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, a PhD candidate at University of Leicester and a quiltmaker. 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.

Learn more about Running Stitch at www.quiltalliance.org/runningstitch

Visit Kristin online at www.kristinbarrus.com

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 that's been changing how quilters create their work for more than 30 years. 

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, listen to snippets from quilters across the decades about how they use EQ to design their quilts, and reflect on Penny’s journey through quilt history, hosting a PBS television show, and designing software specifically for quiltmakers.

This episode of Running Stitch is sponsored by A New Deal for Quilts, a book and accompanying exhibit up now through April 2024 at the International Quilt Museum by Running Stitch host, Janneken Smucker.

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. New innovations like the factory-made sewing needles, cotton sewing thread, and eventually the sewing machine, created the environment in which quiltmaking flourished, democratizing the art from a form that only wealthy women could participate in, into one that women across economic classes might enjoy.

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.