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A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Host Miko Lee speaks with Asian American creatives and Pulitzer prize finalists performance artist Kristina Wong and playwright Lloyd Suh. They reflect on how the covid lock down impacted their work and ruminated on how built communities can arise in times of hardship. One is creating work that explores the times we live in and the other is delving into the past. Each share their creative process and why art matters to them.   Show Note Links Kristina Wong's Website Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, at A.C.T.'s Strand Theater (1127 Market St., San Francisco) March 30 – May 5, 2024. Kristina's Radical Cram School  Lloyd Suh's bio The Far Country BY LLOYD SUH at Berkeley Rep. March 8 – April 14, 2024   Show Transcript Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   Miko Lee: [00:00:28] Good evening and welcome to Apex Express. I'm your host, Miko Lee and tonight we get to hear from two Asian American creatives. Both are Pulitzer prize finalists who have had their work presented around the country. They reflect on how the COVID lockdown impacted their work and they ruminate on how built communities can arise in times of hardship. One is creating work that explores the times we live in and the other is delving into the past to lift up stories that might be missing in history. Each share their creative process and why art matters to them. Tonight, join me as I talk story with performance artist Kristina Wong, whose show Sweatshop Overlord opens at ACT's Strand Theater on March 30th and with playwright Lloyd Suh whose show The Far Country runs at Berkeley Rep until April 14th. First up is my chat with Kristina Wong. Welcome Kristina Wong to Apex Express.   Kristina Wong: [00:01:24] I'm so happy to be here. Thank you.   Miko Lee: [00:01:27] We are so happy to have you as the performance artist, writer, creator of Kristina Wong's Sweatshop Overlord, which will run at ACT from March 30th through May 5th. Yay!   Kristina Wong: [00:01:36] Yes, that's eight shows a week, one body. Just me, everybody. Just me.   Miko Lee: [00:01:43] One woman show. Excellent.   Kristina Wong: [00:01:44] No understudy. I've been looking for an understudy. But apparently the theater doesn't think it works as well if someone else goes around saying they're Kristina Wong. So, I gotta stay healthy. For you!   Miko Lee: [00:01:54] That would be interesting, though. I would actually love to see a multi-people Kristina Wong version. That'd be really interesting.   Kristina Wong: [00:02:02] Yeah. There are enough Kristina Wongs on this planet to do that, but can they do what I do? I don't know.   Miko Lee: [00:02:07] I don't think many people can do what you do. [Kristina laughs] Okay, so I want to start with the question I ask many many people, and this is a big one: who are your people and where do you come from?   Kristina Wong: [00:02:21] My people, so many questions. Well, the people that I was born into, I'm third generation Chinese American, Toisan on my father's side and Cantonese on my mother's side. And we were a San Francisco family. Both my parents were born in San Francisco, went to San Francisco high schools. I went to San Francisco. Now I live in Koreatown, Los Angeles, my alternate Asian universe. I will say that those are the people I was born into. When I was growing up in middle school and high school I was somewhere between a theater kid who also liked making prank calls and was constantly trying to figure out who my people were and what my clique was cause I don't even know if I would totally fit in with the theater kids. And then when I got to college, I discovered radical solo performance work and activism and finally could put, like, words around things that I had been told, “We don't talk about it. You just get really good grades and then just become successful and that's how you deal with that,” you know? But was introduced to interdisciplinary art and naked performers and people putting all their trauma out there in beautiful theater ways. Now as an adult, as I tie it back into the show, Kristina Wong Sweatshop Overlord, my people are the aunties. This community of aunties that I found myself leading for 504 days during the pandemic. I somehow found myself, as many artists did, non essential and running a mask sewing group and needing people to help me sew masks. And a lot of those happened to be aunties, a lot of them were Asian women who had mothers and grandmothers who were garment workers. And we had learned how to sew as survival skills that were passed down to us. And those of late have become my people. And that's the story of the show.   Miko Lee: [00:04:16] Kristina, can you step back for a moment and just tell how that got started? How did Auntie Sewing Squad in the very, very beginning, how did it get started?   Kristina Wong: [00:04:24] March 12th, I was doing what I thought was my last show on earth. For some reason, there was a community college in Sacramento, American River Community College that had not canceled its classes, that had not taken its classes online and I had one last show on the books at 12 in the afternoon. I was doing a show called Kristina Wong for Public Office. I actually ran and served in local office in Koreatown, Los Angeles, where I live and was doing a big campaign rally show about what it meant to run for local office. And the idea was the show was going to tour all of 2020 as we led up to the November 2020 elections. And I sew my set pieces and my props. So you imagine all this American flag bunting made out of felt that I've sewn on a Hello Kitty sewing machine. And so this really ridiculous, like an American flag threw up on the set. Like that was my set. And the show is not going well, the students are very distracted. As it turns out, they are receiving a text in the middle of my show saying we're going online until further notice. So I suddenly have no income. No tour. I'm back in LA. I'm hiding inside my apartment as we all are. Going, “Why did I choose to do this with my life? Why was I so compelled to become an artist? What is my purpose in all this? Why, why did I choose this unessential work?” But then I couldn't feel sorry for myself because there were people who are risking their lives to deliver mail, to work at the grocery store, to go to work every single day at the hospital. And I see this article that I'm tagged in on Facebook saying that hospitals have no masks and are looking for home sewn masks. And the whole culture of mask wearing was so, you know, unheard of at this point and I looked at my Hello Kitty sewing machine and I was like, well I've never sewn medical equipment before. I've sewn my sets. I've sewn a giant vagina costume. I think I can make medical equipment. And I was just sort of called like Joan of Arc to sew. And I made this very naive offer to the internet where I said, if you're immunocompromised or don't have access to masks, I'll get you a mask. I didn't have the materials to do this, but I just offered this because it felt like that's what you were supposed to do in this moment. We were all connected and as strong as our weakest link.   March 20th is when I sewed my first mask. March 24th, I was like, okay, I need help because there's no way. One day when I was sewing nonstop all night, I made about 30 masks. That's not enough to fulfill the list that was exponentially building in my inbox. So I thought, okay, I'll make a Facebook group, and sort of offload some of this work to other people who might be sewing who could help me. And I make the group in a rush. I call it Auntie Sewing Squad. I don't realize our acronym is ASS. I start to add my mother into the group, her friends into the group, all sorts of folks are in the Facebook group. And as it turns out, you can't just start a Facebook group and expect people to just sew, so I, [laughs] so I find myself having to figure out how do we get the materials? How do we teach people how to sew these masks that none of us have sewn before? How do we teach people how their sewing machines work? Because some of them haven't touched their sewing machines in decades. And how do we vet these requests for masks, because a lot of people are panicking in our inbox, and we kind of have to create a system where just because someone's going, “Please send as many as you can,” as many as you can might mean 10 masks, it might mean 300. And are they just panicking right now and they think they need that many masks, or, you know, like, so we just had to make a lot of decisions and it felt like in those first days we were playing God, trying to figure out well, If we've only made a finite number of 15 masks today, who gets them, right? And obviously you're going to look at who's at most risk. So, so this was supposed to just be a two week thing, right? This was supposed to be a thing until the government got the masks off those cargo ships and got them to everybody. This was before masks became a bipartisan thing and a politically polarizing thing. And the group just kept going because we found beyond hospitals there were a lot of very vulnerable communities that could not even afford the cheap masks that were showing up on the market. And we're talking about farm workers, folks seeking asylum at the border, indigenous reservations. We sent a lot to the Navajo Nation and to the Lakota tribe in North and South Dakota. So this ended up going on for over 500 days. It became a community of over 800 volunteer aunties, all sewing remotely, all working remotely. We developed this whole system in which we could respond to the high COVID rates that we were witnessing and to communities that were being adversely impacted, either because they had no access to healthcare or no access to clean water.   Miko Lee: [00:09:03] That's an important one.   Kristina Wong: [00:09:05] Yeah.   Miko Lee: [00:09:06] How many masks did you end up creating?   Kristina Wong: [00:09:08] We ended up sewing in total, what we recorded was 350,000 masks were sewn and distributed. We also rerouted hundreds and thousands of dollars worth of medical equipment to a lot of those places. The thing is, like, in a crisis, and I have to remind us, even though it was four years ago, because we forget so many of the details, if you saw an article that farm workers were getting hit by COVID, you don't, you're not going to just send a bunch of masks to some address you find online, right? Because not everyone's checking their mail, not everyone might be at that office address, you're not clear who might distribute those masks once they arrive. So we had to do a lot of work in terms of calling and working with other mutual aid organizers and these communities and figuring out like, well, what is the actual impact? How are you getting these masks around and how many can we send you at least to hold you over for a week or two, right? Like, yes, there are you know, hundreds of thousands of farm workers, but we're not sitting on a ton of masks that we just, you know, that come out of our butt and that we just have like we actually like sit down at our sewing machines and cut and sew these things. So—   Miko Lee: [00:10:13] And you had to research and make the connections—   Kristina Wong: [00:10:16] Make the connections. Yeah. And some of those requests shifted into full on other kinds of aid. So the Navajo reservation had volunteer sewing groups, but they didn't have access to sewing supplies. I'm in Los Angeles where we have a garment district and we were looking at a map going, well, in theory, someone could drive round trip across a very long day, you know, to, to lessen the risk of exposure. And so our first truck over wasn't, you know, just a van filled with masks, but a van filled with the supplies that they could use to sew masks. And then we learned that only 30 percent of that reservation has running water. That when multigenerational families were getting COVID, there was nowhere to quarantine, so they requested things like tents to quarantine and buckets to make homemade hand washing stations. First it was sewing supplies, but we did about eight runs back and forth to the reservation during the pandemic to get supplies to those mutual aid organizers who could get it to people. I helped secure like a big soap donation from Dr. Bronner's. It was like, we just thought it was just the masks, but we basically stepped in all of structural racism and systemic you know poverty and all the ways the system was broken and it had already left behind a lot of indigenous communities and people of color who are getting hit like super hard by this pandemic. So ASS, our unintentional acronym, Anti Sewing Squad, that's sort of what we fell into was going from, okay, we're going to make a few masks to full on shadow FEMA.   Miko Lee: [00:11:51] Yeah, not even just sewing squad, but sort of a superhero squad. Let us come in where the government has failed and help where we can. It's incredibly powerful. Thank you for doing that.   Kristina Wong: [00:12:02] Yeah, I don't know if I would have done it again, honestly, even though out of it came this incredible show, but if you told me at the top of this, this is actually going to go on for 500 days, I don't know that I would have done it. Like, it was so exhausting, and that's also sort of a joke in the show, is people kept going, “Oh, you aunties, you're heroes, you're heroes!” and I'm like, oh my god, like, heroes are what you call the people who do the work no one wants to pay for apparently, because [laughs] this is, this is, this is, this sucks. This sucks. Like, we don't want to be heroes. We want our systems that, like, we, we just saw how everything failed us in this moment. Capitalism failed us. The medical system failed us. Just all these things that we're supposed to step in, in these moments of crisis didn't work. What I witnessed and why I made a show about this, is I've witnessed how community steps up and I witnessed how these aunties showed me this generosity I've never witnessed in my life. Like most of the friendships I have in Los Angeles are because someone does something for a living and that, serves me and my job in a certain way, right? They're very transactional relationships. And I witnessed people who I had no idea who they were before this moment, willing to come to my house, brave this very unknown pandemic, to pick up a roll of elastic, to sew for a total stranger, risk their life going to the post office to mail these things, right? And so to me, that's, what's worth celebrating is this opportunity that I think that we all had as humanity to witness that this was our moment to all come together, I would say we lost that opportunity and we've just become resentful and whatever, but I, I feel like Auntie Sewing Squad showed me a glimmer of the generosity that was possible. And for me, that's worth celebrating. And the only reason why I feel like it's worth reliving the pandemic. In a 90 minute show.   Miko Lee: [00:13:54] Every night for multiple nights.   Kristina Wong: [00:13:56] Yes, eight nights a week. What am I doing? The show is so, you know, people are like 90 minutes. So long. It's like, it's because the pandemic was so long. I would have loved to cap this at 45 minutes, but this kept going. It kept going.   Miko Lee: [00:14:09] How many members are there in the Auntie Sewing Squad?   Kristina Wong: [00:14:12] I would say. We had and they were all involved in different capacities. I mean, like some of them may have been involved for all of a week before, they got pulled away by their families or job obligations. But we had about 800 different aunties coming in and out of the group. Not all of them were sewing, some of them were organizing spreadsheets, making phone calls, some of them were driving aunties. We had a huge system of care aunties, led by our Auntie Gail and basically, people who couldn't sew who felt really guilty would [be] like, “Can I send you all a pizza?” Which was really necessary because a lot of these aunties were operating on survivor's guilt, right? Of feeling like, well I have this privilege of being able to stay at home while my mailman risks his life to get, you know, get me the mail. Because it's really hard to go to sleep when you know that you at your sewing machine an hour longer could possibly save someone's life. But we also needed to encourage these aunties to stop and rest. You can't just tell people, okay, sew a bunch of masks and expect them to stay motivated to do it. We had aunties who lost family members to COVID. We had aunties who are falling into their own depression and getting isolated. So much of this group wasn't just about like, while we joke it's a sweatshop, a lot of it was this entire community that supported each other, cared for each other. We'd have zoom stitch n bitches where we'd, you know, the aunties would, I was working out this show on Zoom, never thinking that it was going to premiere off Broadway, to basically just entertain the aunties while they were at their sewing machines. Like we were this whole system this became this weird ad hoc family that supported each other through this very strange time. And that was sort of the staying power of why people stayed involved is because they'd never experienced community like this either, which was just all pure generosity. I feel like I'm describing a cult, and I sort of am, but whatever. It's a cult called ASS, so it's fine.   Miko Lee: [00:15:59] Well, a unique community that came together to address the harm that was happening. It's beautiful. Can you go back in time, roll us back in time, to how you first got politicized? I heard you say that about college, but is there a moment that happened for you?   Kristina Wong: [00:16:16] I think I was always a little politicized. I just never really had the language and education around it. When I was 12 years old in our middle school, there was a science lesson plan contest and we basically prepared a science lesson plan and taught it to another class. And my partner and I, we did something about saving the planet and just doing a deep dive. This is the nineties, right? Like how much we were screwing with our planet. And I think I still don't know that we all know the lesson, but I was like a little Greta Thunberg, you know. I just didn't know how to be an activist. It was like, do I collect cans that are thrown on the street? Like, how do I, how do I do this? Like, how does this equate to actual change? And I think that's, I think we have some more of those tools and we're also cognizant about how frustrating those tools are to implement and see happen. But that's, I think the first time I realized I was an activist and it wasn't until I got to college and was introduced to, I didn't know what Asian American Studies was I was like, what? Why would you study that? Like, what is that? I had no idea that Asian Americans have had a whole political history that has worked alongside the civil rights movement and, I had no idea I could put words to the microaggressions I'd expressed my whole life and that I could actually challenge them as not being okay. I went to UCLA. I feel like that's where a lot of people figure out that they're Asian American. That's also where I began to understand the political power of art. What I had understood of activism before that point was marching in rallies, screaming at people, berating people to recycle. But, you know, it's not sustainable. It's exhausting. It makes people want to avoid you. And it's an emotionally depleting. And so being introduced to artists, just sort of sharing their lives and their lives as having political power to put forward and to put meaning to was really incredible to experience like performers. I think some of the first performers I saw just like put themselves forward and all their flawed ways was actually kind of profound and incredible. That's where I was drawn to making art as my sort of form of protest and activism.   Miko Lee: [00:18:26] Is this where the roots of the Radical Cram School came about?   Kristina Wong: [00:18:29] Oh, yeah. Yeah. So Radical Cram School is my web series for children. You can find it on YouTube. And where that started was one of our producers, Teddy Chow, his daughter Liberty had come home and they, at that point they were living in Ohio where they were one of the few Chinese families there. And the daughter said, “I wish I wasn't Chinese.” And Teddy was like, “Can you go talk to her and her friends and make her proud?” And I was like, “You know what? I said that too when I was a kid.” And so somehow this blew up into us like, well, let's create a web series for kids, specifically for Asian kids, because I feel like Asian Americans and kids don't really. We just sort of, the tools we are offered politically don't really have our face in them. Like, we don't really understand where we fit in a political movement, and how to be an ally to black and brown movements. And I was like, let's do a web series where we gather Asian American kids and it to me was a little tongue in cheek. And I feel like a lot of me being in a bubble of other progressives in Los Angeles feels like I can lovingly poke at this idea of a cram school where we're trying to quickly teach Asian kids about the entire world of what's overwhelming and oppression in the setting. And so that became Radical Cram School which went on for two seasons and was completely decried by right wingers like Alex Jones. So I would say that's a success.   Miko Lee: [00:19:53] I think it is so delightful and funny. It's a little mix of like drunk history with Sesame Street.   Kristina Wong: [00:20:00] Yes. Yes. That's exactly what we were going for and I feel like I'm very lucky at some point in my lifetime. Yes, it didn't happen until college and like post college was introduced to all these incredible Asian American activists, many of us who are still with us right now. And this history and I feel like it's worth sharing.   Miko Lee: [00:20:21] The child that inspired the whole series. Was she actually in it?   Kristina Wong: [00:20:26] Liberty. Yes, she was in it. She's in it. She's both in the first and second season.   Miko Lee: [00:20:29] Was it mission accomplished in terms of having a sense of pride of being Asian American?   Kristina Wong: [00:20:35] I think so. It's always ongoing, right? Like I think pride, you don't, you don't get it once and it stays forever. It's something that we like, as we constantly learn to like love ourselves and appreciate what we have. And we're also part of growing a community too, right? Like, it's not just like, Oh, I'm proud. I found my pride at 13 and it stayed. Like, we always feel like kicked to the curb constantly and challenged. And I think, like for me, this pandemic was a really challenging time for Asian Americans. As we witnessed like the backlash, the hate, like how backwards it was that people would equate. Do you remember early on when people were like, can you get COVID from Chinese food? Like, it was just so like, what happened?   Miko Lee: [00:21:13] I mean, the whole Kung flu virus.   Kristina Wong: [00:21:15] The Kung flu, China virus, like all these these just sort of racist associations with it are like, are constantly challenging to our sense of pride. So hopefully having that web series out there will be these touchstones to remind Asian American kids that we exist. We're here. There's a basis. We're not building this from scratch and we may be recording it from scratch or constantly trying to remember this history into existence. But, to me it's a verb, right? The verb of finding pride is always active.   Miko Lee: [00:21:44] I wanted to switch gears a little bit and talk about how you, you often in your work play with gender expectations around Asian women from, you know, like you mentioned before sewing on your Hello Kitty sewing machine, which I have a Hello Kitty sewing machine too.   Kristina Wong: [00:21:59] Yes. It's a good machine. I don't know if it's a Janome.   Miko Lee: [00:22:02] It's actually incredibly practical. It doesn't have the bells and whistles, but it works. Yeah but I remember your big vagina MC for Mr. Hyphen America. I can't believe you sewed that on one of those tiny machines. And then, you have this web series about taking down how white men can date Asian women. And then the other thing is your fake porn site. Can you tell us about that?   Kristina Wong: [00:22:23] Oh, that's like That's 20 years of projects you've just named. Well, my very first project out of college, year 2000, still had dial up internet, my friends, was called BigBadChineseMama.com. You can still look it up. And this is before there were search engines, SEOs. And if you look for Mail Order Bride on Yahoo, because Yahoo was the search engine of choice at the time, it showed up in the top 10 search results for Mail Order Bride. Now, you know, if you look for porn, clearly outnumbered, yeah. So that was like my first project. And a lot of that came out of like me being kind of a depressed college kid and trying to use this thing called the internet to research stuff for my Asian American women class. And all I was finding was pornography and was like, Oh my God, [laughs] we have to like intercept this somehow. And like always feeling like I was not good at being a girl, right? Like the standards for being a good Asian girl, were the extremes. It was like Miss Chinatown, Connie Chung, and then these porn stars that would show up, you know, on these Google, on these searches and that was, that's it, right? So a lot of my projects have been about like being awkward out loud and being uncomfortable out loud and leaning into publicly embarrassing myself, but saying that it's my work.   Miko Lee: [00:23:45] And how has your family responded to your work? You grew up in San Francisco.   Kristina Wong: [00:23:49] Yeah. Oh, they didn't like it at first, but they love it now because I'm a Pulitzer Prize finalist, my friends.   Miko Lee: [00:23:54] Oh, how did that feel to get?   Kristina Wong: [00:23:56] So crazy! You know, I entered, anyone can become a Pulitzer Prize contender. Like you just need 75 dollars and then you mail your entry in and the committee reads it. And so six years before I was a Pulitzer finalist, my friend Brian Feldman and I, we entered our respective plays. Mine was The Wong Street Journal, his was a very experimental piece called Dishwasher. His entry was like two pages long and we were up against Hamilton, which ended up winning. And my mother was so excited because she'd only seen my play, you know, like that was the only play she'd ever seen that year. And she was like, “You're going to win. You're totally going to win.” Which was great that I had her confidence, but I was like, probably going to go to Hamilton. And I actually got a press pass, and I went to Columbia College, where they announced the winner just for press in person, and I happened to just be in New York at that time, and I had prepared three speeches. One, if I won, a speech if I was a finalist, and then the speech if I lost. And I read all three speeches outside after Hamilton was declared the winner of the Pulitzer. So that day when they were announcing it, my, that same friend Brian was like, “Good luck today.” And I was like, “What are you talking about?” And he's like, “They're announcing the Pulitzers.” And then they were announcing it online because you know, it's 2022. And I was like, they're not going to give it to me. I do solo work. I'm an Asian woman. They've never given an Asian woman anything in the drama category and my phone just started exploding at lunch when I was in Chinatown having lunch with some friends and I couldn't believe it. I was just like freaking out and it just feels so dignified, right? And I'm not exactly a dignified person. So I'm like, [laughs] you know, I was like, “Oh my God, this is going to look so good on Tinder. Holy crap, this is crazy.” So it's, I'm still shocked when I look at that by my name. I'm like, this is so weird. But it's just funny because yeah, I entered as a joke six years before, and then I was on the committee the following year reading the applicants. So crazy things happen, folks. Crazy things can happen.   