I was writing about fabric exchanges at the workroom and what I see for this place as a creative environment and started thinking about inclusion.

When I was a kid in Southern Indiana, my Grandma used to talk about workers they would hire on the farm and property and how the family would interact with them.  She’d describe these big meals prepared outside where everyone would sit down to long tables: workers, farm owners, wives, kids – everyone.  She’d say:  “If you are good enough to work for me, you are good enough to sit at my table”. This really resonated with me and has been something I’ve incorporated in how I see the world around me and interact with people since.

While classes are going on, sometimes I look over the group happily chatting, drafting, draping, sewing, and pressing and have to stop for a second and think about how I try to bring that same feeling to these classes – everyone has a place at the table here and I tear up just a little thinking about how that came to be.

I’m not interested in beating people over the head with fashion fashion fashion (jazz hands aflutter) or boring them with technical sewing pedantry (although with an academic background and my interests generally we can totally get into any kind of pedantry you want), I’m here to host a creative environment for people to grow and learn in at their own pace and occupying their own space as creative individuals.  I try to provide people a creative sense of being and place.  We are doing it with needles and thread, out of everything from bargain bin knits to imported beaded silks and gilded velvets, but they have a place at this table and with each other.

And in this day and age, that is so important to protect and project.