SEAMSIDE: Exploring the Inner Work of Textiles

Creative work requires two movements: going inward into solitude and reaching outward into community. Neither is better than the other—what matters is learning to sense which one you need in the moment. This meditation helps you feel the gifts each offers, recognize the signals that you need more of solitude or connection, and trust your own rhythm. REFLECTION QUESTIONS → What signs tell you when...

What does it mean to document our work in witnessing mode rather than performative mode? This meditation helps you practice being a witness of your own process—noticing your choices, responses to difficulty, and surprises without immediate judgment. When you document from genuine witnessing, you create records that serve your learning and, when shared, have a greater chance of helping other makers...

Some questions close quickly—you answer them and move on. But other questions open outward, revealing more complexity and interest the longer you explore them. This meditation helps you identify questions worthy of sustained inquiry and practice holding them open rather than rushing to resolution. Series work isn't repetition; it's sustained investigation that builds intimacy with what genuinely m...

When we encounter textile work—especially quilts—we often perceive multiple stories at once: what the maker stitched into the surface, what materials they chose, what techniques they used, and maybe even what it meant to them personally. This meditation helps you understand how these four narrative layers can align to reinforce meaning or contrast to create complexity. We'll explore "the net and t...

When you write in a journal, you often discover what you think by seeing your thoughts on paper. Making works the same way—your hands think through materials, and you discover what you know by seeing what emerges. This meditation explores creative work as externalized thinking, a conversation between your conscious intentions and your intuitive knowing. REFLECTION QUESTIONS → What question are you...

Your visual language isn't something you need to invent or discover hidden deep within yourself—it's already emerging in the choices you make each time you create. This meditation guides you through observing your recent work with friendly curiosity: what patterns keep showing up? We'll practice bringing conscious awareness to what's already there, so you can work with your patterns more intention...

Creative inspiration isn't scarce, requiring special trips or perfect conditions—it's abundant, hiding in plain sight. This meditation helps you expand your attention to notice inspiration in places you usually overlook. We'll practice a particular quality of noticing—curious but not hungry—and build cross-pollination between creative and everyday activities. REFLECTION QUESTIONS → What would shif...

What if you approached your creative work like a scientist approaches experiments—with genuine curiosity rather than pressure? This meditation helps you shift to a "What happens if...?" mindset. We'll explore experimental questions (doing the opposite of what you usually do, using the "wrong" tools deliberately, combining things that supposedly don't go together) and practice reframing failure as...

Our bodies have so much to tell us—where we hold tension, what hurts after hours of making, what feels tight or soft. This meditation guides you through a gentle full-body scan, not to fix problems, but to notice what's present. We'll develop body literacy so you can recognize what your creative practice asks of you physically and respond with practical care. REFLECTION QUESTIONS → What might help...

Making with textiles connects you to something vast—humans across every culture and century have worked with fiber and fabric. You don't join this tradition by having a long line of quilting grandmothers. You join by pulling up a seat at the table and picking up a needle and thread. This meditation helps you recognize the knowledge already living in your hands, understand that textile wisdom is op...

This guided mediation is a part of WONDER YEAR, a year-long exploration in building and sustaining our creative practice. We’ll be moving through it together in real-time on the NOOK with live creative challenges, weekly reflections, journaling prompts, and more. Here on SEAMSIDE, I’ll be sharing a new guided meditation each week for the next three months—thirteen in all. My hope is that each one...

This guided mediation is a part of WONDER YEAR, a year-long exploration in building and sustaining our creative practice. We’ll be moving through it together in real-time on the NOOK with live creative challenges, weekly reflections, journaling prompts, and more. Here on SEAMSIDE, I’ll be sharing a new guided meditation each week for the next three months—thirteen in all. My hope is that each one...

This episode offers a raw and honest examination of how family history research can reveal both inspiring stories and difficult truths about our past. My journey from discovering less-than-perfect Revolutionary War heroes to uncovering my ancestors' role as enslavers demonstrates why understanding our complete history—not just the comfortable parts—is essential for creating a more just and equitab...