Miko Lee: [00:26:06] I have one more question, which is, you started ASS, Auntie Sewing Squad, in the very beginning when you were making this piece about running for public office. Even though that was created in 2020, you know, we're basically having the same election again.   Kristina Wong: [00:26:19] Yeah, I know. It's a sequel. Why are we in the sequel? I hate sequels.   Miko Lee: [00:26:24] So are you reviving that piece as well?   Kristina Wong: [00:26:27] I did, I have done it a little earlier this year. There have been some requests to maybe do it before November. We will always have elections, so it's a little bit evergreen. I actually had a reality television pilot that didn't get picked up by Trutv. And it was a very self satirizing version of myself that I was going to be playing in this pilot, which was basically satirizing myself as an activist. And it did not make sense once Trump took office to satirize myself, because as it turns out, most of the world have very two dimensional visions of what an Asian American is like and would think that that's who I really was and not get that it was a loving poke at myself. And I think looking at Radical Cram School and how I play myself there can give you a sense of, this won't make sense to everybody. Right. And so I was an out of work reality TV star, and what do you do when you're an out of work reality TV star? You run for public office. So there's a lot of that humor around that era. Just, I think we've just gotten so exhausted with, right? [Laughs]. Like, why, why are these two people still here? Oh my god. This is the best we could do? But there's still a lot of public offices to run for. It doesn't start and end with the presidency or the Senate. The story of the show is like what can happen locally? There are so many local offices that would surprise you. You could literally just go to the meeting and go take the vacated seat and go around saying you're an elected official. For better or for worse, whatever that means. So, but yeah, it did get recorded for Center Theatre Group, but it's not available for streaming anymore. So they did stream it right before the election during the pandemic. And maybe it will have a few more runs right before the election this year, but I'm not sure.   Miko Lee: [00:28:07] Okay, well, keep us posted so that we know. Is there anything else you'd like our audience to know about your upcoming play at ACT, Kristina Wong's Sweatshop Overlord?   Kristina Wong: [00:28:19] I just want to say it's such a special show and I feel very lucky I feel like there's not a lot of this. There's literally pushback in the publishing world and the network TV world where they're like, we do not want you to pitch anything about the pandemic. We are sick of the pandemic. So I feel like this record of this time came under the wire. I'm told it is not annoying as many things about the pandemic are [laughs]. And to me, it's really I find a lot of humor, not at the expense of like how tragic that time was, but in that a group of aunties came together and formed this ad hoc sewing army to protect the country. And, and so this really plays out like a war movie on stage and I think really kind of gives us something to reflect on and appreciate of each other in that moment. And so that's really what I hope brings people out is this need to feel that there's something sort of comforting that we can take from this moment, because I don't know that we got that. I think we just sort of ran from that so fast that we never really reflected. I hope to see everybody at ACT, The Strand Theater on Market, March 30th to May 5th, I believe is when I close. I do shows eight days a week. I do them on weekdays. I do them on weekends. I am living in that theater, folks, and I am living there for you. So please come out. I'll see you. It's Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord. Finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.   Miko Lee: [00:29:44] Kristina Wong, thank you so much for sharing your time with us. And we look forward to seeing the show and learning more about the Auntie Sewing Squad. Thank you so much.   Kristina Wong: [00:29:54] Thanks Miko.   Miko Lee: [00:29:54] This is Apex Express and you are listening to 94.1 KPFA and 89.3 KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1 KFCF in Fresno, 97.5 K248BR in Santa Cruz, 94.3 K232FZ in Monterey, and online worldwide at kpfa.org. Next up, listen to the Radical Cram School where kids learn about the story of Detroit activist and American revolutionary Grace Lee Boggs. This is the project that Kristina Wong was talking about creating to help young Asian Americans have a sense of pride and an understanding of their history. Take a listen to the Radical Cram School.   Radical Cram School: [00:30:43]   Miko Lee: [00:35:24] That was Kristina Wong's Radical Cram School. You can check out more of that on YouTube, which is linked in our show notes. Next up, take a listen to my interview with playwright, Lloyd Suh. Welcome award winning playwright Lloyd Suh to Apex Express.   Lloyd Suh: [00:35:41] Hello.   Miko Lee: [00:35:43] Your new show, The Far Country, is premiering at Berkeley Rep through April 14th and we're so happy to have you here.   Lloyd Suh: [00:35:52] Thanks for having me.   Miko Lee: [00:35:53] Okay I'm going to start with a big question, which is who are your people and where do you come from?   Lloyd Suh: [00:35:58] My family immigrated to the United States, from South Korea in the early 1970s. I was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up mostly in the South suburbs of Indianapolis, Indiana but I've lived in the New York City area for the past like 25 years.   Miko Lee: [00:36:17] Thank you so much for that. I noticed that many of your plays are based around the Chinese American experience and less on your Korean American background. Can you talk a little bit more about what has inspired your artistic play choices?   Lloyd Suh: [00:36:30] Yeah. In the past, like, almost decade, really, I've been writing about these kind of forgotten or underexplored moments in Asian American history. It's kind of very accidental and almost involuntary. I was doing research on one play and it would lead me down a rabbit hole into reading about a story that I just couldn't shake, that I needed to, you know, get in a room with peers and explore. And so one play would just kind of lead to the next, I was writing a play under commission for the National Asian American Theater Company in New York called Charles Francis Chan Jr. That play kind of accidentally became about the history of the stereotypes that kind of permeate around Asian America to this day, and where those stereotypes came from. And in researching that history, there's just so much more scholarship around now, around Asian American history than there was when I was in school. There was just so much to read, and so much that was new to me. And in the process of researching that play, I came across the story of Afong Moy, regarded as the first Chinese woman to set foot in the United States. And there was something about her story that just haunted me, that I just couldn't shake and I knew I needed to get in a room with peers and like really wrestle with it. So in the process of that play, I was researching the exclusion era and it's unavoidable, right? The way in which the Chinese Exclusion Act and the experience of people on Angel Island really serves as kind of a fulcrum for so much of what Asian America is now, right? It created geographical restrictions, legislative, economic, not to mention cultural and stereotypical. Like, it's just the foundation for so much of what we've had to navigate as this obviously, socially constructed, very important sort of attempt at solidarity that we call Asian America. What that led to was just feeling like I'm just following, you know, I'm just following this impulse. I was doing it kind of subconsciously at first, but once I became aware that I was writing this history, it became really clear that what I was looking for, in total was trying to place myself on this continuum, trying to understand, where have we come from and where are we going and where are we now. The Far Country and another one of my history plays, The Heart Sellers, which is kind of a bookend to The Far Country in a lot of ways. were written largely during the pandemic.   Miko Lee: [00:38:57] Oh, that's so interesting. And so you've sort of been on this pathway, a timeline through Asian American history.   Lloyd Suh: [00:39:05] Yeah. It felt different during the pandemic, like, right. Like, before it was kind of impulsive and it felt very organic and I wasn't always very self aware of that, about how one play connected to the other. But once you know, we were in this moment of deep self reflection just based on what was going on in the world at that time too—a pretty intense reckoning in this country over American history, over, you know, who we build monuments to, over our accounting of what it is to be an American and a contemplation about like who we've forgotten. And so it became just more purposeful in that way. It became just clearer, especially as I started to think about the ways in which, you know, I have aging parents and I have growing children and wanting to understand how do I talk about one to the other? How do I place myself and my parents and my children on this continuum of this long arc of history? That doesn't just go backwards, but, you know, it goes forward as well. That in each of these plays, there's a gesture towards the future, and then thinking about the future and when, you know, when characters talk about the future in these plays, I like to think that for actors who are, who are playing those roles, that they can feel really palpably and recognize that when these characters are talking about the future, they're talking about them. And then when audiences hear them talk about the future, they also could feel the ways in which they mean them.   Miko Lee: [00:40:24] So you're both, as Helen Zia says, lifting up these missing in history moments, trying to tell these stories that haven't been told. Also, I hear you're reflecting a lot during that time of COVID during the lockdown time on how do we rise up our stories? I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about the pandemic time and the impact on you as an artist and if the rise in anti-asian hate that really started happening around that time impacted your storytelling.   Lloyd Suh: [00:40:53] Absolutely. Yeah, I mean that whole period was, it was such a bizarre time to be a playwright. I mean, it was a bizarre time to be anything, right? But the idea of writing a play was pretty absurd because there were no theaters, right? And it's like, there's no sense of, hey, when will there be theater again? Right? It just seemed—   Miko Lee: [00:41:15] An unknown, an unknown field, right?   Lloyd Suh: [00:41:17] Yeah, so it was a little silly, right? You're like, oh, your play is due. And you're like, no, it's not [laughs] nobody's going to do anything. Like, why am I writing plays, right? And I think everybody in that time was thinking about, like, why do I do the things that I do? Why do I spend the time on the things that I spend time on? And, you know, our relationship with time was just very different. So very early in the pandemic, I was like, yeah, why am I, why would I write a play? There's no, it just doesn't make any sense right now. But then as I sat with the things that I knew I needed to wrestle with, and just knowing the way I wrestle with things is to write about them, that it felt like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this anyway, even though there's no sense that theater will come back anytime soon. I'm going to do this anyway. And it became an aspirational thing. Like to write a play became aspirational in the sense that it's like, I believe that theater will come back, that we're not all gonna die, that civilization will continue, and that this will matter, right? That what I'm exploring right now, will be meaningful to myself, to my peers and to strangers, in whatever the world looks like then. And so to write aspirationally is pretty, pretty cool. It's different, you know. To be able to write with that aspiration was really valuable. And I think it's part of why and how these plays came to be the kind of plays they are.   Miko Lee: [00:42:40] I appreciate the hopeful side that you are infusing into your plays, given the time that we were in was when many people felt so hopeless. I'm wondering if because you're writing about the immigration station and Angel Island and also the Exclusion Act were, what was happening in the country around, you know, Trump saying Kung flu virus and all the stories about the elders that were getting beat up in Chinatown and, all over the country, the slurs that people were getting. Did that impact or help to inform how you're writing about the Exclusion Act?   Lloyd Suh: [00:43:14] Yeah. I think that reading the news during that time, it's very similar to reading the history, right? You can see where that comes from. I remember during that time, in a lot of news media, tended to make it seem or insinuate that this was new, that this was surprising somehow. Having been immersed in this history, it was frustrating to see the ways in which people, sometimes very smart people [laughs] not recognizing, hey, this is not new. This is ancient. This was there from the beginning. Yeah, of course, that absolutely informs everything. It feels like, yes, I'm writing history, but I'm trying to write out of time. One of the things about writing aspirationally at a time when there is no theater, is you also can't write to a specific time, you know, in the pandemic moment, writing in the pandemic moment you cannot write to the pandemic moment, right? Because you know, oh, this will not be, this is not when these plays will be seen. So you're writing for a kind of a future, right? You're writing for a time that you hope is different, in good ways, but you also acknowledge may be different in, in unpleasant ways.   Miko Lee: [00:44:15] Right.   Lloyd Suh: [00:44:16] But it's also like all of this is out of time, you know, the phenomenon of violence against Asian Americans or against anybody or against a culture is so pervasive throughout history. Right. So, it's not hard to make that or to let that exist out of time. Right.   Miko Lee: [00:44:35] I mean, the violence against the culture is deeply American.   Lloyd Suh: [00:44:38] Yeah. And feeling like it's not something you have to force. It's just something that you have to acknowledge and reckon with on its own terms, which is to say, it's not about 2020. It's not about a particular moment. It's about a long arc of history where these things come from, how they've brewed, how they've festered, how they've lingered, how they've been ignored and forgotten and buried over, and how they might be transformed. How they might be diagnosed, you know, like I think of them as wounds. In a few of these plays, characters refer to, like a sense of historical trauma as a wound, a wound that you can't recognize if you don't know where it comes from. You can't diagnose it and you can't heal it if you can't diagnose it. So part of it is like saying, “Hey, there is a wound.” When I think for a very long time a lot of cultural tradition has been to say, “Push it away, push it away. Move on.”   Miko Lee: [00:45:31] “Keep working. Don't, don't think about it. Just keep working.”   Lloyd Suh: [00:45:33] Yes. Yes. Bury it. And even generation to generation, you don't want to hear those stories.   Miko Lee: [00:45:38] That's right.   Lloyd Suh: [00:45:39] If I have a thesis in any of this, [laughs] it's that, no, we need, you need to know. You know, I think that these characters, this is too early for them to have a name for the concept of epigenetics, but I see it. I see it in tradition, this idea that it does pass down.   Miko Lee: [00:45:54] The trauma through the bloodline.   Lloyd Suh: [00:45:56] Yeah. And so like, if you're going to feel the pain, you got to know where it comes from. If you know where it comes from and if you can deal with it with people, right, with a community on a deep level, then it can be healed. And if you don't, then it never will be.   Miko Lee: [00:46:10] So do you look at most of your plays as a healing modality? Is that what you want from your audiences?   Lloyd Suh: [00:46:15] That's a great question. I mean, I think about that for myself, I would say on a certain level. I mean, I think about it as many things, but that is part of it. Yeah. Like I think about it as I need to understand this. Like, you know, like just thinking about the exclusion era. I felt like, okay, I know I need to write about this because I know we need to make sense of it for myself. I need to understand how it manifests in my life, how it manifests in what is possible for my children, how it manifests in America. So that's part of it for sure for me and for my peers, the people in the room. For audiences, I would say, especially as I've gotten older, I've started to redefine my relationship with audiences in that, like, I had a playwriting teacher once talk about how a playwright's job is to unify an audience. That no matter where an audience comes from, like whatever happened to them that day, they're all coming from different places when they gather in the theater. But through the course of the play, a playwright wants them to become one organism and have the same discoveries in the same moment.   Miko Lee: [00:47:13] Oh, that's interesting. Do you agree with that?   Lloyd Suh: [00:47:16] For a long time I did, but then I had this moment when I was writing a play for young audiences, when I found this really useful tension between like the adults who, you know, thought that the fart jokes were juvenile [laughs] and the young people who would just not understand these references that are there for the adults. And it was kind of cool because you'd feel pockets, different people reacting in different ways. And especially as I was doing some of these early history plays, I found this useful tension between people based on socio location. That Asian American audiences were just naturally responding to different things in a way that was kind of interesting. And so what I realized is if I manipulate an audience so that they're operating as one organism, they're not responding as themselves. They're not responding in as deeply personal of a way, right? So what I want is for people to bring something of themselves to it. Like, no matter what happened to them that day, no matter what happened in the news, no matter what happened in their personal life, that through the experience of watching a play, they can relate something of themselves to what they're watching, and they can bring that into the theater with them. and so, like very purposefully in these plays, I try not to unify an audience, right? Which is to say, I'm not trying to divide them, but I'm also trying to make them respond as individuals.   Miko Lee: [00:48:37] Right, because the first one actually feels like you're trying to get a cult together. Everybody should think the same way and feel the same way, as opposed to individually responding about where each of us are at and how we take in that information of the play.   Lloyd Suh: [00:48:52] Yeah, yeah. And I just find that so much more satisfying because I like to leave a lot of room in my plays, for actors, for directors and designers to personalize.   Miko Lee: [00:49:02] All the other creatives to be able to have their input to put it into their voice.   Lloyd Suh: [00:49:07] Yeah, and just even to make choices like there are moments where you could go many directions like if somebody were to ask me, “Hey, what does this line mean?” I would say, “Well, you know, like, what does it mean to you?” Right? Like it's make it yours. Every character can have secrets that I don't need to know.   Miko Lee: [00:49:22] Oh, you're doing therapy speak with the actors [laughs]. What do you think it means?   Lloyd Suh: [00:49:26] Yeah, I mean, I think it is. It's like making choices, making big choices that allow for any production to be an amalgamation of many people's real personality, their history. Like if I were to go into a rehearsal room and just spend it making everybody do what I already know, I want them to do. Then watching the play is just watching something where I already know what's going to happen.   Miko Lee: [00:49:47] Right. What's the fun in that? [Laughs]. Um, so let's come back and talk about The Far Country, which is at Berkeley Rep right now. Tell us about this play. I heard you saying that each of your plays, the rabbit hole of the journey that one discovered the other, but can you tell us very specifically about The Far Country?   Lloyd Suh: [00:50:07] Yeah, The Far Country is a play that takes place during the exclusion era, about a very unlikely family that spans across a couple of decades navigating the paper son system, and the experience of a young man on Angel Island Detention Center. The journey leading up to that and the journey leading away from it as this very unlikely family tries to build something lasting in America, despite the extraordinary legislative restrictions that were in place at the time.   Miko Lee: [00:50:36] Lloyd, can you speak a little bit more for audience members that may not know what the Exclusion Act was?   Lloyd Suh: [00:50:42] Yes, totally. The Chinese Exclusion Act was legislation passed in 1882, that restricted all Chinese laborers from entering the United States. And this was a period of time when China was, specifically Toisan was ravaged by natural disaster, war, economic disenfranchisement, horribly one sided trade agreements with the West. There was an extraordinary wave of Chinese laborers who were immigrating to the United States in the years preceding. Partially through the gold rush, partially through the opportunity to work on the transcontinental railroad. In the United States, it was a period of such xenophobia and such anger and hatred towards these incoming Chinese laborers that these extraordinarily restrictive laws were passed, the Page Act, prior to the Chinese Exclusion Act. But what also happened is the great earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco destroyed all the government records pertaining to birth records and who was there. So it created this really odd opportunity for Chinese currently residing in the United States to claim birthright citizenship, to claim to have been born in the United States because there was no documentation to prove otherwise. And if somebody was able to obtain birthright US citizenship through that process, they could then bring their children to the United States. And so what it did was it created this system whereby people who had obtained birthright US citizenship could then pretend to have a son or a daughter that they would sell that slot to so that somebody could enter the United States. And so it created these really kind of patchwork unlikely families of people connected only by paper, only by false documentation. And the navigation of that system, ultimately created this very weird community.   Miko Lee: [00:52:32] Expand on that. What do you mean by weird community?   Lloyd Suh: [00:52:36] People who were not able to be themselves, who changed their names, who at least on paper were pretending to be somebody else. Families that were not connected by blood, but pretending to be connected by blood. A community that was almost entirely male, a community that was in the United States, but not really permitted to travel outside of a particular geographical area. This was a community that was constructed in reaction to legislation, in reaction to imprisonment on Angel Island. And in reaction to the horrible conditions of that time. What's remarkable to me is the ways in which they built a community anyway, they built families anyway, they built opportunity anyway, and the resilience of that, the bravery of that, the sacrifice of that, is something that I am simultaneously in awe of, but also feel a responsibility and an obligation to build on to honor, to try and illuminate in some way to try to share with others. But also just to recognize the incredible pain of it, that they gave up everything, like really everything. They gave up their name, they gave up their family, they gave up their identity, in order to pretend to be somebody who belongs. That's the only way to build any kind of future. These were pioneers who did things that it's hard for me to imagine. But I know that they did it for us. Not just us, but for the future, for future generations, for you know, those who come after, and that is very powerful to me.   Miko Lee: [00:54:03] I appreciate that as a fifth generation Chinese American, whose family comes from Toisan, whose grandmother was on angel island under a different name because her husband, my grandfather had bought papers from her great grandfather so that they could not actually be married because on paper they would be brother and sister. So even though she had a legal right to actually be in the U. S., she had to take a whole new name and a different identity on Angel Island. So we all have these complicated stories that are part of our history. Thank you for rising that up and bringing that to the world. I'm wondering what you want the walk away message for folks coming to see The Far Country.   Lloyd Suh: [00:54:49] Yeah. I mean, that's a great question. The only way I can answer it is to go back to what I said before about wanting people to respond personally. Like I think everybody has a history, everybody has a family history, and everybody's is different, but I hope that anybody who watches this play has moments where they can think about their ancestry. About the things they know and the things that they don't know and just change their relationship to that somehow, just really reflect on it and reflect on not just their personal history, but how it relates to their definition of what it is to be an America. To add this really huge, but underexplored moment in American history and add it to their accounting of what it is to be a citizen, what it is to be an American. Cause one of the things about this history, as I'm describing the paper son process, depending on a person's particular relationship with the concept of immigration and depending on a person's political leanings, you know, some might hear my description of that and say, “Well, these are criminals. These are people who abused the system.” And I think that is a part of this history. One of the reasons it's buried. One of the reasons it's not talked about is because there is a sense of shame, societal shame, cultural shame, that these things were necessary, right? Shame is part of it. I don't want to pretend it's not, but I also want to acknowledge that in addition to whatever that sense of shame is, is a sense of pride. A sense of bravery, a sense of dignity, a sense of aspiration, what people were willing to do in order to build something for the future, for us, for their families. So a part of that is like just knowing that many of those stories still are untold, and wanting to uplift and honor, and, acknowledge, the beauty in these pockets that have historically felt painful.   Miko Lee: [00:56:48] Thank you Lloyd Suh for joining us on Apex Express.   Lloyd Suh: [00:56:51] Thanks so much. Appreciate it.   Miko Lee: [00:56:52] Please check out our website, kpfa.org to find out more about our show tonight. We think all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. APEX Express is created by Miko Lee, Jalena Keane-Lee, Preeti Mangala Shekar, Anuj Vaidya, Swati Rayasam, Aisa Villarosa, Estella Owoimaha-Church, Gabriel Tangloao, Cheryl Truong and Ayame Keane-Lee.   The post APEX Express – 3.21.24 Community in Time of Hardship appeared first on KPFA.

