sketchpad to make thick templates to trace around and I sketched out a plan. This was to be my ‘seven year quilt’. Not 7 years because that’s how long it took me, but 7 years because I worked on it every seven years. Started when I was 14, worked on it again when I was 21 and newly married, again at 28 with two small toddlers in the house, and completed when I was 35 and now guild president and firmly entrenched in quilting.
“My aim has always been to encourage my customers
to take those designs, play with them
and to make them their own.”
As I mentioned I had sewn all my life, but it wasn’t until I moved to Kamloops in 1988 that I learned that part of what I had been doing was called ‘quilting’. My first large quilt was King sized and hand pieced and quilted.
After years spent working in banking, a job I did very well, but one that did not nourish my soul, I began searching for something else to do. Even during those years I’d spend lunch hours and coffee breaks hand sewing hundreds of Christmas ornaments to sell at local craft fairs and through private contacts. In 1995 Kamloops lost the only remaining option for quilting fabric, it took me until 1999 to gather the courage to jump in and open my shop.
Very soon after I opened the shop I started to design quilts for in-house kits and Block-of-the-Month Programs. My aim has always been to encourage my customers to take those designs, play with them and to make them their own.
Sometime over the years I became obsessed with hexagons. My Pinterest board ‘Hexagons have put a Hex on me’ alone has over 1,000 pins. Designing inside the hexagon, treating the hexagon like a block in a quilt instead of just a unit became a goal. By 2012 I was ready to launch my Block-a-Week Hex-a-thon; these blocks later turned into ‘The New Hexagon – 52 Blocks to English Paper Piece’ published by Martingale in October of 2014.
Although I wanted to streamline the English Paper Piecing process to make it more accessible to many more quilters by glue basting the fabric to the paper templates, I also wanted to share with more quilters how fulfilling the process is. EPP requires few supplies and is extremely portable making it the perfect project for everyone from young moms sitting waiting at piano lessons, hockey games or doctors appointments, to snowbirds on the road travelling south for the winter.
When the publication of my book was approaching, I re-read Martingale’s Author Handbook and took to heart the section about their expectations that the author help to promote their book. I almost panicked, thinking I don’t blog or travel to teach, being tied to my own store, so I gave considerable thought to how to do this. During the writing of the book many other ideas came to me for different ways to use the blocks I had designed and then I received a Kaffee Fassett fabric called ‘Millefiore’. I loved this fabric and looked up the definition of the word Millefiore, finding it described the art of Glass caning, fusing canes of glass together and crosscutting them, then embedding them in clear glass to make often-kaleidoscopic designs. I knew then that I wanted to create this look with fabric, specifically using the blocks in my book in a totally different way than I had done in the book itself to create ‘The New Hexagon – Millefiore Quilt-Along’ on my website. I wanted to reward those that had purchased my book by creating a FREE online quilt-along. I announced this launch on the Martingale Stitch This Blog in October of 2014 and also on my store Facebook page.
Right from the start I received some pretty positive feedback. I posted on Instagram and Facebook and those posts were shared and re-shared. As the anticipated start date of January 1st /2015 approached the number of registered participants climbed higher and higher. I had interest from several businesses to run it as programs in their stores. Several days into January I had received many request to start a ‘The New Hexagon – Millefiore Quilt-Along’ FaceBook group page for participants to share photos and interact. Within 24 hours of starting that group page we had well over 300 members, as of this writing we are up over 2800.
What exactly makes this project about Slow Stitching? Yes, it’s about hand sewing, but that doesn’t make it slow stitching in and of itself. It is the interaction of the participants and the support and advice they give each other, it is choices of fabrics made with intention to create something lasting and representative of self, it is struggling not only about fabric placement, but personal changes in the design and the techniques used to satisfy oneself.
Above: Katja with Kate Spain
I have put My heart and soul into this project. Not only have I developed a wonderful following of other hexagon addicted devotees, but also I have created a mini-movement that follows ‘The Slow Stitching Movement’ ideals. I as well as the 2800 or so stitching along are creating a true legacy quilt that will one day define us at this point in our lives. We are putting our blood, sweat and tears into this project, and perhaps a bit of our souls as we grow to love ‘our Millies’ more each and every day, fabric by fabric, stitch by stitch.
“Not only have I developed a wonderful following of
other hexagon addicted devotees,
but also I have created a mini-movement
that follows ‘The Slow Stitching Movement’ ideals.”
During a recent trade show, I had a women tell me she had lost her brother about a month previously and it wasn’t until she discovered my design and ‘The New Hexagon – Millefiore Quilt-Along’ online that she once again found a reason to get out of bed in the morning. My heart cried for her, but I was grateful that I was able to touch her and all the others who have jumped on board with me.
And my mom??? She still sews, knits and cross-stitches daily. It is rare to see her without work in her hands. Once a week she comes in to the store with me and inspires others with her meticulous works created with focus and intention.
Come join us and Discover the ‘Hex’-abilities! Katja
ABOVE: Katja’s Hexalicious Quilt
About Katja Marek
Katja Marek was born in Moers, Germany. At the age of eight, she immigrated with her family to Canada. Her mother was a tailor by trade and took in alterations as a way to stay home with her children. Katja grew up under her mother’s sewing machine, and spent many childhood hours crafting, sewing, crocheting, and cross-stitching. Unlike most teenage girls, Katja spent her money not on makeup and music, but on fabric. When she was 14, the family moved to a camp/resort, where many of the cabin beds featured handmade quilts. Katja fell in love with an old version of a Grandmother’s Fan design. Without any knowledge of quilting, but with a vast knowledge of sewing, she proceeded to make templates and cut pieces from old clothing–and thus her quilting journey began. Winning the award for art achievement in high school convinced her that she wanted to pursue a career with a creative outlet. In 1999, with years of banking behind her and her children in their teens, the time had come for Katja to realize that dream. She fulfilled her vision by opening her own quilt shop in Kamloops, British Columbia.
