SEAMSIDE: Exploring the Inner Work of Textiles ZAK FOSTER

My good friend [Maura Grace Ambrose](https://www.instagram.com/folkfibers/?hl=en) joins for me for this SEAMSIDE special episode I’m calling FREE ADVICE where we answer your questions on quilting and the creative life.

In this episode, we share our thoughts on the following questions:

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

In this episode, I share more about a quilt I call LIKE FAMILY. It's part of the Southern White Amnesia Collection, which explores the kinds of stories that Southern White families tell one another, or maybe more importantly, the ones they don’t tell one another about their own family history. You may have heard me talk about other pieces in the same collection on SEAMSIDE before, and if not, I'd encourage you to check out some of those episodes. So far, we've got SILVER DOLLAR, SNAKE HANDLER, OUR CHILDREN, and ONUS // ON US

I first met Victoria Van Der Laan in Catskill, New York, standing in the gravel driveway in front of the HUDDLE House where me and twenty-five other NOOKers where spending a long weekend quilting together. I had assumed she’d jsut whisk me away for a quick coffee and pastry while I was in town and that would be it, but Victoria ended up coming back to the house for a trunk show and then spent all afternoon with us just sewing and sharing stories. Noticing the warmth and generosity she moves through the world with, I knew we’d become fast friends.

I think I’ve been thinking about time all wrong. I’m not sure it’s linear, but maybe that it accretes and infuses itself into itself. What does all that mean? This quilt says it better than I ever can.

Talking to Kathryn Greenwood Swanson is like completing an electrical circuit that you hadn’t realized was open. Big ideas just light up this entire conversation. Kathryn and I catch up on the one year anniversary of our SEAMSIDE chat to catch up on everything that’s happened since we last talked. If you haven’t heard our first conversation, Kathryn runs a thriving creative reuse shop in Turner Falls, Massachusetts called Swanson’s Fabric, and you can find it in the feed on January 9, 2023. In that conversation we talked about: the role of the communal stashhouse, the shame so often associated with our fabric stashes, and how to start your own secondhand fabric store like Swansons.

In this SEAMSIDE conversation, Kathryn and I talk about:
① how to work with the energy of objects
② fixing the entire world in one fell swoop
③ our dreams for a cross-country multi-city quilty bus tour

Talking to Kathryn Greenwood Swanson is like completing an electrical circuit that you hadn’t realized was open. Big ideas just light up this entire conversation. Kathryn and I catch up on the one year anniversary of our SEAMSIDE chat to catch up on everything that’s happened since we last talked. If you haven’t heard our first conversation, Kathryn runs a thriving creative reuse shop in Turner Falls, Massachusetts called Swanson’s Fabric, and you can find it in the feed on January 9, 2023. In that conversation we talked about: the role of the communal stashhouse, the shame so often associated with our fabric stashes, and how to start your own secondhand fabric store like Swansons.

In this SEAMSIDE conversation, Kathryn and I talk about:
① how to work with the energy of objects
② fixing the entire world in one fell swoop
③ our dreams for a cross-country multi-city quilty bus tour