Slow Stitching July
JULY 15-21, 2024
MEDOMAK RETREAT CENTER, WASHINGTON, MAINE
with Maria Shell, Bianca Springer & Kim Eichler-Messmer
A small group of just thirty-six Makers will spend five full 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....
We successfully gathered the last three years, with care and consideration despite Covid. We intend to do the same this year.
I continue to take Covid seriously. All possible precautions will be observed. Up-to-date vaccines are required for participation. Testing will be required upon arrival. There are protocols for the possibility of a case at Camp. Those will be shared with each group in advance of gathering.
Are you seeking the time and space to slow down and connect with your skills, your agency, your creative practice? In these challenging chaotic, isolating ‘post’ pandemic days, we crave connection and community with other Makers. Maine is a good place to retreat, step back from the daily pace, and spend some time in community with needle, thread, cloth, and dyepot. This August, I invite you to join Maria Shell, Kim Eichler-Messmer, and Bianca Springer to make that time and space for yourself.
Join Maria, Kim, Bianca, 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 Maria, Kim, or Bianca, learning their techniques and tips, and practicing new skills or sharpening old ones. In addition there are two days of time for musings, wanderings, exploration, and epiphany, both of the textile and human variety. The emphasis here is on settling into your Making practice and letting the rest of it float away....
~Kim is returning to share her knowledge of Indigo + Shibori. Indigo is a rich and beautiful dye, with earliest examples dating back 6000 years ago. Found in a variety of plants, indigo is the only natural dye that produces a blue color. Together we will create a natural indigo vat, discuss the proper care and maintenance of the vat, and explore a variety of methods for creating gorgeous color and pattern on cloth including ombre and hand-sewn shibori. Each participant will leave with several pieces of their own indigo dyed cloth and a new appreciation for this ancient, magical dye process.
~Maria is joining us for the first time this year to share her Skinny Lines & Fat Curves workshop. This freewheeling improv piecing workshop takes two of Maria's favorite elements and combines them into what you might call a STATEMENT QUILT. You will explore the boundaries of curved piecing improvisationally while also adding pieced skinny lines to and around the curves. Students can go deep and get busy with lots of piecing or go wide and create a robust and dynamic quilt with just a few dramatic shapes and lines. It all starts with a sketch that we use as the leaping off point into improv design and piecing. Satisfaction guaranteed.
~Bianca is joining us for the first time this year to teach embroidery. Embellish a garment with hand-embroidery! In this workshop, you will learn a range of beginner embroidery stitches to make your wearable art. You provide the base garment: denim jacket, jeans, hoodie, dress overalls, fabric or whatever you like. Choose to add patchwork applique, traditional hand-embroidery, or sashiko style stitching to your pieces. You will learn multiple image transfer techniques to create your own unique designs. A range of iron-on patterns, printable patterns and stencils will be available for use. Bianca will share some shortcuts and tips for embroidering on knit and heavyweight fabrics.
You will spend a day with each teacher, with plenty of time for inspirational wanderings. Two back-to-back, then a break. On the third day we will make a small field trip to the coast and a fabulous local fabric store. Or if you prefer, you can go for a swim, take a hike, do some stitching, some reading, or whatever your heart desires. The last day of instruction is on Friday. Then Saturday is entirely for you to do with as you please. Check in with one of the instructors on a technique you need clarification on, take a nap, sew with new friends, the day is yours!
We will have a fabric swap, so bring any fabrics that aren’t singing to you any more. I like the idea of moving fabric through the universe free of the capitalist system. The swap nights are always tons of fun!
The primary focus for the week will be on slowing down, taking time, connecting to your practice, the community, and your inner voice. Evenings will be open for more stitching, conversing, knitting, star gazing, cricket concerts, Loon appreciation, and anything else you might like to do in Maine in July....
