Celebrating Our Home, the Pikes Peak Region
Early in 2020, Makers Liz Kettle and Ruth Chandler of Textiles West set out to teach community members how to create fabric collages to celebrate the beauty of our Pikes Peak Region and share stories of our home and community. A week into the Spring Residency, everything came to a halt due to COVID-19.
Rather than stop the Textile Art Project altogether, Liz and Ruth transformed it into a virtual format, so that our community could be creative and stay connected even while sheltering at home. In many ways, the finished compilations are a record of our community and our shared experience during this unprecedented time. We’ve compiled all the finished pieces submitted by local community members into a Flickr album, which you can explore here.
You can also see the pieces in person as part of a rotating display by visiting the following libraries during the months listed below. At the end of the display rotation, the piece will live at Monument Library.
- September 2020:Library 21c
- October 2020: High Prairie Library
- November 2020: Old Colorado City Library
- December 2020: East Library
- January 2021: Sand Creek Library
- February 2021: Monument Library
Even though the Spring/Summer Textile Art Residency has come to an end, you can still create your very own collage! This project is traditionally a textile (fabric) project, but Liz and Ruth have adapted the project to use just about any materials you have at home. Get started by looking through the various PDF project patterns (see below) and reading through this tutorial PDF. This will give you a basic idea of the project and let you know what supplies you’ll need to get started.
Then, watch the video below to see Liz explain how to get creative and pull it all together! (Please note the video cuts off at the end, but all important content is included.) Links to supplementary videos examining various stitch types are also available below.
Patterns
Supplementary Videos
The Makers
Textiles West's teachers are all experts who know the power of creating and understand that for many, textiles are a much more accessible art form than traditional art forms.
Liz Kettle
Through her work, Liz Kettle tells tales that are personal as well as those that speak of relationship, humanity, and the earth. She chooses a nontraditional palette of fabric and stitch because she believes they connect us and draw us closer in a way that cannot be achieved with traditional art materials alone. Liz uses a variety of techniques drawing from the deep wells of quilting, mixed media collage, and paint to tell and support each unique story.
Liz is the co-founder and Director of Textiles West, a Textile Art Center that aims to inspire widespread awareness, participation, and appreciation of textile and fiber arts.
Liz is passionate about teaching and is a co-author of two books; Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond and Threads: The Basics and Beyond. She is also the solo author of First Time Beading on Fabric, Layered and Stitched and Know Your Needles. Liz has articles published in Quilters Home, Quilting Arts, Quilting Arts In Stitches and Cloth Paper Scissors Studios, and has appeared in the PBS show Quilting Arts TV.
Ruth Chandler
Ruth Chandler grew up in Japan where the vibrant color and texture of Japanese fabric, combined with the simplicity of Japanese design, caught Ruth’s attention. Ruth learned basic Sashiko from an elderly neighbor and at the age of four, and began to create and sew her own clothes at the age of ten which became an outlet for her imagination and creativity.
She made her first quilt in 1990, a queen size, hand-appliquéd and hand-quilted Hawaiian pineapple quilt, and she has never looked back. In her own unique style she loves to use new techniques mingled with the old and her work usually shows the influence of her years spent in Japan. Shibori, Boro, Sashiko, and indigo dying are her love, however she also teaches garment sewing and other classes to children and adults.
Ruth teaches locally at Textiles West in Colorado Springs, and nationally at Art and Soul Retreats. Ruth has written several articles for Quilting Arts magazine, blog posts for Havels’ Sewing, and has work published in several books. Additionally, Ruth is one of the co-authors of the best-selling book, Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond, and is the solo author of Modern Hand Stitching.
Ruth may be contacted for nationwide classes at ruthachandler@comcast.net.
