Threads of Sustainability

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Join us for this episode with the lovely Krista Hennebury- prolific quilter and teacher who lives on Bowen Island, BC.  Our conversation gets into how  Krista started quilting, and then how her approach and practice has evolved and expanded to explore sustainability in different ways, such as by using retired clothing in quilts and creating useable objects out of scraps like jeans. We chat about some of the challenges and pressures around how to get out of creative slumps, and understanding creativity and creative practice broadly. 

About Krista

Krista Hennebury is a geologist by training and quilter by choice. She's been quilting since 2000 in her home studio, currently located on Bowen Island, B.C. Her semi-retired blog is poppyprintcreates.blogspot.ca but these days she mostly shares on Instagram as@poppyprint. Passionate about sharing her love of quilting with others and fostering community through stitching together, Krista established a successful day-retreat business in 2005. She is a popular teacher, presenter and certified Aurifilosopher, working with general and modern guilds all across Canada and internationally, including an Alaska cruise,  Australia, Sweden, the U.S., Scotland, England and at Quilt Canada 2019. Since 2020, Krista has taught and lectured at over 90 Zoom events around the world. She describes her work as traditionally-informed modern quilting, using designer prints, solids, linen and retired clothing. Her original patterns have been published in Stitch,  Australian Homespun, Quilters Connection, Simply Moderne and Quilt Now magazines. Krista’s had 15 quilts juried into QuiltCon and Quilt Canada since 2014 and won awards at both shows.

Her book of retreat-inspired projects Make It, Take It was published by Martingale in 2015 and she’s twice been a guest on American Patchwork & Quilting Podcast with Pat Sloan. Krista is delighted that her quilt “Chess on the Steps” appears in Modern Quilts: Designs of the New Century, 2017and her“Blackbird Fly” quilt appears in Thomas Knauer’s beautiful book Why We Quilt, 2019.

Instagram: Poppyprint
FB: Krista Hennebury
Blog: poppyprintcreates.blogspot.com
Email: [email protected] 

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Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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This episode features Graham Stewart, a textile production expert whose company Fibre52 is breaking new ground in sustainable cotton processing.  Our discussion explores the evolution of sustainable dying practices,  different types of dyes and their environmental impacts. Join us for this fascinating  conversation that touches on everything from the circular economy to the intricacies of textile supply chains, and how home sewers and textile artists can make informed choices around dying their fabrics.

About Graham

Graham Stewart is an international textile and apparel production fiber to brand specialist working with world-class organizations. For the past two years, Graham has developed and patented a more sustainable process to bleach and dye cotton.

About FIBRE52

Fibre52 is environmentally kind and cost-conscious processing for cotton with global application. It's an inexpensive replacement for traditional and outdated cotton preparation methods used to produce a PFD and dyed fabric. Fibre52 uses natural products instead of heavy chemicals, at lower temperatures, with less energy, less water, and less processing time.

Website: https://www.fibre52.com/

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Join us for this episode with the wonderful Zoe Edwards - sewing teacher, podcaster, and blogger, who works mostly in the garment sphere.  Our conversation jumps into all sorts of different topics. Zoe has lots of interesting insights into the fast fashion industry, having worked there earlier in her career. We dive into the complexities of what it really means to make your own clothes (and/or textile art) sustainably, how to encourage people to get more comfortable wearing their handmade wardrobes and to be mindful about making garments that they will love and wear for a long time. 

About Zoe

Zoe Edwards is a passionate sewing teacher, blogger, writer, and mother who is obsessed with all things sewing and sustainability. She started her blog, 'So, Zo... What Do You Know?' thirteen years ago, and it has since become a major fixture in the sewing-and-making community. Zoe created the popularwardrobe challenge 'Me-Made-May,' which has thousands of participants each year pledging to wear their 'me-mades' in new ways and improve their relationship with their handmade wardrobes. She has taught sewing and dressmaking classes for eight years and wrote a book during the lockdown in 2020 about mending and altering clothing, titled 'Mend It, Wear It, Love It.' Zoe's new podcast, 'Check Your Thread,' explores ways to reduce the impact of the climate crisis through sewing. She's a creative force who inspires others to pursue their passions with sustainability in mind.