Fiber Artist Cyndi Sauder, Her Legacy in Quilts, and a Slow Stitching Journey:
Slow Stitching and My Legacy Quilts
by Cyndi Souder
When I first heard about the Slow Stitching Movement, I thought, “Great. I have too much to do already and now they want me to SLOW DOWN?!” But once I read Mark’s thoughts on the Slow Stitching Movement, I realized that I don’t have to work even more slowly (I’m already a tortoise in the studio); I do need to show up and be truly present as I work.
Many of the quilts I make are for others. Clients come to me with memories, clothing, pictures, ideas, stories, and so much more. Often, they want to celebrate the life of someone they’ve lost. Sometimes they want to celebrate a new life, an accomplishment, or the realization of a lifelong dream. While I normally call these Celebration Quilts, we could also call these Legacy Quilts. These quilts will outlive their owners, be passed down through the generations, and carry their memories and stories into the future. These are important quilts, deserving of our best work and our full attention. These quilts cry for us to slow down and respect the process.
So, how do my legacy quilts relate to the Slow Stitching Movement?
Let me share a Celebration Quilt with you that’s not in my book. Last summer, I made a quilt for a client who was in the process of building her dream house in the mountains. On her new property, she had a trail tree, also known as a bent tree. As a sapling, this tree had been bent down to the ground and tacked there to mark the trail. As it grew older and stronger, the tree returned to its upright position but always bore the characteristic bend of its trunk. Throughout construction, my client protected this tree and hired a graphic artist to create a logo for her new home based on the bent tree. I created her quilt, Bent Tree, from this logo.
Every step of this quilt’s creation was intentional and deliberate from the fabric selection to creating the pattern to fabricating miles of bias tape to hand-basting each piece onto the foundation fabric as it hung on the design wall. As I worked through each step, I stayed present in the moment and did the best work I possibly could.
I think it’s too easy to turn on the TV or listen to a book while you are working on really important quilts. I’m not saying you can’t watch West Wing marathons or listen to Mark’s Creative Mojo podcasts as you work. When I’m working on a utility quilt that I just need to get done, I’m all about multi-tasking. Here’s the distinction: When I’m working on a quilt that really matters, I try to live up to its standards.
When we slow down and give these quilts our time and our full attention – when we’re truly in the moment as we work on these quilts – they become our legacies and they will speak for us long after we are gone.
About Cyndi Souder
Cyndi Souder is a teacher, lecturer, author, and award-winning art quilter who creates Celebration Quilts for clients. Some of these quilts can be seen in her book Creating Celebration Quilts available on her website www.MoonlightingQuilts.com. Cyndi is a Juried Artist Member of Studio Art Quilt Associates and a BERNINA Ambassador. Follow her blog at www.MoonlightingQuilts.WordPress.com, follow her on Twitter @CyndiSouder, and like her on www.Facebook.com/CyndiSouderQuilts.
We would love for you to share your creative process, thoughts, feelings and your place in The Slow Stitching Movement.
Just email Mark Lipinski at: slowstitching@slowstitching.com
He will email you the simple guidelines for posting your own blog here and introducing yourself to the world of Slow Stitchers!
A Slow Stitching Journey of 3,200 Paper-Pieced Squares Commemorate a British War Hero, Helps Define Research, and the Consequences of Rushing to Finish
by Lucie Dutton
As a hand quilter by preference, it is inevitable that I sew slowly. One of my quilts can take over a year to complete if it is particularly complex. The thrills of the quick make and the speedy finish are not for me. I have mountains of fabric I cannot possibly get through, unfinished quilts come in and out of favour, my sewing machines lie idle. And that is the way I like it. The Slow Stitching Movement is, therefore, a movement for me!
It is just as well that I don’t mind being particularly quick to finish quilts. Just under a year ago, I started on my most ambitious project to date – a quilted representation of the British Naval hero Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, KB. Based on a portrait of Nelson painted in 1800 by Sir William Beechey, the quilt comprises 3,200 one inch squares, all sewn by hand using the English Paper Piecing technique.
The Nelson Quilt at 2,000 pieces – March 2015
A bizarre project? Well, possibly, but there is a reason for it that makes sense to me. When I am not sewing, I am writing a PhD thesis about the British film director, Maurice Elvey. Elvey had a long career, starting making films in 1913 during the silent days, making his transition to sound in 1929, and retiring in 1957. In 1918, Elvey made a biographical film about Nelson – a flawed film, but a very interesting one. I’ve spent a long time researching the background to the production of Nelson, and become increasingly fascinated by the film and Nelson’s place in British culture.
Nelson at 490 squares, August 2014. A face starting to emerge?
“The thrills of the quick make and the speedy finish are not for me.”
One hot day last summer, while writing about some of the film scenes filmed on the Isle of Wight, I idly wondered whether it would be possible to make a quilted piece that complemented my film research. Before I had properly worked out the details, I found that I had ordered fabric and started cutting out one inch squares of spare paper: The Nelson Quilt was born. It is part of a long tradition of works inspired by Nelson. Starting with the Battle of the Nile, his victories and subsequent death at the Battle of Trafalgar resulted in a phenomenal amount of commemorative memorabilia – from plates, to cups, to busts, to wallpaper, to snuffboxes. There are sewn commemorative banners, and girls sewed samplers mourning Nelson’s death– the list is endless.
Scouting out film locations at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight
So while writing about the film, I started to sew about it as well. Strange as it may seem, the slow stitching of the Nelson Quilt has enhanced my film research. I understand better why a film about Nelson was so important during the First World War and why he was promoted as a hero at a time of national emergency.
The Nelson Quilt waiting to cross the Solent from the Isle of Wight to Portsmouth, September 2014
I’ve visited film locations on the Isle of Wight and considered how certain shots were taken. I’ve sewn squares of the quilt on long train journeys to Portsmouth where I stood on the deck of HMS Victory by the spot where Nelson fell and stooped to reach the Orlop Deck where he died. I’ve gone to see Nelson’s tomb in St Paul’s Cathedral in London and been unexpectedly moved. I’ve visited London’s National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and peered at the coat Nelson was wearing when he was shot – still a venerated object today. None of this would have happened without the quilt project; the Nelson film would just have been one of many I would have looked at for my thesis. Instead it has become one of the key areas of my research and I love it! Stitching on that quilt for so many hours has enhanced my research significantly.
