Last month, I again joined the September Textile Love Challenge hosted by Seam Collective—a month-long celebration of textiles, process, creativity, and community. Each day brought a new prompt, encouraging artists and makers to reflect on their practice and share pieces of their journey. The prompts this year were relective of reseach done on working sustainably, both individually and collectively. This was my 8th year participating.
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| The 30 daily prompts for September Textile Love 2025. |
Revisiting my work through daily prompts
This Challenge is not only a platform to connect with the vibrant textile artist community across the globe, but a wonderful opportunity to revisit my own work. Going through my photos in search of pieces that responded to the daily prompts, I found myself rediscovering work I’d made in the past, and remembering the context in which it was made… the materials… the processes I used in the creation.
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| “Working with nature” prompt: embroidery on fabric that was monoprinted with a leaves. |
As in past years, some of my pieces were the outcomes of guild challenges or a Make Nine prompt, however some were created for the pure joy of making. The September Textile Love daily prompts are always inspiring and thought-provoking. Some prompts asked for specific materials or techniques, but others encouraged a deeper reflection on themes like sustainability, tradition, or the emotional significance of textiles in our lives.
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| Exploring color with scrappy hand-knit dish cloths. |
The ”Micro/macro,” “Lifecycle,” and “Growth” prompts particularly posed a conundrum for me in relation to my textile experiences. But stepping back and looking at these terms in a broader sense, or from a different angle, brought insight.
Micro/macro: My scrap quilt reminded me that whether close up or at a distance, there’s beauty and interest at every level of a quilt—even when using random fabric scraps. Up close, there are the quilting pattens, the choice of variegated threads, or a piped binding.
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| Detail of a scrap quilt reveals the stitching and choice of variegated threads. |
From afar, the choice and placement of the fabrics illustrate the importance of value in defining the patchwork design. It’s a reminder that both the big picture and the tiniest choices matter. Every fabric scrap, every stitch, has a role to play.
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| The scrap quilt at a distance shows how value plays an important role in seeing the design. |
Lifecycle: My mom instilled the love of books in me. As a youngster, she bought me any book on any craft that I showed an interest in. Now, I especially like vintage textile books and have several “vintage classics” in my personal library.
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| Vintage textile books contain insight and wisdom from previous generations of makers and artists. |
I’ve used these books as references for several projects, including my 100 Day Stitch Projects. These vintage books hold secrets and wisdom of past generations of makers. I am continuing the life cycle of the techniques as well as the books themselves, by preserving and passing on this knowledge.
The “Growth” prompt brought home my affinity toward classes, workshops, and learning. Growth isn’t always linear, and it’s not always visible in the final piece. But I can see and feel it in my approach to a work-in-progress, in my thought processes, in ways I troubleshoot problems, in the choices I may make with color, composition, thread, fabric... Some workshops have influenced my technique, and others have influenced me! It reminds me just how layered textile work can be.
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| Fellow students at a Shakerag Workshop with Merill Comeau. |
I was thrilled to see the “Found” prompt! I responded to it with my stitched fabric scrolls that sparked conversation from viewers. I shared a video of my 100 Day Project: Stitching with Found Objects—a series of stitched fabric scrolls made by combining embroidery and hand stitching with commonplace materials I gathered from my rep travels—discarded packaging, parts of travel brochures, cancelled postage stamps, and other found objects.
A Community of Creativity
The other highlight of September Textile Love is seeing how other participants interpreted the prompts. The range of responses was inspiring. It illustrated the incredible diversity within the textile community—and how even a single word or theme can lead to such varied, creative responses. It reminded me that no matter the technique or background, we’re all working with thread, stitch, and textiles in some form—stitching and weaving together ideas, meaning, and memories.
Moving Forward
As the challenge wrapped up, I felt a renewed sense of connection to both my practice and the broader textile community. In reflecting on the 30 days and the work I posted, I think I am conscious of working sustainably as many of my projects focus on using scraps and re-purposing discarded items.
One of the last prompts of the Challenge was “What’s next?” I posted a few of my WIPs [work in progress] that I’m eager to revisit with a renewed interest and insight from participating in this Challenge.
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| A collaborative project that I look forward to making more progress on. |
Kudos to Seam Collective for facilitating such a thoughtful experience—and to everyone who showed up each day with honest reflection, thoughtfulness, and creativity. I’m walking away with fresh ideas and new connections to my work, and the wider textile community.