About Zoe's Check Your Thread Podcast

Each week Check Your Thread looks at how to sew more sustainably, through inspiring conversation and fun explorations. For those of us who are concerned about the climate crisis but love sewing our own clothes, it’s an opportunity to nerd out about garment sewing, whilst figuring out ways to reduce the impact it may have on the planet. 

https://checkyourthread.com/

https://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/

https://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/p/about-me-made-may.html

IG: https://www.instagram.com/checkyourthread/

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Join us for this wonderful meandering conversation that takes us through Zak's journey into and within quilting,  finding his artist status, his drive to create meaningful quilts and stories of special projects along the way. Zak has an intimate storytelling ability that draws you in and places you right alongside him. The community he engages with and his exploration of self and artistic expression are fundamental to the work he is doing today. We thread sustainability concerns and solutions we see going on in our world today throughout the chat. 

Zak Foster

Raised in rural North Carolina and now living in Brooklyn, New York, Zak is a community-taught artist whose work draws on Southern textile traditions and repurposed fabrics. He practices an approach to design that is intuitive and improvisational. He is especially drawn to preserving the stories of quilts and specializes in memory quilts and burial quilts. His work has been featured on the red carpet of the Met Gala, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as in various magazines, websites, and galleries. His QUILTY NOOK community connects and inspires quilters and makers all over the world.

Guide: How to make your work mean something
https://nook.zakfoster.com/meaningful/

You can find Zak here:

⤷ SITE
⤷ INSTAGRAM
⤷ THE QUILTY NOOK
⤷ SEAMSIDE PODCAST

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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This episode features Sonya Oblak, a thrifty, improvisational quilter who recently built her dream home with an ideal quilt studio in northern Canada. Sonya shares her must-haves for a quilt studio and reflects on her 25 years of thrifting and quilting, offering tips on how to thrift for fabric for quilts and sharing her favourite thrift store finds. Did you know it only takes 6-7 shirts to make a quilt top? 

She also shares her passion for improvisational quilting that tell inspiring quilt stories, encouraging quilters to challenge themselves and show off their scrap quilts. Sonya shares her scrap and thread bit storage ideas so that her scraps are easy to access for her next project. She uses every bit of the clothing she upcycles including the seams in her hobby of crocheting rag rugs. We also talk about how busy hands are important for mental health, it’s ok to have an active mind!

Living in a high-efficiency designed home in the Yukon with solar, Sonya has also found ways to bring sustainability into quilting, sharing practical steps to create a better world and keep fabric and textiles out of the waste stream. She offers advice for newbies to sustainability, including identifying linen and cotton from thrifted materials.  

Join us in this inspiring conversation as we explore how small choices we make can impact all areas of our lives, how sustainability in quilting can lead to a better world for all, and how we can make quilting accessible while preserving traditional up-cycling practices.

Plus, don't forget to take up the challenge, show off your scrap quilts on IG, and tag us!

You can find Sonya on Instagram: @Sonya.oblak

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Bill Stearman and I are friends and colleagues. We both quilt, we both teach, we are both passionate about our journey and feel strongly about telling our stories. I met Bill at a quilt conference 4 years ago, where I was speaking about sustainability and he was speaking about his journey as a gay man, expressing his stories through his modern quilts. That pivotal meeting is where Bill decided he wanted to do more than just tell the amazing stories he does. He also wanted to bring sustainability into the narrative. He's been working towards that ever since. 

We talk about all kinds of connections, concerns and solutions that he has come across as he has journeyed. We also talk about some of our personal stories that we feel very strongly about sharing with openness and kindness. 

Bill struggled with storytelling as a way to make sense of his life for many years. And then discovered his voice in quilt making. 

Fabrics and carefully placed stitches express joy, anguish, hope, gratitude, and love, providing glimpses into deep and important stories; stories that matter on personal and social levels. 

His quilts make bold statements and provoke thoughtful consideration of a variety of issues. 