Nelson’s coat at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
I was happily working on the writing and the quilting projects in tandem, each adding to the other. What could be better?
“Embrace the slowness of a transformative project. It will be so much more worthwhile in the end.”
And then, about a month ago, there was trouble. I’d just hit the 2,000 square mark on the quilt. I was celebrating that as a significant point on the Nelson Quilt journey, but I started to hear myself say “I’m enjoying the project but I would like all that piecing to be done with. I’m really looking forward to him being finished.” (Yes, I started to refer to the quilt as “him” some months ago). Around the same time, I was delighted to be invited to speak at an academic conference in May about unexpected creative outcomes of film research – the Nelson film and the Nelson Quilt. What an opportunity to bring two of my major passions together and share them with other researchers. Over coffee with a fellow film researcher friend, I said “Oh I want him finished by the conference. I want to show him off complete.”
The Nelson Quilt visits the National Maritime Museum, December 2014
Instead of enjoying the sewing, instead of watching each section grow and the portrait develop, I put myself in a totally artificial race against the clock. Must get him finished! Must get him finished!
And one morning I woke up and couldn’t stretch my right arm. All that English Paper Piecing is hard on the hands and arms. I’d given myself a dose of lateral epicondylitis – more commonly known as Tennis Elbow, or as I have rechristened it, Nelson Elbow. Serves me right for losing sight of what was important – enjoying the sewing, reflecting on Nelson, thinking about my film research – and replacing those with a sense of grim determination. So the Nelson Quilt has sat idle for three weeks.
Taking Nelson for a New Year Walk, 31 December 2014
My elbow is getting better and I think I’ll be able to pick up the project again fairly soon. If he isn’t finished in time for the conference it doesn’t really matter. The piece as it stands is pretty big and can be shown as it is. And my Nelson Elbow has really done me a favour by telling me: Don’t rush to finish. Remember to enjoy your sewing. Embrace the slowness of a transformative project. It will be so much more worthwhile in the end.
Horatio Nelson painted by Sir William Beechey (1800)
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelsonwas a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of decisive naval victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was wounded several times in combat, losing one arm in the unsuccessful attempt to conquer Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the sight in one eye in Corsica. He was shot and killed during his final victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
About Lucie Dutton
Lucie Dutton is a quilter and film researcher (with a particular interest in British silent cinema) who lives in London. She sews by hand rather than machine so Slow Stitching comes naturally. Lucie blogs about quilting, reading and the movies at www.isthereroomformetosew.com and tweets (mostly about silent film) at her main twitter account, which is @MissElvey, and less frequently (about sewing and quilting) at @TheSewingBea. Her Instagram is MissElvey.
We would love for you to share your creative process, thoughts, feelings and your place in The Slow Stitching Movement.
Just email Mark Lipinski at: slowstitching@slowstitching.com
He will email you the simple guidelines for posting your own blog here and introducing yourself to the world of Slow Stitchers!
Mark Lipinski has the prescription for
better, more mindful quilting.
Slow and Steady, Forget the Race
Vivika Hansen DeNegre
Editorial Director, Quilting Arts QuiltingDaily.com
What do you get out of fiber and quilting arts? A pile of quilts? An expression of your creativity? A way to escape the world? An excuse to go to the fabric store?
As quilting artists, we all have our reasons–and they’re all valid.
For me, quilting, sewing, and other fiber arts serve as outlets for creativity, ways to relax and unburden my mind, and even practical pursuits (making gifts and decor).
But sometimes, the number of projects on my table–or in my head–can stress me out. I’ve heard other quilters say that seeing what other quilt artists post on social media causes them anxiety: they feel like they are ‘behind’ somehow. And the sheer number of tools, fabrics, kits, patterns, and supplies to choose from for art quilting can be overwhelming.
Over the years I’ve found that, instead of looking for shortcuts or adding more projects or supplies, the best way to approach my fiber art is to slow down and simplify.
Mindful creating, or paying close attention to what you’re doing. how you are doing it, and the materials you’re using, can help you regain the “Zen” of your favorite pastime. Not to mention how much better your results will be.
This is the message quilter and personality Mark Lipinski is trying to promote with his “Slow Stitching Movement.” Mark has been lecturing on the topic for about a year now. Judging by the enthusiastic reception for the topic, many in the quilt community crave ways to slow down and enjoy their quilting again
Mark makes it clear that there will always be a place for the get ‘er done project or the jelly roll strip quilt. But he wants to bring back the joys and benefits of losing yourself in a project by giving it all your care and attention.
Here are some of Mark’s Slow Stitching tips:
Pause and reflect. Take a couple of minutes before you hit the sewing machine pedal to think about your project, what you’re trying to accomplish, and to consider the tools and materials you are using. Consciously breathe in and out to prepare yourself for the work ahead.
Stitch intentionally. There are times when it’s good to just practice, doodle, and play with fabrics with no particular plan. When you slow stitch, think about what you want to accomplish with your stitching and focus on it intently.
Give it 20 minutes a day. You don’t have to slow stitch all the time, for every project. In fact, Mark says you may not actually enjoy your slow stitching at first: your mind will want to wander over to the 10 other things you ‘should’ be doing right now, how hungry you are, or what your best friend might be up to. Like anything else worth doing, you might need to practice. That’s why Mark recommends giving over just 20 minutes a day to slow stitching. The goal is to make it a habit.
There is so much more to The Slow Stitching Movement: how it can improve your quilting, encourage your to create a legacy quilt, benefit your health, even strengthen your relationships!
Creating, Promoting and Sustaining a New Vision in Quiltmaking Live Web Seminar
Quick, fast, easy. In our busy multitasking world, those buzzwords capture our attention. But speed can kill creativity and the enjoyment of our creative pursuits.Maybe what we really need to do is slow down, enjoy the process and create fiber art that we’re really proud of. But how?
This ILLUMINATING live web seminar introduces a revolution within the quilting industry, The Slow Stitching Movement, launched by international quilting personality Mark Lipinski. With Mark as your inspiration and guide, this web seminar will prepare you for a higher form of creativity and important quiltmaking.
