Running Stitch Podcast – Season Four

Running Stitch, A QSOS Podcast, is hosted by Janneken Smucker, Professor of History at West Chester University. Join us as we explore quilt stories, revealing the inner thoughts, feelings, and motivations of contemporary quiltmakers by drawing from Quilters S.O.S. — Save Our Stories, the long running oral history project created by the nonprofit Quilt Alliance in 1999.

Quilts and quiltmaking serve as a lens to examine some of today’s most pressing issues, including activism, public health, politics, race, and the economy. We’ll dig into the QSOS archive to listen to excerpts from past interviews, and bring back interviewees to ask them about what they are working on and thinking about presently. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts!

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Season 4:

Season 4, Episode 1: The Industrial Revolution with Rachel Maines

Episode summary

We’re kicking off a new season of Running Stitch, focused on the intersections of technology and quiltmaking. But it’s not just about computers and digital sewing machines! In this episode we’re going back to the roots of quilt making to discover how our nostalgic ideas about quiltmaking as a pre-industrial craft is just that: nostalgia. In fact, quilting as we know it exists because of the Industrial Revolution.

About our guest

Our guest is Dr. Rachel Maines, a visiting scientist in the Cornell University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a seminar associate at Columbia University. Along with her many articles on needlework and textiles, she is the author of The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Women’s Sexual Satisfaction and Hedonizing Technologies: Pathways to Pleasure in Hobbies and Leisure.

Season 4, Episode 2: Electric Quilt with Penny McMorris

Episode summary

We’re back with our second episode of Season 4! We’re continuing our focus on the intersection of technology and quiltmaking, but this time, we’re going digital. We’re exploring the backstory and invention of Electric Quilt, the leading quilt design software. Join us for a conversation with Penny McMorris, co-founder of The Electric Quilt Company, and a key player of the late twentieth century’s quilt revival. We’ll hear how Penny and her husband Dean Neumann created Electric Quilt software, hear snippets from quilters across the decades about how they use EQ to design their quilts, and reflect on Penny’s quilting journey.

About our guest

Our guest is Penny McMorris. Penny holds an MA Art History, produced and hosted the television series “Quilting” which aired on PBS and the BBC and “The Great American Quilt” for PBS. She authored “Crazy Quilts” (1984) and co-authored “The Art Quilt” ( 1986) with Michael Kile. She served as the corporate art curator for Owens Corning Corporation and is a partner in The Electric Quilt Company.

Episode summary

Other than the sewing machine, what tool has been the biggest innovation in quiltmaking? Yes, that’s right: in this episode of Running Stitch, we’re talking all about the rotary cutter.

Our guest is Kristin Barrus. Kristin’s work explores 21st century quiltmaking through the lenses of women’s studies, fan studies, and anthropology. We’ll talk with Kristin about the origins of the Modern Quilt movement, and she also shares with us the fascinating history of how quilters came to use–and love–the rotary cutter.

About our guest

Kristin is a PhD candidate at University of Leicester and a quiltmaker. Kristin has been making quilts for the past 20 years and co-founded and co-directed the Utah County Modern Quilt Group. Kristin also attended the graduate program in quilt studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her work explores 21st century quiltmaking through the lenses of women’s studies, fan studies, and anthropology.