You can find Bill here:

Facebook: Bill Stearman
Instagram: @bill_stearman
Website: http://billstearmanquilts.blogspot.com/

You can get tickets on Eventbrite for Bill's talk  on February 27th, 2023

Toward Sustainability as a Quilt Maker
toward-sustainability-as-a-quilt-maker-bill-stearman-tickets-

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Elana Frosk from Oeko-Tex joins Bridget in this episode to get deep into the weeds of certifications. She loves nerding out just a little about this topic. It's near and dear to her heart. Labelling and certification not only assure us of the authenticity of a product in its claims but also gives the industry data to work with to make more strides in sustainability. They talk about why people should care about certification, this one addresses harmful substances in the textile world. Companies need to get on this train, consumers are starting to demand more and more transparency when it comes to having healthy textiles. 

If a textile article carries the STANDARD 100 label, you can be certain that every component of this article, i.e. every thread, button and other accessories, has been tested for harmful substances and that the article, therefore, is harmless for human health. 

Below is their web page on OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100: 

https://www.hohenstein.us/en-us/oeko-tex/output-control/standard-100

Below is their web page on OEKO-TEX® MADE IN GREEN:

https://www.hohenstein.us/en-us/oeko-tex/output-control/made-in-green

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oekotex
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/oeko_tex/

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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TeDi Jansen from Small Acre Farm does all the things on her farm. She has goats, sheep, botanical dye plants and even grows cotton! She does it all,  after losing her job, she decided she wanted to do work that felt connected to the land. Starting from making goat-milk soap, she brought in the animals and slowly started adding fibres to her offerings. Now that is her primary business and you can tell she loves every part of it. 

TeDi is a shepherdess, spinner, botanical dyer, weaver and reluctant knitter. After a midlife career change she turned to her sheep for inspiration. They whispered to her about creative yarns, woven goods, botanical dyeing and teaching those fiber skills to others, so she did just that. Her farm is both livelihood and classroom. She and her partner host workshops, fiber events, tours and small farm and fiber enthusiasts regularly.

"Spending my days with the sheep, goats and dogs on the farm helped me evaluate my life, my next steps and reconnect with the slow, simple life I'd become so disconnected from. While makings a batch of soap one day it occurred to me that I could share these simple pleasures with others and carve out a life I loved in the process.

I hope our farm goods bring the joy and peace of simple living to you.

TeDi

Chief Shepherdess"

You can find TeDi Jansen and Small Acre Farm online at:
https://www.smallacrefarm.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/timberandtwine.co
Instagram: www.instagram.com/timberandtwine.co

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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It's a new year and a new season for the podcast. Jasper and I dive into some of the lessons learned, ideology and themes that have developed over the season of guests on the podcast. Jasper is a young adult with a very different perspective on the world from myself, so we have some interesting conversations. He even challenges me to think about what else I can do in my own quilt art. 

The overarching themes of People, Profit and Planet that are core to sustainability have been evident among all of the guests over the last season.  Jasper and I dig into some of the ideas of sustainability, the importance of all of the pillars and how people are working to bring sustainability into their work. 

We also dig into a wish list of guests, and topics for the new season with a sneak peek of what's to come. 

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar

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Quilts as a form of activism can be the bridge between science and the public. They bring together the urgent ideas behind what we are seeing with climate change through accessible art forms. We talk about this and so much more. We even share tips on making simple shopping changes by making your own soap, yogurt and almond milk!

Sue Herman has won International awards for her quilts, including the very recent Best of Show for "Dear Humans".

Her fabric creations connect her to the spectacular places and wildlife she has seen in her travels.  She aims to give the animal kingdom a voice, by transforming white cotton into lifelike images through many hours of precise painting with dyes and thread. She is passionate about protecting earth’s creatures along with their habitats and hopes her work will inspire you to share her sense of urgency around this message. 

You can see more of her work here:
Instagram: @suesshermanquilts
Facebook: @sueshermanquilts
Website: https://sueshermanquilts.com/

Support the show

Follow Bridget O'Flaherty @bridgetoflahertycreates on Instagram and @bridgetoflahertycreates on Facebook.

You can find her online at www.bridgetoflaherty.com

Thanks to Isaac Matthews for creating the music, follow him on Instagram @isaacmatthewsguitar