Some reading, listening and viewing for the Easter long weekend, or the cooler weather coming.
Let’s talk about sewing to survive, with Lucy Adlington
Most of us sit at our sewing machines for pleasure. Now try and imagine sewing because your life depends on it? Today’s guest, Lucy Adlington is the author of ’The Dressmakers of Auschwitz’. It’s a chronicle of the women who used their sewing skills to survive the Holocaust, stitching beautiful clothes at an extraordinary fashion workshop created within one of the most notorious WWII death camps … Interview, Karen Brown, Just Get It Done Quilts (Link from Chris Rollison - thank you).
How to make an Australian quilt
From convicts on the high seas to the CWA ladies of Scone, we celebrate the stories of hope, love and courage behind the families and communities who have sewn some of Australia’s most exquisite quilt … Samantha Trenoweth, Australian Women’s Weekly, March 2024.
This article is not available at the AWW website, but it is available in print and on Libby, the free e-loan service to cardholders that includes magazines, provided by most local council libraries.
Preparing a quilt for longarming
If you’re preparing a quilt to be sent to a longarmer, you may be wondering what steps you should take in order to get your quilt ready.
Here are the five simple steps I ask all of my longarming clients to complete before they mail me their projects … Ma Tante Quilting, 2024
Includes links to a downloadable version of the checklist and a video version.
Schmetz sewing machine needles chartSchmetz needles are colour coded for size and type. Schmetz has published a diagram to help to identify them. Definitely worth having a printout in your sewing space. Download as an image or a .pdf
An online exhibition of work by the students of New Zealand fibre artist
Fleur Woods, completed during her online
Joyful Embroidery course, offered through
Fibre Arts Take Two.
… You can feel the joy in these works, the wildness, the bravery. We have reclaimed the word ‘Untamed’ to mean free. A sense of freedom from the restraints of any rules or ideas that have inhibited our ability to express ourselves. Embroidery has moved into a new space where we can celebrate the traditional while pushing into new territory with fibre and mark-making that honors our creative souls … Fleur Woods, Joyful Embroidery Student Exhibition 2024, Fibre Arts Take Two.
If you’d like to read even more about Fleur Woods and her Joyful Embroidery course, visit The Maker’s Stash blog for Leela’s interview with Fleur, her thoughts on Fleur’s book, and her experience of doing the course.
Note: it is very easy to fall into a number of delightful rabbit holes following these links. There are currently three other exhibition on the Fibre Arts Take Two website (in addition to information about their many online courses), and Fleur Woods website also includes many appealing offerings. So settle in - or at least prepare to create some book marks for future browsing.