This week's episode is sponsored by: Ready for some retail therapy with a side of laughter and community? Look no further than Erin.Lane's monthly live sales! Each sale features a fresh theme (think whimsical unicorns, sassy llamas, you name it!), and you'll be the first to snag brand spankin' new fabrics. Who knows, you might just find your new favorite bag too.   Make sure to never miss a minute (or fabric) by signing up for the newsletter, and keep up with us in real time by with our Facebook community, Erin.Lane Bag Buddies. Bag buddies always get first access to new bags and fabrics, because who doesn't want to share the love of their besties?     Have you ever had to frog because you forgot a step several rows back? Or lost your spot because you dropped your magnet board or lost track with your highlighter tape? Instead of wrestling with paper, use the knitCompanion app. It keeps you on track so you can knit more and frog less. knitCompanion works with ALL your patterns and is available for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire Devices                   Are you feeling dis-GRUNT-eled about your stash? Are you browsing Insta-HAM looking for knitting inspiration? Is color "kind of a PIG deal" in your life? Oink Pigments offers over one hundred forty PIG-ture perfect colorways to make you SQUEAL with delight. For a limited time only, bring home the bacon with code KNITMORE and get fifteen percent off in-stock yarns and fibers at oinkpigments dot com. Shop soon, because these pigs will FLY!   Seismic Yarn & Dyeworks, based just outside of San Francisco, CA, creates color for people who love bold, saturated yarn and fiber as well as for those who might be *a little* afraid of wearing color.   We dye a large range of colorways from neon and black light/UV reactive colors all the way through to deep, rich semi-solid, tonal, and low contrast variegated colorways. Of course, we only use the softest and most exquisite bases!   Seismic Yarn & Dyeworks - color to rock your world!   On the Needles:(0:35) Gigi: finished knitting Meadowlands blanket 6 in the colorway Gnome , crochet an edging  Jasmin has FINISHED her Patons “Must Have Cardigan” in Malabrigo Rios “Bobby Blue”. Gigi: cast on Meadowlands 7 :Electro: yellows , orange, to brown  Jasmin's Paton's Cabled Hoodie is working on sleeve 1, in Seismic Yarns “Citrine” Butter Sock Dk Gigi: cast  on a sock for drag along knitting, working on foot  Jasmin has swatched for her Arachne pullover, in Seismic Yarns Butter Sport in a yellow to orange gradient Jasmin picked up her Halloween stripe cardigan again, in the leftovers from her Halloween Hearts pullover (in Oink Pigments Sock) Knitting Club!   Events :(17:55) Rhinebeck - Saturday with the family, October  Cognitive Fiber Retreat Nov 11, Jasmin is teaching a steeking workshop  Mother Knows Best Keep learning! It makes your brain work better. (Brainstorm by Dan Siegel on audible) LINK!! Adult Education , Rosetta Stone , Duolingo, Library, When knitting Attacks:(20:26) Gigi: Instead of joining edges after I finished the 4th triangle of the Meadowlands blanket, I picked up stitches on the side and knitted both pieces together. Hated it. Doesn't look as smooth, there are short floats that I don't like on baby blankets  Gigi: Also did the edging of Meadowlands in single crochet stitches. Not sure if I won or lost yarn chicken . Meadowlands 7 Electra Yarn squeaks , feels crunchy in my hands Jasmin: placed the steek on the shoulder seam of halloween stripe cardigan. Rrrrip.   Knit more, know more :(34:14) A segment about Persian culture, history, or just generally cool stuff about Persian people. Protests are ongoing. Still. Over a year. Deutsche Schule Tehran will be closed to Iranian students NOBEL PRIZE WINNER!!!! Imprisoned Iranian Activist Narges Mohammadi (her book is White Torture) Nobel Prize winner Shirin Ebadi Until We Are Free 2003 And Sew On:(41:22) Gigi: went to the Repair Cafe, and learned how to use a mending loom. Picked neon green and purple embroidery floss, couldn't finish my project in class, checked out the loom to finish the weaving at home.  Repair cafe: intro to embroidery  Week 3: more embroidery, satin stitch, shading Stick on interfacing that one can run through a printer  J: Figured out a “hack” for the automatic button hole feature on Janome for extra large buttons Jasmin mentions Emery Sand    

