It’s A Fat Quarter Episode! 4th Quarter Kick Off

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Lisa Woolfork is an associate professor of English, specializing in African American literature and culture. Her teaching and research explore Black women writers, Black identity, trauma theory and American slavery. She is the convener and founder of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. She is also the host/producer of Stitch Please, a weekly audio podcast that centers Black women, girls, and femmes in sewing. In the summer of 2017, she actively resisted the white supremacist marches in her community, Charlottesville Virginia. The city became a symbol of lethal resurging white supremacist violence. #Charlottesville. She remains active in a variety of university and community initiatives, including the Community Engaged Scholars program. She believes in the power of creative liberation.

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Lisa Woolfork  0:11  

Hello stitchers. Welcome to Stitch Please. The official podcast of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. I'm your host, Lisa Wolfork. I'm a fourth generation sewing enthusiast. With more than 20 years of sewing experience. I am looking forward to today's conversation. So sit back, relax, and get ready to get your stitch together

Hey friends, hey. Welcome to this Fat Quarter Episode.  A fat quarter if, you don't know already, is a quarter yard of fabric that has a little bit of junk in the trunk, if you know what I mean, a little body yadi yadi.  It's designed to be more useful for quilt projects such as applique, or craft projects that requires a more robust piece of fabric. So a fat quarter is a more consolidated version of a traditional quarter yard of fabric.  A quarter yard of fabric measures nine inches by 44 inches wide, typically for quilting cottons. And that is not particularly useful if you are using paper piecing, for example as a way to assemble your quilt. So instead of using that long, skinny rectangle, they use a fat quarter.  A fat quarter in the context of Stitch Please, each Fat Quarter episode will be 18 to 22 minutes or less. So here we go.

This Fat Quarter Episode is a fourth quarter kickoff. We are about to start the fourth quarter of this year 2022. And in so doing, I thought it was a good time to pause and reflect as we end National Sewing Month and head into our last three months of 2022 to let you know what's been going on with the Stitch Please podcast, and how you can help support. The podcast has had a really great year. There are so many wonderful folks that we've interviewed. I am not about to name every single one of them or try to say "Oh, this was a really great one from Q1 and this was a really wonderful one from the summertime." Nope, not gonna do it. Not gonna get caught out like that. I loved every single one. All of them in their own special and unique way. And I invite you to go back and listen to those episodes that we've recorded from January until September. September is National sewing month and I decided to celebrate that by honoring writers who have created works of art and works of craft that help us get our stitch together. So we spoke with Bianca Springer, who has a book coming out about hand embroidery that is culturally relevant to Black people. There's also Black Girls Sew with Hekima Hapa and Leslie Ware, and that book is in recognition of the organization Black Girls Sew in Brooklyn, New York. In addition, we spoke with Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich and her work Operation Sisterhood as well as the audio book she narrated for the book that she wrote with the daughter of Mae Reeves and illustrated by Andrea Pippin about Mae Reeves, who was a very well known hatmaker, milliner, in Washington DC. 

Next month we have a lot in addition, more excitement coming our way. We will be talking about for cut for October I like to do Blacktober, which is funny because, you know, all my months are Black, but I just think Blacktober sounds really cool. So, for Blacktober, I tend to concentrate on costuming and cosplay in these different types of costuming. And so, this time, it's really exciting. We're gonna be talking with Serena about vintage sewing, and if you don't know Serena @SEWRENA, on Instagram. She is a vintage styled, vintage life person. I think time hopping might be something that maybe, I don't think she does that in particular, but it is an example of a term used to describe the type of lifestyle that she has created with her beautiful and elegant creativity. Speaking of beautiful and elegant creativity, we'll be speaking with sci fi cheer girl about historical costuming. And this is, I think, Elizabethan era costuming. A lot of the garments are created or recreated by hand. And so if you are a Patreon supporter, you get to see this gown that she is wearing. And then there's another gown behind her. And she's like, "Oh, this gown that I'm wearing is an everyday gown." I would not wear such a thing every day- and she made it by hand. So it was really remarkable. We also talked with, we have other folks who are going to be coming onto the podcast, including a fantastic woman who sewed Regency era costumes for her grandmother for the Bridgerton Ball, the Bridgerton Experience, and that in this lovely photographs and images of those garments. So lots of things coming up for the Stitch Please podcast in the next months. And we hope that you can join us for all of it. Stay tuned for a few more fun things coming up. We'll be back.

Hello, stitchers. Welcome back. I am talking today with you about the fourth quarter kickoff. And I wanted to tell you about the Black Women Stitch YouTube page. This is a very new thing that we have that we recently started but we'll kick off in earnest in the fourth quarter which will be in a few days, and the Black Women Stitch YouTube page will be an archive for the these live interviews and other fun events. This is a place to hold these videos as well as to conduct them. There will be however a benefit exclusive exclusively for Patreon supporters. And that is while the live video is happening, you of course are able to well to watch and to join in and to comment. But after that is over. That video is removed from YouTube and then placed in the Black Woman Stitch Patreon at the $15 level or higher. I'm happy to announce that our very first guest in this series is Terrance Williams of Terrance Williams Designs. He is a designer and activist, an artist and a creative and I'm really excited to speak with him. So check us out on Thursday, September 29 at 6pm EST, and we will help you get to stitch together.

