Slow Stitching August 2020 with Chawne Kimber, Kim Eichler-Messmer & Nichole Vogelsinger
Sunday afternoon, August 2nd through Saturday late morning, August 8th
Medomak Retreat Center, Washington, Maine
$1,700
Please note this cost reflects the addition of a day (from previous years) to our retreat together.
Sadly I have had to cancel this retreat due to the Coronavirus. It is my intention to return in 2021, but due to the fluid nature of the pandemic, any decisions will be delayed until at least the beginning of 2021. If you are interested in staying up to date with any developments I recommend you sign up for the newsletter.
A small group of just thirty stitchers will spend five days in exploration of line, color, and stitch at a contemplative pace. Surrounded by the woods, on the edge of a lake, with the rustic beauty and charm of Maine as the backdrop. Small groups, individual pacing, natural inspiration-this will be a week for unwinding and exploring....
As an expansion from previous years, an additional day has been added to this year’s retreat. We’ll have even more time to unwind, connect, and stitch…
Would you like to slow down and spend some quality time with your stitching? Maine is a beautiful place to turn down the volume, shut off the email, leave the phone in your room, and spend some time with a needle and thread. This year three world class sewists and makers: Chawne Kimber; Kim Eichler-Messmer; and Nichole Vogelsinger, will share their time, their stitches, their color, and their spirit with you for five full days in Washington, ME, come August.
Join Chawne, Kim, Nichole, Katherine, and I at the Medomak Retreat Center in Washington, ME where you can relax, unwind and dive into your stitching practice. You will sleep in a modern yet rustic cabin, eat three meals a day with the community, and spend as much time as you like with color, needle, and thread. Each day will be spent with Chawne, Kim, and Nichole learning their techniques and tips, and practicing new skills or sharpening old ones. The emphasis here is on settling into your Making practice and letting the rest of it float away....
~Chawne is an integral part of the Slow Stitching retreat, having been a founding instructor. This year she returns to teach Prairie points. Let’s get sculptural! Using the prairie point (just a folded square of fabric), you’ll explore the possibilities of this traditional quilt embellishment. You’ll make experimental pine burrs and fish scales and then improvise and discover new ways of feeling triangles. The emphasis is on play here.
~Kim returns to share a new spin on the natural dye pot. Natural Dye 2.0 : Multiple Colors from One Dye Pot. This summer we will expand your natural dye repertoire with mordant painting to create multi-colored fabrics from one dye pot. Kim will cover the basics of mixing, thickening, and blending mordants and mordant discharge, and you’ll flex your creative muscles by painting them directly onto your fabric. You will then watch as your designs are transformed into stunning, one of a kind textiles in the dye pot.
~ Nichole will share her personal approach to modern embroidery with us. In her workshop, you will create a layered fabric collage, sized to fit within an embroidery hoop, with pieces of your favorite fabrics. You will bring a selection of fabrics and create a project that is custom to you. No two projects will look alike! You will then learn decorative embroidery stitches which will further enhance your project. Learn how to add embellishments like beads, sequins and even Stumpwork elements to your project to further create dimension and texture. This workshop is perfect for all levels of embroiderers, beginning though advanced.
You will spend a day with each teacher, with plenty of time for inspirational wanderings. On the fourth day we will have a small field trip to the coast, and a couple of fabulous local fabric stores. Or if you prefer, you can go for a swim, take a hike, do some stitching, some reading, or whatever your heart desires. And then there is one more day, this year, to do whatever your heart desires…! The fabric swap has proven both fun and useful in the past, so it’s returning. In the interests of both consuming less and moving fabric through the community, outside of the world of commerce. The primary focus will be on slowing down, taking time, connecting to your practice, the community, and your inner voice. Evenings will be open for more stitching, knitting, conversing, star gazing, cricket concerts, Loon appreciation, and anything else you might like to do in Maine in August....
Chawne Kimber
Chawne is a quilter and embroiderer known for detailed pixelated stitch portraits and for her use of bold colors in her original improvisational quilt designs. She has never shied away from a challenge due to tedium and has never met a color she didn't think had potential. Hand piecing, hand quilting, and very, very, slow machine stitching are just her speed. When not stitching, Chawne can be found knitting, teaching math, or proving theorems. You can see more of her work on her blog, Completely Cauchy.