Traveling with a sewing machine? No problem! Hear how to go about it without having to watch a million complicated videos or reading a ton of blogs. Rochelle buys Lance a new toy. You'll not even believe what it is. They talk about long arm issues that Ro has been having and what she discovered finally was the issue. She is also taking an upholstery class and it is quite unique. Rochelle needs to get her nails done because they are atrocious. Leslie gets reacquainted with her Janome 9450 and falls in love again. Hear about all the things she loves about it. They also reminisce about past episodes. Leslie is stressed with the new "Twitter for Instagram" called "Threads". This episode is a lot of fun and you're sure to giggle!Follow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior

This week's episode is sponsored by: Carry your creativity with Erin Lane Bags! Whether you show your fiber fandom with the woolly wonder Sheepleverse, or dive into history with the Curiosities collection, our project bags, totes, and hook and needle organizers are at the ready to keep your hobby happy.       Have you ever had to frog because you forgot a step several rows back? Or lost your spot because you dropped your magnet board or lost track with your highlighter tape? Instead of wrestling with paper, use the knitCompanion app. It keeps you on track so you can knit more and frog less. knitCompanion works with ALL your patterns and is available for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire Devices       Are you feeling dis-GRUNT-eled about your stash? Are you browsing Insta-HAM looking for knitting inspiration? Is color "kind of a PIG deal" in your life? Oink Pigments offers over one hundred forty PIG-ture perfect colorways to make you SQUEAL with delight. For a limited time only, bring home the bacon with code KNITMORE and get fifteen percent off in-stock yarns and fibers at oinkpigments dot com. Shop soon, because these pigs will FLY!   Radicle Threads was founded by Shobha Nadarajah, Elisabeth Desamour & Caroline Dick. The magazine features articles,  tutorials, recipes, and of course, crocheting and knitting patterns.   You can find issues of Radicle Threads at:   www.radiclethreads.com On the Needles: (0:39) Jasmin: Test knit for Chin Matthews in Neighborhood Fiber Co Organic Studio DK: halfway done with body. Jasmin mentions a calligrapher Jasmin finished the Altblebragenser in Frost Yarn's Reverse Speckle rainbow and Teal Torch Knits 9 neons.  Gigi at Jasmin's house knitting: socks for Andrew out of Lisa Souza merino yarn  .Done.  Need to graft toe and cast on the second sock Jasmin is making some progress on her Fractal Danger scarf out of Abstract Fiber Supersock in “Danger” (Bar Maids Knitmore Girls box #1) Gigi: meadowland baby blanket acrylic yarn, Mandala. Knitting club! TP tube knitting looms books on finger knitting Preemie hats are drag along knitting at school  hat #2 out of merino and cashmere ready for crown decreases  Jasmin started her Piñata jacket by Quaylyn Stark   Events :(31:30) Stitches West March 2-5  Kitchen Cinema recommendations    Mother Knows Best:(30:04) You Can't Say That podcast (Jasmin specifically refers to Episodes 139 & 140)  Promised Land (2022), Star Trek Discovery Empathy Gap explanation, by Amber Ruffin When knitting attacks :(44:02) Gigi :dropped the scissors from my Akerworks Knitting kit into the couch. Couldn't fish it out One of my angled knitting needles broke  Search for Black buttons at fabric store  Knit more, know more :(47:44) A segment about Persian culture, history, or just generally cool stuff about Persian people. Protests are ongoing, 220 days. Paris February 11 Feb18, Munich, Germany  Das IRAN update podcast  . Every Sunday at 11am in San Francisco  - Avaaz      - Link to show about four Persian women in the Diaspora ("Wish You Were Here" by Sanaz Toosi) And Sew on:(52:47) Gigi: Fabric analysis 2   Excavated my sewing tray, A line skirts from beginning clothing construction. Problem: no pockets for phone  Teacher Store trays Found buttons online. Took forever.  We were talking about space dyed things. Roving with Turkish drop spindle  Jasmin: Finished Rex's dinosaur “cool guy” shirt Janome machine (Ray's 300? 3000?) Traced the Mood Citrus dress Examinatipn Table paper