My goal is to build out to Black Women Stitch Patreon to a total of 500 total subscribers by the end of 2022. This is because I would like to use these funds to build a team to support the Stitch Please podcast. This would include a copywriter, social media manager, researcher and overall project manager for special events. One of the great benefits that I'm so grateful for for the Black Women Stitch Patreon is the way that it allows Black Women Stitch to support other Black creatives. That your Patreon funds go to support a larger ecosystem of Black creativity in which Black Women Stitch is enmeshed. And I thank you for being those stitches to hold that mesh together in a really powerful way. We're going to hear briefly from someone who has worked with me about how the Black Women Stitch Patreon support has been useful for her development. So just stay tuned and she's coming right up.

Latrice  10:09  

Hey, my name is Latrice Sampson Richards. I am a producer and the CEO of STS Productions. I have been working with Lisa for not quite a year yet. I've produced her special events and live shows for the Stitch Please podcast, which I absolutely love. And it really has been a joy working with Lisa. One of the things that I enjoy the most about working with Lisa, is her steadfastness around making sure that she's able to compensate me for my work. I do a lot of free stuff in the podcasting space. I've been doing a lot of free stuff in the podcasting space. But when I decided to start my production company, I decided that I wanted to build a business around this. Lisa was one of the first people and one of the main reasons why I made the decision to do so, because she really believes in the power of Black women supporting each other. And for me, in this moment, being able to have that financial support not only helps me in my personal life, but it helps me to build my brand, to build my business. It helps me to get you know, some credits to my portfolio. And it helps me to feel good about what I'm putting out there, because I know that and I can see that this has the potential to be a viable income stream for me and my family. And so, you know, I'm just really grateful for Lisa and for the support of her community, which allows her to be able to support me and my dream and to continue to work with her. So thank you, Lisa. I love you. And and thank you to the Black Women Stitch community. I appreciate y'all. You are a part of helping me build my dreams, and for that I am thankful.

Lisa Woolfork  12:50  

The Black Women Stitch Patreon has a variety of tiers and benefits, three tiers to be precise: Thread, Baste and Stitch. You can check out the Black Women Stitch Patreon to find out what goes where. But it's a variety of stuff: weekly live videos- because there's going to be fewer to none on Instagram, a monthly Stitch Up. If you want something like a handwritten thank you note, 25% off merchandise, direct video messaging. All of these are different ways that you can connect with the Black Women Stitch project and support it at the same time. 

We also wanted to issue an invitation to those who might be interested in creating something for our Stitching Holiday Traditions episodes. We premiered these last year featuring community members who could talk about the ways that their creativity intersected with the way they celebrated the December or winter holidays. We had folks talk about Kwanzaa. We had folks talk about Christmas. We had folks talk about, I think I talked about my Christmas. But we are really hopeful to extend this beyond Christmas and want to include Hanukkah especially. And so if you are a Black woman, girl or femme who celebrates Hanukkah, we would love to hear from you. If you have another mix of Winter Solstice traditions that you celebrate, we'd love to hear about those and how your creativity and sewing and making all work together to create this spirit of celebration. 

If you'd like to participate, please leave a message on the Black Women Stitch SpeakPipe. SpeakPipe is available on our website and that allows you to leave us audio messages directly from your phone or from your laptop. So check out the SpeakPipe and you will find the link to that in the show notes. In the show notes you'll actually find lots of links, you'll find links to the Black Women Stitch Patreon, a link to our kite link which allows you to leave review us, and we're looking for five star reviews, you'll find a link to the Black Women Stitch website that will also have the Stitch Please podcast. So you can download a few episodes to help us get to 500,000 episodes downloaded by the end of 2022. You can also find the link to the SpeakPipe. All of these there's lots of links. There's going to be links on links on links. Please go check them out. Well, I better go ahead and wrap up. I think there's something I need to do this sound might be familiar to some of you. And if not that sound, then certainly this one.

Yes, I have got to sew my outfit for New York Frocktails, which today is Wednesday, Frocktails is Saturday. They're not that many days in between before I have to actually get on one of these babies and get there.

If things continue at their current pace, I will be wearing a coke and a smile or regret. And that is unacceptable. So I have my pieces cut out. I feel like I'm almost done. I have a front seam and a back seam and part of some side seams and two shoulder seams. I mean, honestly, what else is there to do? And this is the part where we insert laughter to keep from crying. No, I think I'm really excited. I think this is gonna work well. I did make a muslin of this garment and it fit well. And so this fabric is very compatible. And so I think it's going to be nice. I'm looking forward to the event and I will post from my travels. And thank you for listening

You've been listening to Stitch Please, the official podcast of Black Women Stitch, the sewing group where Black lives matter. We appreciate you joining us this week and every week for stories that center Black women, girls and femmes in sewing. We invite you to join the Black Women Stitch Patreon community with giving levels beginning at $5 a month. Your contributions help us bring the Stitch Please podcast to you every week. Thank you for listening. Thank you for your support, and come back next week and we'll help you get your stitch together.

Hosted by Lisa Woolfork

Lisa is a fourth-generation sewing enthusiast who learned to sew while earning a PhD in African American literature and culture. She has been sewing for more than twenty years while also teaching, researching, and publishing in Black American literature and culture.

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