If you’ve hit a creative wall, if you have more fabric and notions than you do inspiration, if all of your quilts are beginning to look alike, or if you’ve been quilting for years and have nothing wonderful to show for it . . . The Slow Stitching Movement is for you.
What you’ll learn at this web seminar:
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Approach your quiltmaking in a totally different way
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Recharge your passion for patchwork
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Engage the connection between your body, your quilts and your legacy
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Expand your creativity, self-esteem and even your spiritual journey
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Create groups and habits to support your creative vision.
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Tap your right brain, to train and develop your imagination.
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Find the creative genius in you.
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Implement your creative thought in today’s too-fast world.
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Heal your life, emotions and boost your physical health.
You will be hard pressed to find a more entertaining lecture and enjoyable quilting class than one taken with international quilt teacher and quilt fabric designer and creator and former Executive Editor of Quilter’s Home magazine, Mark Lipinski.As a designer, Mark’s work has been seen in McCall’s Quilts,Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting, McCall’s Quick Quilts, Quiltmaker, American Patchwork and Quilting, Quilts and More, The Quilter, Irish Quilting, and Fabric Trends magazines and has been a guest on HGTV’s Simply Quilts. He has also launched a line of his own quilting patterns, called The Quilts of Pickle Road. Mark has been commissioned to design products and workshops for Island Batiks (Bali and California), M&S Textiles (Australia), Langa Lapu (South Africa), Wrights EZ Tools, Libas Limited Silk, Lakehouse Fabrics, Northcott Fabrics, Maywood Studio, Andover Fabrics, Benartex Fabrics, and Prym Dritz.
HOW THE WEB SEMINAR WORKS The web seminar is broadcasted via the internet as a power point-style presentation with live audio delivered through your computer speakers or over your telephone. The live web seminar’s visual slide presentation is displayed directly from the Presenter’s computer to your computer screen. The Q&A is managed through a chat-style submission system with questions being read and answered by the Presenter for the entire class to hear. A recording of the live event will be sent to all web seminar registrants (regardless if you attend the live webinar) after the live event for viewing 24/7.
LECTURE: In our busy, multi-tasking world, the words “quick,” “fast,” and “easy” are the ones that capture our attention, but the can be fatal to the enjoyment of creative pursuits. If you’ve hit a creative wall, if you have more fabric and notions than inspiration, if all of your quilts are starting to look alike, or if you’ve been quilting for years and feel you have nothing truly unique to show for it, The Slow Stitching Movement is for you!
CLASS:THIS CLASS IS SOLD OUT This is a class of Mark’s Slow Stitching workshops! How to write morning process pages from the inside out! Learn several of Mark’s slow machine sewing techniques. Practice finding inspiration all around you. How to plan, develop and create your legacy quilt. Plus, more!
NEW LECTURE JUST ADDED!!!
ADDED LECTURE: If your well of quilting inspiration has dried up, or you haven’t had a good quilting idea in years, fret no more. Mark will guide you through new places to turn for amazing quilting ideas, with practical examples that will give you motivation and inspiration for better quilting and a happier life. This lecture will open your mind to sources of creative inspiration you may have never considered. Bring along a notebook to jot down every last suggestion you hear.
MAY 9: If your well of quilting inspiration has dried up, or you haven’t had a good quilting idea in years, fret no more. Mark will guide you through new places to turn for amazing quilting ideas, with practical examples that will give you motivation and inspiration for better quilting and a happier life. This lecture will open your mind to sources of creative inspiration you may have never considered. Bring along a notebook to jot down every last suggestion you hear.About Mark Lipinski:
International quilt teacher, fabric designer, and creator/former Executive Editor of Quilter’s Home magazine, Mark has been called the “bad boy of quilting” by industry press. His seminars are half quilting, and all stand-up comedy.
MAY 7 and again on MAY 9In our busy, multi-tasking world, the words “quick,” “fast,” and “easy” are the ones that capture our attention, but the can be fatal to the enjoyment of creative pursuits. If you’ve hit a creative wall, if you have more fabric and notions than inspiration, if all of your quilts are starting to look alike, or if you’ve been quilting for years and feel you have nothing truly unique to show for it, The Slow Stitching Movement is for you!About Mark Lipinski:
International quilt teacher, fabric designer, and creator/former Executive Editor of Quilter’s Home magazine, Mark has been called the “bad boy of quilting” by industry press. His seminars are half quilting, and all stand-up comedy.
MAY 7: If you’ve ever wondered why a successful television producer would give up a hefty salary for poverty wages to quilt, this lecture will surprise you. Travel with Mark from his boyhood home in Pittsburgh, to San Francisco, Miami, New York, Chicago and New Jersey to learn how each of these places led him to become the quilt master he is today.
From his first quilts to his most recent work, see how he transformed from a duckling to a swan – and feel better about your own quilting transformation. He’ll bring some of his UFOs and explain why he lost interest in finishing them. Hear what inspires him, and allow his life experience and outlook on the creative process to inspire you.
About Mark Lipinski
International quilt teacher, fabric designer, and creator/former Executive Editor of Quilter’s Home magazine, Mark has been called the “bad boy of quilting” by industry press. His seminars are half quilting, and all stand-up comedy.
LECTURE, Tuesday May 20: In our busy, multi-tasking world, the words “quick,” “fast,” and “easy” are the ones that capture our attention, but the can be fatal to the enjoyment of creative pursuits. If you’ve hit a creative wall, if you have more fabric and notions than inspiration, if all of your quilts are starting to look alike, or if you’ve been quilting for years and feel you have nothing truly unique to show for it, The Slow Stitching Movement is for you!
LECTURE, Monday May 21: BULL IN A CHINA SHOP LECTURE: If you’ve ever wondered why a successful television producer would give up a hefty salary for poverty wages to quilt, this lecture will surprise you. Travel with Mark from his boyhood home in Pittsburgh, to San Francisco, Miami, New York, Chicago and New Jersey to learn how each of these places led him to become the quilt master he is today.