This week Leslie and Rochelle are at Red Boot Quilt Retreat in Hillsboro, Texas. They  talk all about all the shenanigans and the projects they are working on. You don't want to miss this episode!Follow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior.

Episode 124. Week in and week out, our standard gear for tasting and evaluating sake is a simple wine glass. This works really well and almost everybody has one nearby. But in Japan, there are a wide variety of shapes, materials and sizes used to make cups for drinking sake. That got us wondering if we should take some other cups out for a test drive and compare them to our usual stemware. This week we are exploring an industry standard sake cup - the "kikichoko".  A larger relative of the standard ochoko, Kikichokos have a blue and white bullseye design inside the cup. To learn all the secrets of the kikichoko and to see how it stacks up against our trusty wine glass, listen now to this week's sake vessel smackdown! #sakerevolution Support the show

Leslie and Rochelle reminisce about the Quilting is My Therapy Retreat this week and give some insights into the fun weekend with Angela Walters and our friends. They experience another Freaky Friday and things get weird. They also talk about new friends they made and upcoming "Block of the Month" clubs! While at retreat, they decide to take a little jaunt up the road to Hamilton, MO, home of Missouri Star Quilt. You won't want to miss this story! It's hilarious! The entire episode is hysterical. Enjoy!If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a comment and rating! We read ALL comments!Follow Leslie on Instagram at @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior.Angela's Block of the Month - quiltingismytherapy.com  Sign up in November!Angela's Spring Retreat - April 21-23, 2023cottoncuts.com - Block of the Month - precut puzzle! 15 color ways! 

In this episode, Rochelle and Leslie talk about BBL... backing, binding and labels. This is something we all seem to put off until the end and perhaps there is a better way! They also talk about all their favorite quilters and designers. Rochelle has to apologize to all long armers everywhere and still can't spell. This episode is packed with fun stories about favorite snacks, weird antics of Rochelle's husband, Lance and what a big deal Leslie is now (since Rochelle was a big deal last week). You don't want to miss this loaded show!

Rochelle is back! This episode is packed with her stories of the quilting cruise she just came back from and it sounded like quite the adventure! You won't believe what the cruise line took from her this time. While Rochelle was away, Leslie decided to make a few things and one of those things leads Rochelle to feel a bit of anger. You'll not want to miss this episode!Follow Leslie on Instagram @leslie_quilts and Rochelle at @doughnutwarrior.

The Check Your Thread podcast is one year old!!!! We just took a fortnight off after creating 52 weekly episodes, and today we're back with an ‘Ask Me Anything' episode! Aided by friends-of-the-podcast Julia Hincks and Naomi Bancroft, we read out and discuss some awesome questions submitted by CYT listeners. We cover favourite scrap projects, how we interact (or don't) with sewing trends, what gives me hope when faced with the climate crisis and lots more. And make sure you check out the show notes for the link to my epic Spotify playlist!  Support the podcast over on Patreon! This episode features Julia Hincks. Her website is House of Miss Sew and you can find her at @juliahincks on Instagram. She previously featured on Episode #10: Overlockers & Coverstich Machines with Julia Hincks Episode #27: Zoe & Julia go Rag Rugging This episode also features Naomi Bancroft and you can find her at @whatnaomimade on Instagram. Favourite projects using scraps: So Zo UndiesMy denim patchwork dungarees (see image below)Waves and Wild Wonder undies patternWaves and Wild kid's Speedy pants patternDIY Daisy Rectangle sleeve top tutorial Trends: I Am Pattern Sunshine jeans patternFibre Mood Honey top pattern A blog post I wrote about my (then) new sewing machine, the Janome DKS30, AKA, lesser spotted orange Janome! Listen to the Spotify playlist I made for the Fabric Godmother Sewing Bee Party.  Giving me hope: @intersectionalenvironmentalist on Instagram. Dream guests: Clare Press, creator of The Wardrobe Crisis podcast, @mrspress and @thewardrobecrisis on Instagram. Writer Aja Barber is @ajabarber on Instagram. Get her excellent book,'Consumed: The need for collective change; colonialism, climate change and consumerism' anywhere but Amazon. (See the cover pictured below)Amanda Lee McCarty, creator of Clotheshorse podcast, @crystal_visions and @clotheshorsepodcast on Instagram. If you haven't already, listen to Episode #50: The Future of Fabrics.

Show Notes:0:44 - Chile 0:46 - Valparaíso0:56 and 1:05 - São Paulo, Brazil 1:52 - Buenos Aires2:20 - Pinterest2:24 - Buenos Aires2:34 - Argentina 2:36 - Teresita Leal (@teresitalealartetextil)2:37 - Cecilia Koppmann (@ceciliakoppmann)2:50 - Argentina2:54 and 3:36 - South America3:53 - North America4:01, 4:06 and 4:18 - South America4:09 - United States5:08 - Improv[isation] quilting 7:17 and 8:23 - Carolina's online quilting workshops8:39 - Janome 8:56 - Brazil 9:32 - São Paulo10:46 - Chilean 11:20 - Carolina's workshop on color 11:35 - Buenos Aires11:38 - Santiago, Chile 12:04 - School of Art (Universidad Catolica) in Chile14:40 - Carolina's workshop on color 14:42 - Carolina's workshop on improv quilting 16:15 - Carolina”s workshop on curves and transparency 17:18 - Carolina's Instagram page (@Carolina_Oneto)17:57 - South America18:31 - United States20:47 - Carolina's Instagram page (@Carolina_Oneto)21:40 - Curated Quilts Journal 21:45 - SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) 23:45 - European Patchwork Meeting23:48 - France24:29 - South America24:33 - Google flight tracker25:21 - Spotify 25:35 - Diet Coke 26:14 - Quarter circle / Drunkard's Path traditional quilt block 26:34 - Carolina”s workshop on organic shapes26:36 - Carolina”s workshop on curves and transparency 26:44 - Carolyn Friedlander 26:52 - Nantes, France27:24 - Janome Memory Craft 6700p27:37 - Wonderfil Deco Bob thread27:39 - Wonderfil InvisaFil thread28:21 - Hang sleeve on quilts 28:38 - Imaginary Places quilt by Carolina 29:37 - #ModernQuiltingCommunity Follow Carolina:Instagram - @Carolina_Onetohttps://carolinaoneto.com/Follow us:Amanda: @broadclothstudio https://broadclothstudio.com/Wendy: @the.weekendquilter https://the-weekendquilter.com/Anna: @waxandwanestudiohttps://www.waxandwanestudio.com/Quilt Buzz: @quilt.buzzhttps://quiltbuzzpodcast.com/Intro/Outro Music:Golden Hour by Vlad Gluschenko

Scatman jumping in here - Sorry about the delay, some kind of global podcast outage but WE'RE BACK. Lumberjack has a very important update for the team! Love you all

Scatman jumping in here - Sorry about the delay, some kind of global podcast outage but WE'RE BACK. Lumberjack has a very important update for the team! Love you all

Kicking off 2022 with some fun. This week are are looking at some of the more divide tribal wars of the crafty community - Bernina vs Janome, Canon vs Nikon, Aida vs Linen, and more