Step inside a packed gallery at the Southeastern Quilt & Textile Museum where I share the stories behind my SOUTHERN WHITE AMNESIA collection. This isn't a high-polish artist talk—it's a raw, honest exploration of how I discovered my family's deep involvement in slavery and transformed that uncomfortable truth into quilts, dolls, and primary source historical documents. This presentation demon...

Just a note to let you know I haven’t forgot about you <3 the SEAMSIDE sabbatical needed to be a little longer than I expect, but it’s coming back soon! Listen to hear what all I’ve been up to the last twelve months. → Get your copy of THE WORLD NEEDS YOUR NEXT QUILT → Get your free trial to the QUILTY NOOK → Follow Zak on INSTAGRAM

In this special episode of SEAMSIDE, you'll hear reflections from a variety of community members who found connection, creative renewal, and unexpected insights while stitching side by side at our HUDDLE retreat. Working with textiles alongside others unlocks family stories and personal histories – there's something almost magical about the way fabric becomes a bridge across time and relationships...

Textile artist Heidi Parkes reflects on her transformative 13-month residency at Milwaukee's historic Pfister Hotel, discussing how the experience deepened her artistic practice, expanded her community connections, and prepared her for her upcoming mid-career retrospective exhibition. What happens when an artist's private practice meets the public eye for an entire year? Fresh from completing her...

I felt an immediate resonance when Demetri’s work first popped up on my screen. Here were these meticulous, vibrant prints of vintage photographs of ancestors, bedazzled in sequins and beads and quartz crystals. So we struck up a chat and over the last few months have really nurtured a budding friendship. It was over the course of my conversations with Demetri that I knew it was the right time to...

The last time Judy Martin and I caught up was about a year ago. At the point in time, she was just starting Your Fragile Life, a quilt project that she just wrapped up in recent weeks. If you haven’t heard our first chat, you can find it in the feed under April 2023. That conversation is one of the most-listened to episodes of all time, and in that chat, called HOW TO HOLD YOUR LIFE IN YOUR HANDS,...

Recently Dana Staves , writer and textile artist, wrote a post on the NOOK that was so sweet and real and inspiring that I asked if she wouldn't mind recording it for y'all to hear. And luckily for us, she did. Thank you, Dana. I hope you enjoy this reflection on art & craft by Dana Staves. If you’d like to see how the NOOK can support you in your creative process, claim your free trial at the...

Barbara Campbell Thomas had a long-established painting practice when, about a decade ago, her mother bought her a sewing machine. Little did she know, but that gift provided her the perfect missing piece to her creative practice. What draws me to Barbara’s work is the balance between tautness and texture. Her stretched and pieced canvas quilt works pushes back an “all or nothing” perspective on g...

Welcome to MEMBERSTORY, a new series of bonus interviews that bring you real-life stories from the NOOK. These conversations have been a great way to get to know some of folks that make the NOOK so special. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Wendy Muir from Adelaide, Australia. If you’d like to see how the NOOK can support you in your creative process, claim your free trial at the link below....

Russell James Barratt and his wildly joyful quilts make me want to lasso the UK and bring our two countries closer together. His work is loud and colorful, his demeanor is gentle and composed, and those two sides of Russell make for an imminently enjoyable friend to chat with. In this SEAMSIDE conversation, Russell and I explore: ① how he balances the tension of empty space and maximalism ② why th...

It’s been a year since Coulter Fussell and I first chatted here on SEAMSIDE. In that conversation, we talked about the South and family history, the role of community in her work, and how she maintains hope in the face of conflict. You can find that first conversation, HOW TO WORK WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT, in your feed below in March 2023. In this new SEAMSIDE conversation, Coulter and I reconnect and...

In this raw and unedited conversation, we talk about Tyrrell's newest work along with three artists he thinks everyone should follow → Get your free trial to the QUILTY NOOK → Claim your free copy of 10 THINGS I WISH I KNEW BEFORE I STARTED QUILTING → See images and more at the EPISODE WEBSITE → Follow Zak on INSTAGRAM