From his first quilts to his most recent work, see how he transformed from a duckling to a swan – and feel better about your own quilting transformation. He’ll bring some of his UFOs and explain why he lost interest in finishing them. Hear what inspires him, and allow his life experience and outlook on the creative process to inspire you.
In our busy, multi-tasking world, the words “quick,” “fast,” and “easy” are the ones that capture our attention, but the can be fatal to the enjoyment of creative pursuits. If you’ve hit a creative wall, if you have more fabric and notions than inspiration, if all of your quilts are starting to look alike, or if you’ve been quilting for years and feel you have nothing truly unique to show for it, The Slow Stitching Movement is for you!
Anybody can duplicate someone else’s patchwork pattern. This class will teach you how to take any pattern and rework it so the design becomes 100% your own. This easy quilt will allow you to learn the basics of “reworking” a pattern and learning to sew curves.
The Slow Stitching Movement Getaway: SPRING 2015 Begins Next Tuesday
APRIL 21 -24, 2015
THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES FOR THEIR SUPPORT:
CLICK ON THE ICONS TO VISIT OUR SPONSOR SITES
We want you!
Blog Your Slow Stitching Movement Experience
Talk about Slow Stitching
Every creative stitcher has an opinion.
Every creative stitcher is on their own unique journey.
Please share with the slow stitching community your personal slow journey, process, projects, thoughts, and opinions in a Slow Stitching Movement podcast.
To schedule a podcast interview email: slowstitching@slowstitching.com
is opening up our enrollment to allow for 2 more participants!
This event sold out in roughly 6 hours!
But we were lucky enough to be able to offer 2 more spaces!
Come and join us!
FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED
CALL Mark with questions at Pickle Road Studios: 908-876-1208
or register your information on THE WAITING LIST NOW!
For the last several months, Meg Cox, Liza Prior Lucy and I have been working on putting together an event to celebrate your creativity and how to enrich our lives and fiber art through The Slow Stitching Movement. I can’t tell you how excited we are to invite you to the first ever . . .
APRIL 21 -24, 2015
This intimate, inspiring retreat will include 3 full days of skill-building tutorials, lectures, trunk shows and more, but most of the time, you’ll have a chance to work on your own projects in a stunning, relaxing setting that encourages your unique slow stitching journey and sharing your time with like-minded old and new friends.
Our retreat will be held at the picturesque Lambertville Station Restaurant and Inn, situated on the banks of the Delaware River, where the food and service are as outstanding as the inspiring views from our glass-enclosed ballroom retreat space.
Located in charming Lambertville, New Jersey, you’ll find a wide range of restaurants, world-class antique emporiums (amazing for patchwork inspiration), welcoming art galleries, unique shops, and parks. Just a short walk across the The New Hope-Lambertville Bridge is historic and artsy New Hope, Pennsylvania, full of boutiques, galleries, one-of-a-kind stores, cafes, and restaruants. Be sure to bring your camera!
During the retreat, international quilt teacher and designer, Mark Lipinski will give his lecture “The Slow Stitching Movement: Creating, Promoting, and Sustaining a New Vision in Quilt Making”, why he started The Slow Stitching Movement, and how retreats such as this onecan help quilters slow down to deepen both their creative skills and satisfaction levels.
Mark will also share his secrets to daily process journaling for increased creativity, developing your legacy project, and will share the current projects he’s working on, and resources that inspire him.
Author/journalist/teacher Meg Cox will share her slow-stitching projects and inspiration, and give a humorous but practical slideshow on how to take better photographs of your quilts.
Renowned crazy quilting guru and author Allie Aller will join us on our retreat as our special guest teacher, offering multiple tutorials on making fabric flowers and combining both machine and hand-stitched embellishment. Allie will also give a trunk show sharing some of her prize-winning quilts. She’ll be selling and autographing her two books, as well as selling “squishes”, special bags full of silk, velvet, ribbon and other scraps so you can practice some of her embellishing techniques.
Nationally known teacher and author Liza Prior Lucy will be on hand as well, offering a tutorial on paper-piecing hexagons. And, she’ll be selling Kaffe Fassett fabric, and special kits for an optional retreat project.
THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES FOR THEIR SUPPORT:
How you behave in one aspect of your life is evidence of how you behave in all aspects. That’s what I believe.
The Slow Stitching Movement, for me, is a reflection of how I try to live my life as a whole.
Simply put: Mindfulness
Mindfulness is being present in your life and not living in the future or the past. I try to be present for all of it, even the seemingly-insignificant things. Being present isn’t something that came to me naturally, it’s something I had to learn.
Flashback to 1992: I’ve just moved to a new city 4 hours away from my family and my only job is being a mom to 3 month and 17 month old daughters. The figuring-it-out stages of being a mom are over and I feel that I finally have time in my life for creative expression. I have the freedom to pursue basically anything I want. So, what should I do with myself?
Like a lot of people, I went with something familiar. There are five girls and one boy in my family including me, and at age 10 we all learned to use my Mom’s Singer called Brownie (yes, it was brown; a creative name indeed). I guess you could have called it a right of passage in the Bryson family. I realized quilting was the only art form that wasn’t entirely foreign to me. I gave it a shot.
I’m the short one in front.
Well, I gave it more than a shot. I bought fabric, I bought my first sewing machine, I made cardboard templates, and I signed up for a class at the local high school. The whole nine yards, you might say. You could also say that I was hooked from the start. I finished all the blocks for the twelve-week class in only a month. I killed myself trying to match every block perfectly and get every seam just right. Then when I was finished I made the same quilt again. I was an overachiever, to be sure. I found that not only did I have the patience for the tedium that quilting requires, I thrived on it. I had found my drug.
It’s a familiar story with many quilters and creative people. The sleepless nights, those times when you forget to eat, the utter obsession with the craft. I found myself wondering why quilt shops aren’t open 24 hours. Doesn’t everyone need brown thread at 2:00 in the morning? I was the one asking myself these questions and sewing as though my life depended on it. Driven by the fear that if I didn’t finish my quilt by the next day then I would forget all the designs and ideas I have planned for the next five, ten, fifty quilts I have in my head. I was sewing with such urgency that before I knew it I had quilt anxiety. Even my dreams were plagued with seam rippers and rotary cutters.