Co-founder and Owner of The Stitchery in Rome, Stephanie Bradshaw joins the Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast to discuss shop services, products and running a small business during a pandemic. Bradshaw joins hosts Carol Morgan and Todd Schnick for the Around Atlanta segment. Carrying two brands of sewing machines, Janome and Baby Lock, The Stitchery has been a small business marvel near downtown Rome for nine years. Classes, events and one-on-one training only scratch the surface of what The Stitchery offers customers. The store supports anything and everything sewing-related. “It all comes together, but there's a lot of wheels in motion,” Bradshaw said. “We offer a lot!” Originally located on Broad Street in downtown Rome, its new location on Central Plaza is still near the hustle and bustle of Rome with more space for classes and an in-house machine repair shop. The purchase of a machine at The Stitchery comes with a complimentary entry-level sewing class. The considerable repertoire of classes includes embroidery, sewing, quilting and the basics. Participants bring their machines to learn essential sewing tasks, such as sewing a button on or taking up a hem. With her experience running a female-owned small business, Bradshaw says the best perk is her independence. After her business partner retired three years ago, she assumed sole partnership and oversaw more aspects of her business, as well as relied on herself more. The past year presented many problems for businesses globally, but 2020 also brought a new generation of people who love to sew. It all began with wanting to lend a hand with mask making, creating a brand-new sewing trend. While this may have died down, the movement transformed into a new hobby during the initial lockdown. From 12- to 65-years-old, new customers explored the world of sewing and quilting. Bradshaw shared she also supports other small embroidery businesses by selling top-of-the-line machines and supplies. While apparel sewing was replaced by fast fashion, creating bags, embroidering shirts and crafting items are taking off thanks to platforms like Pinterest and Etsy. As the industry progresses, so do its tools – rotary blades, rulers and heat-proof pins are more efficient than ever. “When you are making something for somebody, it is truly a gift of love,” Bradshaw said. Bradshaw predicts apparel is on the rise and quilting is more popular than ever! Lockdown brought a greater appreciation for creativity and people yearned for the slow process and mindfulness of sewing and quilting. Recently featured in the University of Georgia Alumni magazine, Bradshaw also received a spotlight in the Bulldog 100 in 2018 and 2019, all incredible honors! She credits grit, determination and her admirable staff and clientele for the increasing success of Rome's modern quilting shop. To visit The Stitchery online and shop the extensive catalog, visit www.TheStitcheryRome.com. Shop fabrics, machines and more on the brand-new app available for Apple and Android and interact on Facebook and Instagram for updates on classes, products and shop news. Never miss an episode of Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio! Subscribe to the podcast here. You can also get a recap of any past episode on the Radio page. Listen to the full interview above! Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee, License #22564. NMLS ID #6606. Subject to borrower and property qualifications. Not all applicants will qualify. The Stitchery and New American Funding are not associated. Click here to view the terms and conditions of products mentioned during the show. Corporate office 14511 Myford Rd., Suite 100, Tustin, CA 92780. Phone: (800) 450-2010. (November/2021) New American Funding is a family-owned mortgage lender with a servicing portfolio of over 123,000 loans for $30.4 billion, 198 branches, and about 3,100 employees. The company offers several niche loan products and has made Inc.

Co-founder and Owner of The Stitchery in Rome, Stephanie Bradshaw joins the Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio podcast to discuss shop services, products and running a small business during a pandemic. Bradshaw joins hosts Carol Morgan and Todd Schnick for the Around Atlanta segment. Carrying two brands of sewing machines, Janome and Baby Lock, The Stitchery has been a small business marvel near downtown Rome for nine years. Classes, events and one-on-one training only scratch the surface of what The Stitchery offers customers. The store supports anything and everything sewing-related. “It all comes together, but there's a lot of wheels in motion,” Bradshaw said. “We offer a lot!” Originally located on Broad Street in downtown Rome, its new location on Central Plaza is still near the hustle and bustle of Rome with more space for classes and an in-house machine repair shop. The purchase of a machine at The Stitchery comes with a complimentary entry-level sewing class. The considerable repertoire of classes includes embroidery, sewing, quilting and the basics. Participants bring their machines to learn essential sewing tasks, such as sewing a button on or taking up a hem. With her experience running a female-owned small business, Bradshaw says the best perk is her independence. After her business partner retired three years ago, she assumed sole partnership and oversaw more aspects of her business, as well as relied on herself more. The past year presented many problems for businesses globally, but 2020 also brought a new generation of people who love to sew. It all began with wanting to lend a hand with mask making, creating a brand-new sewing trend. While this may have died down, the movement transformed into a new hobby during the initial lockdown. From 12- to 65-years-old, new customers explored the world of sewing and quilting. Bradshaw shared she also supports other small embroidery businesses by selling top-of-the-line machines and supplies. While apparel sewing was replaced by fast fashion, creating bags, embroidering shirts and crafting items are taking off thanks to platforms like Pinterest and Etsy. As the industry progresses, so do its tools – rotary blades, rulers and heat-proof pins are more efficient than ever. “When you are making something for somebody, it is truly a gift of love,” Bradshaw said. Bradshaw predicts apparel is on the rise and quilting is more popular than ever! Lockdown brought a greater appreciation for creativity and people yearned for the slow process and mindfulness of sewing and quilting. Recently featured in the University of Georgia Alumni magazine, Bradshaw also received a spotlight in the Bulldog 100 in 2018 and 2019, all incredible honors! She credits grit, determination and her admirable staff and clientele for the increasing success of Rome's modern quilting shop. To visit The Stitchery online and shop the extensive catalog, visit www.TheStitcheryRome.com. Shop fabrics, machines and more on the brand-new app available for Apple and Android and interact on Facebook and Instagram for updates on classes, products and shop news. Never miss an episode of Atlanta Real Estate Forum Radio! Subscribe to the podcast here. You can also get a recap of any past episode on the Radio page. Listen to the full interview above! Georgia Residential Mortgage Licensee, License #22564. NMLS ID #6606. Subject to borrower and property qualifications. Not all applicants will qualify. The Stitchery and New American Funding are not associated. Click here to view the terms and conditions of products mentioned during the show. Corporate office 14511 Myford Rd., Suite 100, Tustin, CA 92780. Phone: (800) 450-2010. (October/2021) New American Funding is a family-owned mortgage lender with a servicing portfolio of over 123,000 loans for $30.4 billion, 198 branches, and about 3,100 employees. The company offers several niche loan products and has made Inc.

Welcome to this week's Otaku Street Podcast: now, with music (courtesy of Wopeh)! Adam finally introduces the show as Jamal indulges the boys in his sexy skydiving fantasy. As they get into anime-talk, they discuss Makoto's new prosthetic arm and what plays she may have hidden up her one and a half sleeves. Who could replace Janome as Joran's next big-bad? Who else but … some dude named Travis. Next, how difficult is it to be a world-class assassin if you're terrified of blood? Our guess is: pretty hard. So put that car in park, lean that seat all the way back, and join the boys on episode 7 of Otaku Street!

This week's episode is sponsored by:     Carry your creativity with Erin Lane Bags! Whether you show your fiber fandom with the woolly wonder Sheepleverse, or dive into history with the Curiosities collection, our project bags, totes, and hook and needle   organizers are at the ready to keep your hobby happy.     When was the last time your knitting yarn was a work of art? Infinite Twist produces one-of-a-kind semi-solid gradients featuring speckles, high-lights, low-lights, and gorgeous color transitions. From 700 y Giant Gradients to 200 y matching sock sets, Infinite Twist Gradients will hold your interest from cast on to bind off. See the currently available gradients at infinitetwist.com, or be the first to know when new colors are posted by signing up for our newsletter at infinitetwist.com/newsletter-signup       Have you ever had to frog because you forgot a step several rows back? Or lost your spot because you dropped your magnet board or lost track with your highlighter tape? Instead of wrestling with paper, use the knitCompanion app. It keeps you on track so you can knit more and frog less. knitCompanion works with ALL your patterns and is available for Apple, Android, and Kindle Fire Devices     Are you feeling dis-GRUNT-eled about your stash? Are you browsing Insta-HAM looking for knitting inspiration? Is color "kind of a PIG deal" in your life? Oink Pigments offers over one hundred forty PIG-ture perfect colorways to make you SQUEAL with delight.   For a limited time only, bring home the bacon with code KNITMORE and get fifteen percent off in-stock yarns and fibers at oinkpigments dot com. Shop soon, because these pigs will FLY!     On the Needles:(0:36) Genevieve finished her weaving project on the Schacht Cricket loom Jasmin is nearly finished with the Flying Home (the tucks tank) test knit for Ainur Berkambayeva in raw silk from TessYarns. Gigi finished the Musselberg hat  by Ysolda with the Emily Ocker cast on.   Cast on another one in LolaBean Yarn Co in Thunder and Lightning . We mention the Yarniacs   Jasmin mentions the artist who does Persian and Arabic calligraphy Ocean by the Sea has the best wool wash.   Genevieve is working on her Lisa Souza BFL "Spruce" colored Beanie Jasmin is still plugging along down the body of her Theano test knit. Genevieve is going to order a custom label. Gigi: all winter socks are washed    In Stitches:(16:52)  Genevieve wore her Hogwarts socks, and runway modeled her new hand woven scarf Gigi: wore her A line skirt  Jasmin wore her Modern Art Pullover  Events:(19:32) Stash Dash in May is hosted on  DISCORD LINK  2020 Summer Olympics will begin on Friday, July 23, 2021 Tour de Fleece in July (Sat, Jun 26, 2021 – Sun, Jul 18, 2021)  Fiberworld July 21-25! Mother Knows Best:(21:51) Put your feet up! When Knitting Attacks:(29:54) Gigi: Split a stitch 15 rows down on the Musselburg hat By Ysolda  Dropped down and fixed it  Pan-Athenic Games:(28:49) and Tour de Fleece training #panatheknit Team Sasquatch Week 6: Find your support system Knits in Space:(32:14) Dressed podcast  Mr. Rogers neighborhood The Good Neighbor, Fred Rogers Biography. (Here's the audiobook link with LeVar Burton reading it.) Brian Posehn comedy And Sew On: (39:18) Why an A-line skirt ? Janome refused to sew. Singer was cooperative. Gigi sewed a few steps on the skirt, and did some cutting

This fascinating podcast features the individual and shared journeys of two exceptionally talented sewists who learned to sew through watching videos, reading, and attending “YouTube University.” Both love bold fabrics and prints that echo their heritage. Both create from the heart. With roots in Ghana, South Africa, Monica was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Dallas, Texas.  She took up sewing on the tenth Mother's Day after her mother's death as a way to feel more connected to her. Although her mother was an avid sewist, Monica never thought she'd be bitten by the sewing bug.  Her passion for fashion proved otherwise. She's the founder of Project Sew, an in-person, all-day sewing meetup inspired by Project Runway. She's also the host of a monthly sew-along on Instagram called, Sew your View. Julian's passion for sewing is also on full display. A public health worker in Cincinnati, Ohio he brings joy to the world through his colorful menswear creations.  His work has been featured in numerous publications, including Sewn Magazine and Sew News. Julian is a BERNINA® Ambassador and a Laurastar Ambassador.  When he's not sewing, he loves connecting with people throughout the sewing community. His Facebook group Sew Manly addresses men's inclusion in the sewing space,  including sis gender and transgender.  Although he's done a little bit of everything, Julian loves to focus on classic menswear with a bold take of fabrics and prints—especially Ankara fabrics and other African textiles.  With her strong roots in Africa, Monica is also drawn to its bold and vibrant prints. She started out creating long cascading dresses and what she refers to as “fun glam.” Today, she's focused on creating women's fashion and resort-style wear. Their shared affinity for Ankara fabrics and other African textiles isn't the only thing Monica and Julian have in common.  (4:46 – 6:20)Monica shares how the death of George Floyd made her realize the need for action. She put together a Zoom call of black makers in a show of solidarity. They shared their own stories and discussed ways they could highlight the voices and talents of black makers and ensure they got credit for their creations. Monica and Julian marvel at how a three-hour call ended up becoming a full-blown coalition with a mission to bring about cultural transformation in the sewing and crafting industry.  As a result of their work, change is starting to occur. Machine companies, like BERNINA and Janome, are open to having discussions on building diversity. Craft and fabric stores are beginning to show different genders, body shapes, and ethnicities in their advertising. Thousands of creators are joining the movement and using their energy to create a crafting world that is inclusive of all people, all races, all nationalities, all bodies, and all genders.  (13:49- 19:31)  In their words, “This is a movement, not a moment.” Companies looking for makers that are willing to go out and speak or get involved in other ways can visit blkmakersmatter@gmail.com or they can go to the @blkmakersmatter Instagram page, where there's a link to a makers' list of allies and businesses who support the initiative.  (24:50-25:50)During the conversation, Monica and Julian explore what it means to truly be an ally; how it's getting involved in the work, having a conversation with your circle of influence, building connections, and working for social justice. In their words, “This is a movement, not a moment.” Each person needs to realize that there are multiple roads in this journey, not everyone is on the same road, and that we all need to be respectful of that. Even in our discomfort, we all need to move together in unity.  To really appreciate the depth and breadth of the commitment and passion of these two amazing artists and activists, you need to tune in and catch this casual conversation. To learn more or to reach out to Monica and/or Julian, go to: blkmakersmatter@gmail.com  To connect with Monica, visit Monica@Thatsewmonica.com, Thatssewmonica at YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Etsy To connect with Julian, go to Julian Creates on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube, and “Sew Manly” on Facebook 

