DC Threads

DC Threads hits Artomatic again this Wednesday, June 24th, from 5-8 for another Stitch and Bi*ch session at Artomatic!  Come on down and join us for an evening of art and stitching as we continue to build the first ever community Artomatic QUILTOMATIC!!  Novices and experienced hats are all welcome!!!  We will supply the machines and fabric – YOU SUPPLY THE INSPIRATION AND CREATIVITY!

DC Threads hit the road last night and became a part of art history in DC – the first Sewing Lounge at Art-o-Matic!  We set up shop on the 3rd floor with the Wednesday night Stitch ‘n Bitchers and spent the evening stitchin’ up a storm!  Many thanks to Rebecca and Lauren for making the magic happen and to all the knitters who tolerated all of our stuff!  We are set to be back next Wednesday – June 24th – for another round!

Check out the awesome quilt square we built for the 1st annual Art-o-matic Quilt-o-rama!

Another great day at the Lounge!  We had  20 new and returning sewists creating, laughing and sewing TOGETHER!   Loads of interesting projects – the famous “Lounge Bag”, the featured circular skirts, pants, aprons, and on and on!  Thanks to all for coming – it was a great day!

DC Threads will be at Artomatic this Wednesday (June 17th) from 5:00-8:00!  We’ll be stitching along side the “Stitch ‘n Bitchers” building the first ever Artomatic “Quilt-o-matic”!  We will be there with our machines encouraging the crowd to sit and stitch a quilt block with us!  So stop by on Wednesday to stitch with us and to enjoy all the AMAZING art and artists!  STITCH ON!

Artomatic is a month-long art festival in DC that is free to the general public celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Monument Realty and the Capitol Riverfront BID have provided a brand-new 275,000 square foot building to host Artomatic, right next to the Nationals Stadium. The event features nine floors of visual and installation art, theater performances, dance and comedy, three music stages, street performances such as fire dancing and drum troupes, and a film screening theater.  With four stages, four bars and a lounge on each floor, the 10th Anniversary Artomatic is bigger than ever. 52,500 people attended Artomatic last year, and 70,000 are expected this year. Over 1,000 visual artists and 600 performing artists are exhibiting this year.

55 M Street, S.E.
(at the corner with Half Street)
Washington, DC 20003
Metro stop: Green Line, Navy Yard, Ballpark exit
Free admission.

The September Issue – a documentary about the legendary Vogue editor, Anna Wintour – will be shown at SilverDocs (the DC documentary film festival) on June 19th at 7:15.

The September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine weighed nearly five pounds, and was the single largest issue of a magazine ever published. With unprecedented access, The September Issue, directed and produced by R.J. Cutler, tells the story of legendary Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and her larger-than-life team of editors creating the issue and ruling the world of fashion.

The September Issue won the Grand Jury Prize for Excellence in Cinematography at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Mary McFadden at the Women’s Museum

March 20, 2009 – August 30, 2009

Mary McFadden: Goddesses juxtaposes fashion with cultural studies and ancient history, inviting viewers to explore the relationship between traditions of the past and styles of the present. On view are more than 40 major works from McFadden’s haute couture collections and many stunning examples from her personal jewelry collection, along with traditional ethnographic textiles and clothing collected by the designer during her world travels.

THE WOMEN’S MUSEUM ®
1250 New York Ave., NW  Washington, DC  20005-3970
202-783-5000, 1-800-222-7270
Two blocks north of Metro Center

Constructed Color: Amish Quilts at the Textile Museum

April 4 – September 6, 2009

This exhibition, on loan from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, features 29 examples from the center’s highly regarded collection. The quilts represent three specific regional groups, each with its own distinctive features, drawn from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, from Midwestern communities and from Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Each of these Amish communities produces unique quilts that reflect the availability of materials, influences from non-Amish neighbors, and the relative conservatism of individual communities as determined by their Ordnung, or community guidelines. The objects which will be on view in the exhibition represent some of the finest Amish quilts in the world.

Summer is here and so is the next session of the DC Threads Sewing Lounge! We invite you to join us on Saturday, June 13 from 1-4pm at the North Michigan Park Recreation Center to kick off the summer sewing season with us.

This month, we’ll be showcasing this fun wrap circle skirt, a great project that needs no pattern—just some geometry and basic math! We found it takes up to three yards of 45” wide fabric, plus a sew-on snap and D-rings for the closure. More details can be found on this link on Burda Style.

As always, you can bring your own project or browse our library of patterns for other ideas. We’ll also have tutorials for first-time and beginning sewers and plenty of fantastic people to share your threaded thoughts with.

If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to RSVP below. This helps us get a headcount so we can plan accordingly. And of course if you’d like to volunteer as an assistant for beginning sewers, please let us know.

Hope to see you there!

Laura and Allison

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It’s official — the DC Threads Sewing Lounge is now a Neighborhood Group of the American Sewing Guild (Maryland Chapter)! This is a fantastic development for us, as it enables us to be part of a national network of people who believe in sewing as an art form and life skill.

What does this mean for the DC Threads Sewing Lounge? For starters, it connects us to a nationwide organization that does on a macro level what the DC Threads Sewing Lounge aims to do for the District: it gives people an opportunity to meet others who share their sewing interests, learn new skills, and participate in community service projects. It also means that the DC Threads Sewing lounge can operate under ASG’s nonprofit status, which enables us to receive tax deductible donations for much-needed supplies and equipment. It’s a win-win partnership that helps us to grow and ASG to fufill its mission of spreading the joy of sewing to more people.

You don’t have to be an ASG member to come to the DC Threads Sewing Lounge sessions, but if you want to find out more about the benefits of membership, there will always be information available at our lounge events. And if you can’t wait until then, you can contact us for more details.

We are so pleased to be taking this step — thanks again to the leadership of the Maryland Chapter of the ASG for helping us to make this possible!

Laura and Allison

With Mother’s Day right around the corner, the DC Threads Sewing Lounge is a great way to go old-school and make something for a mom in your life (or for yourself!). These simple and delightful fabric fortune cookies, our featured project for the month, can be filled with blessings and good wishes for anyone you love—and are a fun project to do with children.

Join us on Saturday, May 9 from 1:00-4:00pm at the North Michigan Park Recreation Center and enjoy an afternoon of hand-made bliss. In addition to the featured monthly project, we’ll also have our library of patterns, tutorials for first-time sewers, and opportunities for you to bounce ideas off other sewers. We’ll have extra interfacing and wire for the fortune cookies, but please be sure to bring your own fabric and any special notions.

If you haven’t done so already, please take a moment to RSVP. This helps us get a headcount so we can plan accordingly. We also are always recruiting more volunteers who can help out with beginning sewists, so be in touch if you’d like to help for all or part of a session.

And if you’re not already on our mailing list, please sign up so you can receive reminders before each lounge.

Hope to see you there!

Laura and Allison