“Mindfulness is being present in your life and not living in the future or the past.”
Early on it occurred to me that this behavior was less than healthy. There had to be a way to maintain my level of passion without being so stressed. I knew there was a problem, that something I was doing wasn’t right, but recognizing the presence of a problem is only half the battle. And that’s when I stepped back and decided to take it easy. As a result, my stress diminished, my quilts were given the time and care that they deserved, and I was happier and healthier. The end.
Oh, wait. I did the opposite of that. I got involved in the quilting world as a professional. I became an entrepreneur and opened up a quilt shop on my own. I made the majority of the samples for the shop myself. I averaged a quilt top a week and ended up having to plan events months ahead of time. I simply had no time to live in the moment. Next, my sister and I started Fourth and Sixth Designs. Now at least I had someone to share my obsession. We became authors and began frequently traveling around the US to teach and lecture and to sell our wears at Quilt Market. We had quite a bit on our plates. Eventually, something had to give.
“The Slow Stitching Movement, for me, is a reflection of how I try to live my life as a whole.”
After eight years, I closed the shop and gave some thought to hanging up my rotary cutter altogether. My life lacked balance, I realized, and I decided to seek that out. I thought through why I loved quilting in the first place, and wondered why all of this wasn’t bringing me satisfaction. I really do love all aspects of making a quilt (except binding, I consider that a necessary evil). I love choosing fabric, washing it, pressing it, folding, cutting, sewing, all of it.
So, what I discovered was that the answer wasn’t to give up the business or give up the hobby. What I needed to do was segregate my personal quilting desires from my professional ones.
I focused first on the personal side. I started making quilts just for myself again. Completing the ideas that had been in my head but I never found the time for. In a matter of months I felt just like I did back in 1993, but without the anxiety and stress. One quilt in particular helped me immeasurably with this.
110”x110”
I made this postage stamp quilt for my husband for our 25th wedding anniversary. I named it “The Anniversary Stamp” for that reason. I had asked him several years previous if he had any requests for quilts. Our house is full of them, but I had never actually made one specifically for him. He asked for a postage stamp quilt. In hindsight it was the perfect challenge: there was no time limit, it was complicated and inevitably time-consuming and I was making it for someone I loved. I collected 110 reds and 65 creams, washed and pressed each and every one of them, and cut what felt like an endless number of 1 1/2” strips. I didn’t log my hours, but it took quite a bit of time. I loved every minute of it. And I loved every tiny square and stitch I put into it.
In changing my attitude I was left with only the therapeutic experience of quilting. The enjoyment of the process without the anticipation of moving on to the next thing. I rediscovered my connection with the journey of creation. I wanted to do it rather than wanting it to be done. And to my great surprise, this attitude took care of the business side as well. No extra work was required to improve my professional life, an understanding sister/business partner doesn’t hurt. That seemingly small change had balanced out both sides.
Of the hundreds of quilts I’ve made in my life, The Anniversary Stamp is in the top four. These are a couple other slow-stitched quilts in my collection. Each of the fabrics in these two quilts were lovingly curated from my closet.
105” x 105”
2” trinangles
Batik Log Cabin, 112” x112”
One inch logs. Two inch center.
My sister and I are bringing a little slow-stitching to the quilting world. Block of the month projects are forced slow-stitching. You can only do one block a month, and, more importantly, one block at a time. It’s a great way to remind yourself that you love the process as much as the finished piece. It’s a way to learn to work with purpose and mindfulness.
Full Bloom 80” x 96”
Sewing is meditation for me, and it easily can be for you too. Solutions to many problems, both personal and professional have come to me while sitting in front of my Bernina. Be present. There is so much to enjoy in your life and you don’t want to miss it. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. Unless your destination is the Grand Canyon, then I guess it is the destination.
About Mary Hoover
Mary and her sister, Barbara Persing, are award-winning quilt artists, and their quilts have been published in many quilting magazines. Born the fourth and sixth children in a close-knit family in south New Jersey, their mother taught these Jersey girls the art of garment sewing at the young age of ten.
Mary began quilting in 1992 when she moved to upstate New York. As a stay-at-home mom, she needed a creative outlet and immediately knew quilting was the answer. She began teaching quilting classes in 1993 and opened a quilt shop in 1999.
Despite living 300 miles apart, Barbara and Mary began collaborating shortly after the start of their own businesses. This collaboration quickly became a partnership that has grown into the pattern and design company, Fourth & Sixth Designs. Check it out at www.4and6designs.com. Take a look at their book titles and patterns and their new fabulous batik fabrics for Island Batik, too!
If you have any questions about today’s post, please email Mary at mail@4and6designs.com. Fourth & Sixth Designs are available at 4and6designs.com. There you can enjoy their newsletter and blog. “However,” says Mary, “we are slow newsletter and blog writers. Please forgive us.”
We would love for you to share your creative process, thoughts, feelings and your place in The Slow Stitching Movement.
Just email Mark Lipinski at: slowstitching@slowstitching.com
He will email you the simple guidelines for posting your own blog here and introducing yourself to the world of Slow Stitchers!
If you get a second, pick it up. It’s written from a very interesting and insightful perspective. Also don’t forget to listen to Karen’s Podcast at http://www.slowstitching.com/podcasts.html. Mr. Electric loved it (as did I)
Back in my teens and early 20s I had sincere and romantic notions about a hand-made life. I excitedly awaited my post-college days and the joys of creating everything from baskets and candles to rugs, quilts, and fresh hot bread all by hand and on a regular basis. Perhaps I could even grow flax or raise sheep to spin and then dye fibers with plants I grew. I’d weave and knit my silken threads into simple but elegant cloth and use it to hand stitch much of what would be my classic, tasteful, but artsy wardrobe. My imaginings were bliss-filled. I’d even have a big furry wolf-dog, maybe named Rontu, like Island of the Blue Dolphins.