In this weeks episode we talk about Nina's experience learning how to use her new to her Janome coverstitch machine, Beth's Juki frustrations, and the Stitch Sister's Guide to Coverstitch Machines online class! For photos and a full list of show notes please visit our website at https://www.sewingfortheweekend.com/e105-show-notes?rq=105 

Support the Stitch Please podcast and Black Women Stitch$15 to the Paypal account for a Black Women Stitch lapel pin! DM or email your mailing to address for free shipping. You can also pay with  Cash App Sustained support also appreciated here:For as little as $2 a month, your Patreon support means a lot: Join  here PatreonFollow Jessica, The Fashionable Therapist on her website and on Instagram Jessica explains her approach to her work-sewing balance this way. "I take my job very seriously because I know the profound impact my words have on people's lives and outcomes. So, everyday I get to be a Therapist is a day that is both meaningful, and heavy to me. Sewing, on the other hand provides me with the freedom to be myself. It gives me a space to make mistakes and say exactly what I have to say, in the way I want to say it without consequence. That experience is so meaningful to my emotional and mental health. I have been a Marriage and Family Therapist, in private practice for 10 years By far, branching out on my own to become an entrepreneur of a sustainable business has been an awe inspiring event for me. Over the years, I/my business has been featured in publications like Parenting Magazine, Heart and Soul magazine, Counseling Today magazine, but my greatest accomplishment is the work that happens behind closed doors, with my people. I have only been sewing for 5 years but my sewing journey has provided me with so many opportunities to learn who I really am through the process of building my own self-esteem. I never would have imagined that 5 years ago, when my client gifted me an old sewing machine of hers, that I would become a Janome maker, be featured in Sewn magazine, have an opportunity to speak on a sewing related podcast or even become a coalition member of Black Makers Matter. I have learned that my perspective matters and I don't want to squander the opportunity to positively affect people, either through sewing or through my therapeutic intervention. To me, there is nothing more meaningful than that!"Her upcoming project is the relaunch of Relationship Rocket Science: I am so excited to be relaunching my Relationship Rocket Science brand which is geared toward teaching people how to create the lives they want through their relationships. I am an educator at heart, so it is very important to me that my people walk away from me with tools and skills that will allow them to execute what they have learned successfully. For this reason, I will soon be releasing a series of workbooks that will address healing oneself, communication skill building and, dating and marriage tools for success. I realize that I cannot be everyone's therapist, so I'm using Relationship Rocket Science to touch as many people as I can in a variety of ways. I love to answer people's questions about love and all kinds of relationships, so My Relationship Rocket Science advice column podcast is in the planning stages and will be up and running soon. I'm so excited about all of it!

Urgent care Physicians Assistant and sewist Katie Ponsford tells us all about the mischievous and hilarious underwear she sews for her husband. She also tells us about a very public spill, a parenting win/fail, and a couple of awkward moments with patients. Katie's sewing room set up includes a Babylock Imagine Serger a Janome cover stitch machine a Husqvarna sewing machine Katie thinks you might love Refashionista blog Ear Hustle podcast The Dream podcast We also chatted about Cyd Beer's Instagram and Twitter. Oh! And I interviewed Cyd on episode 30! Here are the infamous trees:   Urgent Care Physician Assistant for 12 years, mom of two daughters and three cats. She started sewing because nothing fit her body, now she jokes that she can sew people AND clothes!. Find some of Katie's writing here and here! Things to Know: Join Fancy Free's private Facebook Group! It's so much fun!  Click the Subscribe button so you don't miss a single episode! Leave a rating and written review! I will be forever grateful!!! If you have your own not-so-fancy story to tell, email me at notfancy@fancyfreepodcast.com! Or, go to FancyFreePodcast.com and click the big red button to record. Do it. It'll be fun! The best way to help Fancy Free reach more listeners is to tell a friend about it. Share the laughter! Thanks so much for listening, have a great week, and remember NO ONE is as fancy as they look! ~Joanne

We’re talking about passing our love of sewing onto the next generation — as moms, aunts, sewing instructors and more. We’ll discuss fun first sewing tasks and then welcome special guest Regena Carlevaro from Janome to talk about next steps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Show Notes:0:54 - “Line in the sand”1:37 - Instagram aesthetic concept1:44 - Presets for [Adobe] Lightroom App1:53 - Millennial[s]2:29 - Toast2:37 - Bread making2:39 - Bread pictures2:44 - Mass marketing2:46 - Instagram2:57 - Portland, Maine3:03 - Picnic Portland VIntage and Craft Fair3:29 - Maine3:43 - Picnic Portland4:04 - Typography4:05 - No Aesthetic Quilt’s Logo4:06 - Italic Cooper Black [font]4:51 - Pattern testing5:00 - Saturated5:07 - Example of No Aesthetic Quilt’s use of dark coloured backgrounds and colours that pop on those backgrounds5:42 - Wholecloth quilts5:47 - JoAnn Fabrics5:55 - “My outbursts at JoAnn Fabrics is not reflective of who I am” meme6:13 - YouTube7:00-7:02 - Hand and machine sewing7:06 - No Aesthetic Quilt’s Janome [sewing] machines8:14 - Fiddlehead ferns8:22 - Mid Century Modern8:24 - Clean lines8:27 - Pinterest8:31- Examples of graphic, vintage Japanese advertising posters8:37 - Saturated8:39 - Royal blue [colour]9:00 - War posters9:03 - Punk9:08 - World War 1 propaganda posters9:11 - Silkscreen outlines9:12 - T-shirts9:19 - Pandemic9:46 - Tailor9:49 - Naples, Italy9:54 - New York [City]10:00 - Yonkers10:34 - Tailor dummy10:47 - [Social media] ‘stalked’11:13 - Google Doc11:25 - Graphs11:58 - Fundraising gala12:00 - Dress12:05 - Leggings12:07 - Henley12:11 - Everlane’s ‘choose what you pay’ sale12:15 - Hat12:17 - Hudson, New York12:26 - Hannah dress pattern by By Hand London12:29 - Ruby Star Society Rayon12:36 - Hannah dress by No Aesthetic Quilts with Ruby Star Society’s rayon12:53 - Free-Range Slacks pattern12:55 - Houndstooths wool12:56 - JoAnn [Fabrics]13:09 - Willow Tank Pattern from Grainline Lane Studio13:25 - Hannah dress pattern by By Hand London13:31 - [Face] masks13:35 - Lightweight gauzy material13:55 - Wilder Gown Pattern by Friday Pattern Company15:18 - Rifle Paper Co. fabric15:46 - Kim of Feel Good Fibers, Quilt Buzz Episode 516:15 - Slippers16:18 - Footwear16:25 - Podcasts16:30 - Behind the Bastards with Robert Evans17:26 - Flying Geese blocks17:31 - Blue colour17:36 - Blue coloured fabric17:38 - Coppery tan coloured fabric17:44 - Ruby Star Society17:47 - Bananas17:52 - Cloud9 [Fabrics]17:54 - Cloud9’s organic [cotton] line17:57 - Art Gallery [Fabrics]18:00 - Clothworks18:02 - Washington State18:13 - Blue solid [fabrics]18:14 - Corners Quilt by Skyclad Quilts18:20 - Tailor slide ruler18:21 - Chalk pen18:21 - Walking foot18:30 - [Pressing seams] open18:31 - Nesting seams18:32 - HSTs [Half-Square Triangles]18:40 - [Pressing seams] open18:51 - Curve [piecing]18:56 - Flying Geese [block]18:57 - Curve [piecing]19:16 - Tendonitis19:21 - Hand quilting or sewing19:38 - Binding20:55 - Suzanne Yerks21:03 - Gardening21:11 - Longarmer21:16 - Suzanne Yerks’s dragon quilts (photos courtesy of Suzanne Yerks)21:19 - Show correction: Quilt Francesca of No Aesthetic Quilts was referring to a portrait of Suzanne Yerks, and not of Suzanne and her husband. Suzanne Yerks’s portrait of herself quilted (photo courtesy of Suzanne Yerks)21:45 - Libs Elliot22:04 - Corners Quilt by Skyclad Quilts22:13 - Nina Dodge22:21 - Gardening22:30 - Writer22:42 - Journalist22:43 - Higher Ed[ucation]22:50 - Tiger King22:52 - No Aesthetic Quilts and her husband’s cover to Tiger King’s theme song23:00 - Wilder Gown Pattern by Friday Pattern Company23:11 - Berkshire Eagle food column23:22 - Wild Phil Quilting23:30 - Longarming services23:33 - Quilter’s Lodge23:57 - The Sewcalists Blog24:06 - No Aesthetic Quilts’s The Sewcalists blog post on sewing through grief24:30 - @oonmg24:37 - Instagram25:00 - @Oonmg’s scrappy Meadowland QuiltFollow Francesca:Instagram - @noaestheticquiltsPinterest - @noaestheticquiltshttps://noaestheticquilts.wordpress.com/Follow us:Amanda: @broadclothstudiohttps://broadclothstudio.com/Wendy: @the.weekendquilterhttps://the-weekendquilter.com/Anna: @waxandwanestudiohttps://www.waxandwanestudio.com/Quilt Buzz: @quilt.buzzhttps://quiltbuzzpodcast.com/Intro/Outro Music:Golden Hour by Vlad Gluschenko

Hey Folks! In today's episode we're chatting about sewing machine tables. Oh my goodness, this is such a big topic and there are so many options and honestly, quilt room organization and sewing machine tables is a love affair topic for me. And I know that there are many of you that don't have a designated sewing room, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you guys either!I'm breaking down a list of the best options and brands for designated sewing tables, tables that do double duty, and how to store your machine if you need to pack it up at the end of each session.Designated Sewing Machine TablesIf you have the room for a designated sewing machine table, I think they are the absolute best option for comfort and sewing ease. I've found that I'm 10x more likely to sit down at my machine if I don't have to set it up or move anything out of my way. Though this is an option that many don't have because of space. I get it. Check out these solutions to see if they might work for you!Craft TablesFor many of you out there who are able to carve out some space to keep your machine set up but not able to claim a whole room, the craft table is an excellent option. With a craft table you can have your cutting mat out and just shift your sewing machine around to suit whatever task you're up to in the moment. You can purchase a special "craft" table but I don't suggest it. Instead I suggest getting an Ikea dining room table. The small ones that are 4 seaters but really ideal for apartment living. I used to use a Melltorp and it served me for 7+ years. It was the perfect size to fit a 24x36 cutting mat with room to spare while not taking up a ton of room in the craft room/ office. Sewing Machine StorageBefore I was able to carve out a space that was all my own, I had to store my machine in a closet. I'm sure many of you can relate. If that is the case, I highly suggest getting a hard case for your machine. The last thing you want is a spool holder to snap or some other minor disaster to take your machine out of commission. For those of you who have a standard size machine and/ or a travel machine for classes, I suggest getting a rolling sewing machine case. It will protect your machine and make traveling (either to class or down the hall) a breeze.

Hey there! On this episode of the Stop Scrolling, Start Sewing podcast I'm chatting about purchasing a sewing machine at a dealership. I go over what you should look for in a dealer, what questions to ask, and I even chat about my latest trip to the store. For the show notes, head over to themodernquilterscircle.com/episode-14

We’re talking about sewing machines for new sewists — what we started out using and what we think are the best features to look for. Then we’ll talk with Regena Carlevaro with Janome about what to keep in mind when you’re ready for an upgrade. Welcome  Discussion Segment: Sewing Machines for Beginners  Interview Segment: Regena Carlevaro  SewJo  Sew & Tell This episode's question: What tips do you have for someone looking to buy a new machine? Episode sponsored by Janome Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Hingle and his wife are all in. They've been quilting for about 3 years, and they have gone deep. Listen to this lovely interview about all things equipment and quilting and life.