Given our stand against racism, along with the continued national and local conversations, we want to highlight and celebrate the Shivers Fund. Clarence and Peggy Shivers created the Shivers Fund at Pikes Peak Library District, in concert with PPLD, in 1993. They introduced the Shivers African American Historical and Cultural Collection at PPLD, which continues to expand annually thanks to the Shivers Fund and its many supporters. In addition to the collection, the Shivers Fund at PPLD also provides opportunities for our community to celebrate history, culture, and the arts. The Fund hosts concerts and other events, as well as helps expands educational and cultural opportunities for young people to encourage tolerance and diversity. Our Library District and Foundation applaud the Shivers Fund for its continued investment to create more tolerance, diversity, and community in the Pikes Peak region. Learn more about the history and work of the Shivers Fund.
PPLD commits itself to join the efforts of all who share its mission of building a community free of racism, hatred, and intolerance. Our full statement is below: Providing resources and opportunities that impact individual lives and build community – that is the mission of Pikes Peak Library District. Our community, like others across the nation, is hurting. Just as it is our mission to build community, it is our duty to speak against the forces that would tear us apart. The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery have reminded all of us once again that the battle against racism and intolerance is not over. For many individuals, those forces are a constant in their lives, and that battle is waged on a daily basis. For those of us who do not experience the burden of systemic racism, events such as these may briefly ignite an urgent desire to seek justice and true equality for Black members of our community. All too often, though, we allow that sense of urgency to gradually disappear until the next horrific act of violence occurs. This cycle must stop. PPLD stands with those in El Paso County and throughout our country who are exercising their Constitutional rights to protest against systemic racism, inequity, and violence against the Black community. As a public library, we stand for the innate equality of all we serve. We pledge to do our part to help our community realize that diversity, inclusivity, and equity are pillars of a strong and thriving community and that if even one individual is harmed through injustice or racism, our entire community suffers. This is not the time to simply move on until the next act of violence jars us from our complacency. PPLD commits itself to join the efforts of all who share its mission of building a community free of racism, hatred, and intolerance. - John Spears, Chief Librarian & CEO, and Debbie English, President of PPLD’s Board of Trustees (June 5, 2020)
Pikes Peak Library District stands with our Asian American and Pacific Islander community and remains committed to building a community free of racism, hatred, and intolerance. (March 19, 2021)
- Asian Mental Health Collective
- Stop AAPI Hate
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice
- Anti-Asian Violence Resources
- What you can do to fight violence and racism against Asian Americans
- Asian Americans in the People’s History of the United States
- Detox Local: An extensive list of mental health and substance use resources specifically for the AAPI community.
- Teen OverDrive Reading List
For kids:
- How to Talk to Kids About Anti-Asian Racism
- Guide for Parents of Asian/Asian American Adolescents
- Smithsonian APA: Learn Together
- Challenging Anti-Asian Bias and Acting as an Ally
PPLD has curated a list of resources for our community. Click here to find links to national and local news coverage, deeper background on the issues, books, and other items here.
Let's Talk about Racism: Digital Book List The African American Historical and Cultural Collection, funded by the Shivers Fund at PPLD Let's Talk about Racism: Teen Collection Let's Talk about Race and Racism: Children's Collection Celebrating Black Voices: Picture Books
Social and Systemic Injustice Movies on Kanopy
Catalog links from booklist below:
- For Younger Kids:
- For Older Kids:
- For Teens:
Additional Resources For Adults:
- National Museum of African American History & Culture: Talking About Race
- Children's Hospital Colorado: How to Talk About Racism and National Protests with Your Children
- Equal Justice Initiative
- New York Tech Library: Anti-Oppression LibGuide: Anti-racist resources
- Anti-Racism Project: Resources
- Racial Equity Tools: Book and Film Lists
For Kids:
- The Brown Bookshelf: United in Story
- EmbraceRace.org: 31 Children's books to support conversations on race, racism and resistance
- Washington Post: Children’s books can help start a conversation about race. Parents have to continue it
- Raising Race Conscious Children: Children’s books
- New York Times: These Books Can Help You Explain Racism and Protest to Your Kids
- Children’s Book Council: Anti-Racist books for All
- Padlet.com: Anti-Racism Resources for all ages
- Social Justice: Fifteen titles to address inequity, equality, and organizing for young readers
- Social Justice: Stay Woke from Home with these Books, Resources, and Articles