All I had to do was finish college and take on full-time work while managing life and a modest two-bedroom apartment with my husband to realize that my dreams were far more expansive than my time and energy. That was a helpful dose of reality, but my love of making things by hand and my fondness for the physical and psychological benefits of hand work haven’t diminished in the nearly 30 years since college.
During those years I might have been called an Earth Mother who wanted to do it all; today I call myself a Slow Stitcher and eco-dyer, and I’ve focused my energies and passions on cloth, thread, and beads (plus reading, gardening, and walks in the woods). I’m thrilled to make connections with other like-minded fiber folk through the Slow Stitching Movement that Mark Lipinski has brought to the fore for us. While I may not be making everything at home by hand in the way I dreamed about 30 years ago, I am happily a professional fiber artist and teacher as well as the mama of a big furry puppy and two other beloved dogs over the past 15 years. (I also have a very supportive husband and two nearly grown kids J.)
Since at least the 1970s and throughout much of the developed world, people have been rediscovering the joys and beauty of cloth stitched by hand. Objects that were once strictly functional and made solely with useable leftovers are now revered works of art selling in exclusive galleries and displayed in museums. Japanese boro, Bengali kantha, Amish quilts, and the Quilts of Gee’s Bend all come to mind as just a few of the beneficiaries of this renewed interest.
For centuries everyday people with many demands and few resources created clothing and bedding for their families with what they had at hand. In northern Japan fishermen’s jackets and futon covers took the form of layered and patched “boro” (“rags” in English) in indigo blues with bits of black, gray, and brown. (Those were the only colors peasants were allowed to dye their cloth.) The layers and patches of these cotton and hemp utilitarian textiles were stitched together with dense running sashiko stitches.
Heavily embroidered quilts called kanthas were made by women in the Bengal region (Bangladesh and West Bengal, India). Kanthas were and still are created from rags, useable sari and other garment remnants, and more recently larger pieces of cloth connected by dense running stitches.
In the west, from the early European immigrants in North America, through Amish communities in the central and eastern U.S., to retirement villages and quilt guilds of today, stitchers have layered cloth and batting to create functional quilts.
“Slow Stitching is a way for us to connect to stitchers of the past.
We are moving in the same physical ways and sometimes creating the same types of objects that others have been hand stitching throughout human history.”
On a more decorative level and often using finer materials, embroiderers throughout Europe and the U.S. have created hand-stitched liturgical textiles and garments for heads of state for centuries. African nations have rich and varied traditions creating spectacular wearable objects with beads and their own printed cloth. Several Central American countries have rich traditions of colorful reverse-appliquéd mola and hand embroidered clothing, and many eastern European and Asian nations have remarkable embroidery traditions as well.
As a teacher who is often working with students on bead embroidery, I love to share with my students the latest research about bead history. Beads have been in use on every inhabited continent for hundreds or even thousands of years. Recent research dates the earliest beads (perforated teeth and shells) as far back as 100,000 years. So as we sit in class and scoop up and then stitch one bead at a time, we are doing what others have been doing for perhaps 100,000 years. I love being part of that continuous living heritage.
By visiting museum exhibitions of any of these types of historic stitched objects we connect with hand stitchers of the past. By looking at their utilitarian objects as art, I believe we also honor the time, energy, and skill embedded in those everyday objects. The hand stitchers who made these objects may or may not have been deliberately slow and mindful in their work, but my guess is that many of them were at least some of the time. Although they were often doing work about which they had no choice, I do believe that there were periods of joy and peace experienced in the quiet rocking stitches of, say, needle and white thread on deep indigo-blue cotton or a circle of quilters around a frame helping to bring a quilt top to life.
Closer to home, many of us remember with fondness the sweaters, dresses, afghans, quilts, and even doll clothes our mothers or grandmothers made for us when we were young. These memories help us stay connected to and feel the love of past generations. It was my two grandmothers who taught me how to crochet and embroider, and they and my mom taught me to sew. One of my grandmothers and I shared a love for rich, soft pastels. Whenever we’d be together and see something in periwinkle, mauve, or soft grey-green she’s say “those are our colors.”
As she was passing away in the summer of 2008 I was working on a small embroidered quilt I titled “Passing Through.” Working in “our colors” through the slow, meditative process of hand embroidery with silk threads and glass beads helped me so much to feel connected to her even as I was losing her. I also felt like the stitching, much of which she had taught me to do, was a way of commemorating her. That 11” x 14” quilt hangs framed in my bedroom today, and it still makes me think of her whenever I look at it.
Slow Stitching is a way for us to connect to stitchers of the past. We are moving in the same physical ways and sometimes creating the same types of objects that others have been hand stitching throughout human history.
Slow Stitching is a way to connect with people we have loved and lost or with people we don’t often see. Grandmothers who taught us to stitch or old friends who shared techniques or supplies and now live far away are still with us as we stitch and remember them.
I am fortunate to be a member of two hand-stitching groups: a group of bead artists that meets monthly in the Chicago area and a hand-stitching group called the Memory Cloth Circle that meets weekly to stitch and share. In both groups there is often a mix of silent stitching as well as talking, laughing, sharing ideas and feedback, and encouraging one another. What a joy it is to have even a short time of silent hand stitching in the company of other hand stitchers. As each person works deliberately and mindfully on her or his own work, there is an energy that moves about the space and connects us to each other. I highly recommend trying silent hand stitching with some of your stitching friends or fellow guild members.
I also recommend using the technology that exists today to connect with other stitchers. Two good friends and I “meet” fairly regularly to Skype, sip, and stitch. One of us is in northern California and the other two are in separate communities in southern Wisconsin. Every few weeks we chat over Skype, drink coffee, and hand stitch, often in our jammies. We show each other what we’re working on and ask for advice sometimes, but we also just keep stitching throughout the conversation. The movement of hands stitching is a natural part of the gathering and the experience.
“Tuning in to our senses as we slowly stitch allows us to have a fuller, richer experience of creating.
We are seeing not only the colors, shapes, and textures of our materials and stitching but getting to watch our stitching come to life one stitch at a time.”