Mike Hingle and his wife are all in. They've been quilting for about 3 years, and they have gone deep. Listen to this lovely interview about all things equipment and quilting and life.

Scott Murkin talks to us about his life in quilting and judging, as well as the impact of quilts and art as a hospice doctor. It's a great conversation, and not depressing, I promise.

Scott Murkin talks to us about his life in quilting and judging, as well as the impact of quilts and art as a hospice doctor. It's a great conversation, and not depressing, I promise.

Welcome to The Craft Room!  Today I am joined by Marni Franks, of Frankensteins Fabrics, who is sharing with us the top 10 supplies & tools you will need to create a quilt top. Sure, there are lots of wonderful toys you can buy to make quilts, but we're talking bare basic necessities.  We've each thrown in an honourable mention each, so stay tuned till the end for those. 1. Pattern 2. Sewing Machine 3. Rotary Cutter 4. Ruler 5. Self-healing Cutting Mat 6. 1/4" Sewing Machine Foot 7. Fabric 8. Thread 9. Pins 10. Iron & Ironing Board Honourable Mentions Dawn - Quick Unpick / Seam Ripper Marni - Thread Snips Marni also has some great hints and tips along the way, especially if you've never made a quilt before, and you can read more information below. Here are the places you can view Marni's work and contact her with your burning quilt-related questions ... Website - http://www.frankensteinsfabrics.com Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/frankiesfabrics Instagram - https://www.facebook.com/frankiesfabrics Email - franensteinsfabrics@hotmail.com Patterns Buy patterns from reliable sources to ensure that you are not supporting infringement of the pattern designers copyright/intellectual property. Buy direct from designers where you can. Give feedback to designers where you can. Do not photocopy and share purchased patterns as this is a breach of copyright/intellectual property and theft. Support designers by telling people where you bought a pattern from. Sewing Machines Sewing machine is personal preference. My best advice is grab a notebook, write down questions you have about what you want to sew, the functions and accessories and price. Take samples of the fabrics you’ll be using and go and visit every machine dealer you can to test drive machines. Buy the best machine your budget will allow. That way the machine will last you longer as you learn and you won’t out skill your machine too quickly. Buy from a dealer so you get the after sale care you need as well as warranties and help when needed. Keep your machine cleaned and oiled and serviced regularly and it will last you a long time. Rotary cutter The 2 brands I prefer are OLFA and Fiskars. Both companies are super reliable. They both do similar sizes but I love my 45mm ergonomic handled OLFA and my 28mm curvy handled Fiskars. I use them for cutting different things as its easier to do smaller controlled cutting with smaller rotary blades. When I’m cutting large pieces like strips, borders and background squares I always go a bigger blade to make it faster and more efficient. If you end up doing lots of strip cutting I also recommend purchasing a ruler with a rotary cutter built into it. This is a faster way to cut and protects your fingers from the blade. Rulers Patchwork rulers come in all shapes and sizes. My most recommended sizes for when you are starting out are a 6in x 24in ruler and if you are doing lots of big squares a 12.5in square ruler. I also found quite handy when I started out a small square ruler and there are two sizes which are good depending on your hands – a 4.5in and a 6.5in square. I tend not to be brand specific when it comes to rulers as not every company makes every style of ruler. I do recommend Matilda’s Own, Australian Rulers and Templates, Hobbycraft and Sew Easy.  Self-healing craft mat Best recommended brand OLFA. Sizes are small 12in x 18in, medium 18in x 24in and large 24in x 36in. OLFA is by far the best in my opinion as I’ve still got my original mat from 16 years ago and it’s in excellent cutting condition. 1/4in sewing machine foot This foot is a must for accuracy. Most of these feet will come with a small tongue guide that sticks out of the right hand side of the foot and helps you guide your fabric under the foot while stitching. The guide prevents the fabric from moving further to the right and creating seams that are bigger than 1/4in. There are a few out there that don’t have a guide, so if you feel you want to start your quilting with a little bit of extra help don’t buy one of these. Your machine feet are purchased from the dealer who sells your machine model. I can help with Bernina and some selected snap on feet (Brother, Janome, Bernette). Fabrics When you are first starting out its okay to use cheaper fabrics, however you do run the risk of having issues if the quality is poor. Keep to 100% cotton patchwork fabrics as they are more stable and easier to piece than many other fabrics. Once you’ve gained confidence you can play with other fabric types and compositions. Marni's favourite sewing thread Honestly thread is totally personal preference and selected on the basis of what I want the project to look like. So I tend to piece with Rasant (core spun polyester/cotton blend) and quilt with whatever takes my fancy. Rasant is by far the most economical way to piece quilt tops – there is 1000m on a spool and costs vary from store to store but its around $6-9. It takes me approx. 3 months to use an entire spool when just piecing. If I’m quilting with it however 1 spool will do approx. an entire quilt top and bobbin thread. My other favourite threads for quilting are Kingstar (machine embroidery thread that’s shiny) and Aurifil. They are more expensive but definitely worth it for special projects. I used to use a lot of Gutermann threads but the cost became prohibitive so I stopped using them. There is nothing wrong with them, they are fabulous threads and very good quality but when I was making lots of quilts (30 a year at one stage) it just became too expensive. Pins There are lots of different pins out there but Flower head pins are highly recommended because they sit flat. They are longer than most standard pins and generally are considered sharper as well. I like two brands when it comes to these pins – Clover and Hemline. Clover are the better quality in my opinion but they don’t contain very many pins in a packet so if you do buy them be prepared to be moving pins around your work more often. Hemline brand are cheap and cheerful. Lots in a packet, brightly coloured and pretty good quality. Ironing and Ironing Board Personal preference again – but basically an ironing board with a decent cover and foam, set at a comfortable height. An iron that you can use with or without steam, a good long cord and if possible one that turns itself off. Special mentions: Quick unpick/Seam Ripper Make sure your seam ripper is comfortable in your hand and has a nice sharp blade. If it has a lid, please use it. Always better to be safe than sorry. Thread Snips There are a few types of thread snips that I recommend. Cheap and cheerful ones are fine but generally I’ve found that they don’t stay sharp for very long. I do suggest buying a pair that cost a bit more so that you get good use out of them. Spring loaded snips (as well as scissors) are great if you have issues with your hands like arthritis as the spring mechanism takes the pressure off your hands. I have a small spring loaded pair on my long-arm to snip threads as I quilt but when I’m at my sewing machine I prefer a pair of duck-billed scissors. These are mainly used for machine embroidery to get better access for trimming jump stitches. TIP: Proper seam pressing Part of the key to gaining accuracy in your finished patchwork item is in the ironing. It takes practice to not put too much pressure on your fabrics and press them into oblivion. The trick is to lift and press, not to push. Pushing will warp the fabric and make your straight seams bow out of alignment. Check both right and wrong sides of your pieces to ensure that the seam hasn’t “rolled” over onto the joining piece and that all seams are pressed open/or to opposite sides for joining junctions. Steam can be both your enemy and your best friend but use it sparingly until you are comfortable with ironing in this manner. Check Marni’s blog post for more. Marni's class list, if you're ever on the NSW Central Coast - CLICK HERE

March 27, 2019 - Janome Sewing Machines

Our chat today:) Carolina becoming an AGF Sewcialite: https://www.agfblog.com/2019/02/our-newest-agf-sewcialite-carolina-moore-.html And Quiltcon! Here are the Quiltcon hashtags we talked about: #quiltcon   https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/quiltcon/ #quiltcon2019   https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/quiltcon2019/ #helloquiltcon    https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/helloquiltcon/ For missing quilt con: #missingquiltcon https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/missingquiltcon/ #mytypecast https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/mytypecast/ We talked about the QuiltCon App We talked about these awesome vendors: Sulky – Booth 210 Wonderfil – Booth 820 Janome – […] The post MS episode 199: C-side with Carolina Moore – Preparing to go to Quiltcon appeared first on Modern Sewciety.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is truly a special episode, I cannot tell you what a joy it is for me to have Stephanie Kendron from http://modernsewciety.com/ ; The Modern Sewciety Podcast on the show today! Aside from Pat Sloane, Modern Sewciety is one of the first sewing related podcasts I subscribed to, and I have been a loyal listener ever since.We all love her podcast and have been given so much great information and stories from other makers, designers, and companies from our sewing and quilting community on Stephanie's podcast. I am greatly inspired by Stephanie, and look...we have the same awesome name! Great names and minds think alike :)On this episode of Make and Decorate, I get to ask Stephanie Kendron to share her story and what motivates and inspires her on a daily basis, what machines she sews on, how her sewing and craft has evolved over the years, and - of course all about her podcast.Stephanie Kendron is also a Cricut influencer, and she talks about the awesome Cricut Maker that has a rotary blade option to cut fabrics without adding stabilizers...whaaa??!!?I hope you all enjoy time with your family and friends this Thanksgiving weekend. Make some hot chocolate or cafe mochas, listen to my show, and and of course you will pull your sewing machines out and make something - right?! Yay!! Show notes https://stephaniesochadesign.com/podcast-make-and-decorateemail: info@makeanddecorate.comIG: stephanie.socha.designSupport the show (https://stephaniesochadesign.com/podcast-make-and-decorate)

I recorded this episode on-site in Sarah Clevenger's sewing room! We had the best time talking about sewing, machines, fabrics and pattern making. Sarah gives a couple of sewing hacks/tips, and she talks about some of her niche sewing interests like costume and renaissance style sewing, and how she loves sewing coats. If you have any hesitation on sewing your own clothing, or think you need a fancy machine to achieve great sewing...listen to this episode. I was blown away at the impeccable sewing that Sarah continues to achieve on her mechanical Kenmore sewing machine. I have met several people who sew on a Kenmore machine, and they all say the same thing - it is a workhorse and they love it.Go to my Show Notes to see photos of Sarah's sewing room, her machines and fabric stash! https://stephaniesochadesign.com/podcast-make-and-decoratePlease subscribe, rate and review the podcast, and reach out and say hi to me!Support the show (https://stephaniesochadesign.com/podcast-make-and-decorate)

Es desvelo todas las sorpresas que van a ser partícipes todos aquellos que podamos estar en esta segunda feria de manualidades. Feria que tendrá lugar el 23 de Septiembre de 2017, con paradas de artesanía, cursos de patchtwork, scrap, mandalas, decoupage, tarjetería y más. A las 11:30h MASTERCLASS con Jacqueline Bahí. Profesora de Patchwork. También un sorteo de una máquina de coser marca JANOME. Os esperamos este sábado...

On The Needles: Gigi is working on the Zig Zag Slip Stitch Socks (out of Black Regia and Day-Glo colored Opal), Jasmin is doing a pair of vanilla socks out of the Day-Glo colored Opal. Jasmin is having problems getting rid of background noise in the interview with the Yarn Harlot - please send an e-mail if you're an audio whiz. Please. Jasmin is about to finish her second footprint (a la the Houdini Sock). Gigi is knitting Fortissima Colori (a sparkly one), using Judy's Magic Cast On (which we learned in Cat's class).  Gigi is combining techniques from Cool Socks, Warm Feet and Cat's class. Jasmin is spinning hot pink sock yarn, and Going Home from Crown Mountain Farms. She also has commitment issues when it comes to big projects- whether it's knitting or spinning. Gigi asks, "When does a project become an 'UFO'?" When Knitting Attacks: Gigi has a stash full of yarn and nothing to knit. Mother Knows Best: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's sock washing method. Gigi learns that generic bobbins don't work so well in her Janome sewing machine. Events: October 16-19 Pacific International Quilt Festival (at the Santa Clara Convention Center) (Gigi will be there in her Red Fedora. In class on Thursday, shopping the market on Friday and Saturday.) October 18th (Saturday) - Color Fiber Festival (in Berkeley). Jasmin will be there, with her hot pink hair.