Kim Eichler-Messmer
Kim Eichler-Messmer is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator. Her work is grounded primarily in textiles through which she explores nature and built environments using pattern, color, structure, line, and rhythm. Currently an Associate Professor of Fiber at the Kansas City Art Institute, Eichler-Messmer earned an MFA in textiles from the University of Kansas and a BFA in studio art from Iowa State University. Her work has been exhibited across the US and abroad including shows at the Iowa Quilt Museum (Winterset, IA), QuiltCon, Penland Gallery (Penland, NC), India Quilt Festival (Chennai, India), and Tokushima Cultural Center (Tokushima, Japan). She was an artist in residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and Prairieside Cottage + Outpost. She is the author of Modern Color: An Illustrated Guide to Dyeing Fabric for Modern Quilts and has taught numerous workshops on surface design, natural dye, and quilting across the US.
Maria Shell
Maria Shell’s work is grounded in the tradition and craft of American quilt making. She strives to take the classical components of a traditional bedquilt and manipulate them with the hope of creating surprising combinations of pattern, repetition, and color for the viewer.
Maria is the recipient of a Sustainable Arts Foundation 2011 Winter Award, a Rasmuson Foundation Project Award and two Rasmuson Fellowships (2009, 2013, 2017). She has had several solo and small group shows including fiber at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts in Hamilton, Ohio, Right Lines & Circles at the Ormond Beach Memorial Art Museum and Gardens in Ormond Beach, Florida, Line + Shape at the Hello Stitch Studio in Berkeley, California, and The Pieced Canvas at the Visions Art Museum in San Diego, California. Her most recent solo exhibition is Off the Grid which was on view at the Shelburne Art Museum in Shelburne, Vermont from May—October 2022. Her first book Improv Patchwork—Dynamic Quilts Made with Line & Shape was published in 2017. You can see more of Maria’s work on her website mariashell.com or learn more about her process by visiting her blog talesofastitcher.com.
Bianca Springer
Bianca Springer is a garment sewist, pattern designer, sewing instructor, experimental quilter and fiber artist. Bianca is a small business owner, the creator of unique sewing pattern weights, hand-embroidery patterns and kits. Bianca is a contributing writer for Sew News magazine, Creative Machine Embroidery magazine, she shares her talents as a Brand Ambassador for Shannon Fabrics, Baby Lock, Nature’s Fabric and is an Arrow Creator.
Bianca identified a lack of diversity and inclusion in mainstream hand-embroidery books. She is the author of the book, Represent! Embroidery. Stitch 10 Colorful Projects: 100 Designs Featuring a Full Range of Shapes, Skin Tones & Hair Textures. In it, Bianca shows how to add depth, dimension and social commentary to art pieces, bags, garments, and home décor. Bianca loves upcycling and reimagining discarded textiles with fiber and fabric.
She can be found on her website: www.biancaspringer.com
On Instagram: @thanksimadethem
Registration includes lodging in a cabin (shared, or otherwise), 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. We can accommodate most dietary restrictions within reason, just alert us to your needs in advance.
There are ten private cabins available. You can make this choice at registration. However if you do not get a private cabin, I can assure you there is plenty of room in each cabin for two or three adults.
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…
The food at camp is fresh, 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 medical 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 and spare and perfectly comfortable.
After three years of working with Covid as a complication I continue to take it seriously. I require everyone to be vaccinated as recommended by the CDC. You can go to the CDC website HERE for the current guidelines. As of November 8, 2023 the CDC recommends that all adults receive the 2023–2024 updated Covid vaccines: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Novavax. The updated vaccines became available in September 2023. Your vaccination must be from September 2023 or later.
I will ask all who are traveling to be diligent in their masking protocol. We will test upon arrival. These measures are taken to keep us all safe, and allow us to relax into our Making practice. I will have protocols in place in case of a positive test. That protocol will be shared in advance of gathering.
In order to give you some 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 3rd 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.
[Deposits are non refundable, but registrations are transferable. All efforts will be taken to accommodate Covid changes, but the virus moves in mysterious ways, and is good at outmaneuvering me. I ask for your patience and forbearance in dealing with these changes.]