Slow Stitching is a way to connect with our physical selves. While stitching slowly we can connect with our senses. Touch the thread with which you stitch. Notice the thickness or thinness and smoothness or roughness of the thread. Is it smoother in one direction than the other? What is your reaction to the texture?
Feel the fabric on which you stitch. Notice its thickness, texture, weight, and drape. Can you tell what type of fiber it is solely by its feel? Part of the joy in hand work is the tactile experience of not only seeing but also intimately handling beautiful materials.
In Annie Dillard’s book The Writing Life she describes a “joyful painter” she once knew. “I asked him how he came to be a painter. He said, ‘I liked the smell of the paint.’” I had a similar aha moment watching Native American bead artist Teri Greeves stitching on the PBS series Craft in America. She was stitching on brain-tanned deer hide and I could hear her needle “pop” through the hide followed by the distinct sound of thread passing through stiff material. I thought “I love that sound,” and I knew I had chosen the right profession.
Tuning in to our senses as we slowly stitch allows us to have a fuller, richer experience of creating. We are seeing not only the colors, shapes, and textures of our materials and stitching but getting to watch our stitching come to life one stitch at a time.
Marvel at your hands. Notice not only the movement of your hands but the bend of individual fingers and the perhaps subconscious way you do things like control thread tension with your non-stitching hand. I just recently realized that I hold my loose bead embroidery thread in the same way I control yarn tension while crocheting. But I had been doing it completely subconsciously simply because I’ve done it for decades. When I slowed down and paid attention to my bead embroidery I realized I was using the same method of tension control, and I was able to share that technique with my students.
Notice the way muscle memory and control grow as you do more hand stitching, and marvel at the way your hands “know” where to stitch up through your fabric. How do your fingers know, within 1/32nd of an inch or less, where to stitch up from the back side of the work? It really is a marvel and something we might never notice without slowing down and stitching mindfully.
Among the many other ways we can make connections through Slow Stitching, perhaps the most meaningful to me is connecting with how we experience time. Practitioners of meditation often talk about having an experience of stepping outside of time or a feeling of expansiveness that makes time slow down or stand still. The same can be experienced with mindful Slow Stitching.
In Justin Cronin’s book The Passage he describes a kind of mystical character “…taking up her needle and thread to sew… It was slow work, satisfying in the way of all things that require time and concentration…” Slow Stitching can certainly be that for each of us—satisfying work to which we give our time and concentration. In return, we can receive an experience that’s been called “bliss” by some and “flow” by others—being completely and happily absorbed in work with our hands, and for a peaceful time we are completely removed from the rest of the world and all that it asks of us.
When I was in early elementary school my mom began calling me her turtle, perhaps because it was the kindest word she could find to use. She’d often send me to my room to get ready for school or visiting grandparents or church. She’d come up an hour later to find me sitting on the floor half dressed and drawing or stitching. I’d simply gotten distracted by something that appealed to me and had gotten lost in the flow of the work of my young hands.
Over the years I’ve found that I connect with turtles in other ways. I can’t think of a more wonderful place to spend my time than places where land and water meet. I like to sit back quietly and watch the world from a kayak or a sunny perch—perhaps a branch overhanging a stream.
Like turtles, I’m built more for comfort and protection from the elements than for speed, but that’s okay. Turtle expert, writer, and artist David Carroll shares similar experiences in his books. In Self-Portrait with Turtles Carroll writes these gems: “…the more slowly I moved, the longer I kept still, the more I would see…” “Process was more important than completion…” “Solitude and silence intensified my seeing…” and my favorite, “In a blur of past and present, drifting into the now, I endeavored to shift into turtle time, the time within time that is neither past nor present but the ongoing now.” Surely we can cultivate these same types of experiences through Slow Stitching.
Slow Stitching helps us to make connections in so many ways. Through it we can connect with hand stitchers of past centuries and far-away places. We can feel the kinship and nearness of beloved friends and family members we have lost or who are far away. We may be able to connect with other slow stitchers in our own communities and form new friendships and opportunities for sharing. And we can use our Slow Stitching to connect with ourselves—the physical experiences of our hands and senses and the way we experience at least moments of the days we are each given.
About Lisa Binkley
Lisa Binkley holds a B.S. in Textiles & Design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.Formerly a public policy analyst, she has maintained an active fiber art studio since 2000 and exhibits her award-winning work nationwide. Her work has been selected for inclusion in major exhibitions by guest curators from the Smithsonian Art Museum, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Bellevue Arts Museum, among others. Exhibitions include American Quilters’ Society, International Quilt Association, Crafts National, CraftForms, and several years of the Wisconsin Artists Biennial. Lisa and her artwork have been featured on local and national television, in internationally-distributed books and magazines, and in many local publications. Her art is represented in private and corporate collections. Lisa enjoys sharing her passion for fiber and beads through her artwork, classes, and lectures, and she teaches throughout the U.S. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband, their two children, and their sweet fuzzy dog.
Karen Montgomery is a nationally recognized quilt teacher, fabric, notions, and quilt designer! Her shop The Quilt Company was established in 1993, included in Quilt Sampler Magazine in 1997 and featured as one of America’s Favorite Hometown Quilt Shops by McCall’s Quilting in 2010. It is the largest shop in western Pennsylvania. Located in the Pittsburgh area, the shop showcases Karen’s fabric designs for Timeless Treasures, her original patterns and the Quick Trim Ruler she designed for Creative Grids. Karen’s projects can be found in catalogs and magazines around the world. Visit Karen’s website at: http://www.thequiltcompany.com/home.aspx
Melissa Jackson isn’t famous, nor is she a stitching celebrity. She’s a needlework enthusiast who hasn’t met a fiber art that didn’t pull her in. While I met Melissa as a cross stitcher, I was surprised and delighted that her reach into the fiber arts is wide and ongoing.
The concept of The Slow Stitching Movement wasn’t new to Melissa. She was familiar with the Slow Food Movementand appreciates the connection between slow food and slow stitching. From practicing ethical shopping, to healing and growing through her art, and practicing slow stitching in her own work, I found her insight illuminating.
The Slow Stitching Movement 