Nichole Vogelsinger
Nichole Vogelsinger lives in scenic Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her husband and two boys. She is a self-taught fiber artist and stitcher and comes from a family of creatives who she credits for her early interest in art and fabric and sewing. In 2012, she began creating her signature style embroidery hoop designs which involved cutting and layering pieces of fabric and then embellishing them with embroidery. She also began sharing her process on Instagram (@wildboho) and has inspired thousands since. She describes her work and style as a free-spirited blend of chaos and control and invites stitchers to be unafraid of bending (or breaking!) the rules. She enjoys teaching embroidery workshops throughout the United States. She is the author of Boho Embroidery: Modern Projects from Traditional Stitches and Boho Embroidery: The Pattern Collection. Her first class with Bluprint, Boho-Style: Mixed-Media Embroidery, launched in 2019. For more information, please visit her website at www.wildboho.com.
Kim EIchler-Messmer
Kim Eichler-Messmer learned how to sew in the 5th grade when she made a quilt with her dad out of old shirts. She went on to receive a BFA in Printmaking and an MFA in Textiles and is currently an Associate Professor of Fiber at the Kansas City Art Institute. Kim's work has been shown extensively in national juried and solo shows. Her book "Modern Color: An Illustrated Guide to Dyeing Fabric for Modern Quilts" was published in 2014. She teaches workshops on color theory, dyeing, and quilting around the country and at her studio in Kansas City. You can see more of her work on her website, Kim E-M Quilts.
If your time in Maine opens up even more pathways to creativity, our good friend, Katherine Ferrier will offer up her workshop, Making, Being, and Being Made, Contemplative Writing for Makers, again this year. If you are interested you can sign-up for this 2 hour workshop on site.
Katherine Ferrier is familiar to those who have spent any time at an AGOS event, but for those new to this forum, she is a poet, dancer, maker, teacher, curator, and community organizer. Her research grows out of a deep practice of paying poetic attention to the world, and lives in the intersecting communities of movers, makers, writers and activists. A self-taught quilter, she has improvisationally designed and constructed nearly 100 quilts, drawing on her studies, both formal and independent, of movement, poetics, painting, and architecture, among other forms. She is the Director of the Medomak Fiberarts Retreat in Washington, Maine, and has recently expanded her fluency as a maker by embracing felting, weaving, and natural dyeing. She regularly teaches and performs throughout the US and abroad, and believes in patchwork as a radical practice of being patient, saying yes, and making space for everyone at the table.
Registration includes lodging in a cabin with one roommate, all meals, and all instruction for six days. The cabins are rustic and spare, but modern and comfortable. Please do note that many of the cabins are in the woods, and require an uphill walk. If mobility is an issue for you, please contact me when you register. There is a limited number of private cabins available for an extra $200. Let me know quickly if this is your preference. If you are coming with a friend, just let me know when you register and I'll put you in the same cabin. There are even a couple of cabins for three people if you’re bringing friends. We can accommodate most dietary restrictions within reason, just alert us to your needs in advance.
A supply list will be sent out at least a month in advance of your arrival in Maine.
Otherwise, all you have to do is get yourself here, I'll take care of the rest. I will send out recommendations for what to wear and bring in advance. I send very detailed emails about how to get here, what to bring, how to prepare. Read them when they show up, most everything you could need will be in there…
Our fabulous massage therapist, Lori Cressler will return to further assist in slowing us all down.... Massages can be scheduled on site.
The food at camp is simple, wholesome, and satisfying. Please notify me of food allergies, or if you are Vegetarian (specify if you do/do not eat dairy, eggs, fish, etc…) , but we suggest that unless you have a specific condition, you will find plenty to nourish you during your time at camp.
Medomak Retreat Center is in Washington, Maine, about 80 minutes from the Portland airport, 3 hours drive from Boston, 7 hours drive from NYC. Washington is only 30 minutes inland from Camden. The campus has 250 acres of blueberry fields and forest, with trails for hiking, tennis courts, and lakefront where canoes and kayaks are available. The cabins are clean but spare and you have two choices of arrangements. Share a cabin with one other for the $1,700, or if you'd like a more intimate experience pay another $200 for a private cabin, just let me know your preference in the form and I will adjust your registration fee. Do note that there is a limited number of private cabins available.
In order to give you plenty of time to check, and double check, your schedule, and confer with partners, bosses, children, parents, and pets, to make sure this will work for you, I delay the opening of registration. This year registration will open Sunday March 1st at 3:00pm EST. I will send an email to my newsletter group when registration opens. If you want to be notified when registration is open, you should sign up for the newsletter, spots have gone quickly in the past….. You will need to pay a non-refundable deposit to register, and then arrangements can be made for how to pay your balance.