Penn Oaks Quilt Guild
April 2023 Newsletter
President's Note
Programs
APRIL 10th, 2023
Sewing for Charity We will gather at 2:00 to work on our string quilts for Quilts for Kids. Come at 1:00 if you would like to help set up. Bring your sewing machine. We also need volunteers to bring other supplies – iron, ironing board, rotary cutter, mat, etc. This is a great chance for those who do not drive at night/don’t do Zoom to reconnect with your quilting friends!
MAY 8th, 2023
Diary of a Dutch Quilter Former Penn Oaks member Janneke Van der Ree returns with an in-person presentation. Look and listen to Janneke's diary of quilting adventures. She will take you through her Dutch beginnings, creative adventures, all the way to Pennington NJ. Janneke will share her life in quilts, her tips to stay authentic to your heritage and stay true to yourself. In Janneke's case that means….do not take life - quilts - too seriously and do not forget to have fun!! Do what you love, love what you do…Take a peek in her diary, you might even learn some Dutch words….Gezellig!!
JUNE 12th, 2023
We gotta say good-bye for the summer… so let’s have a little fun! Bring your completed “Challenge” quilt for judging. We will also have a show-and-tell with a theme, a game or two, and a fat-quarter exchange for a summer mini-challenge. Come for an evening of friendship and fun!
2022 Board
President - Carolyn Davis / Jamie Loncaric
Program Chair - Donna Daley
Assistant-Deb Houck
Treasurer - Rita Marie Smith
Recording Secretary - Angela Brant
Corresponding Secretary - Nancy DeTeodora
Membership - Elizabeth Young / Sarah Reindel
Ways & Means - Jen Burke
2022 Quilt Guild Challenge - Rikki Newlander
April 10 Sewing for Charity and Guild Meeting
We are having a charity sewing day at Covenant Presbyterian Church beginning at 2:00 followed by a regular guild meeting. If you are able to help set up, please come at 1:00.
2 irons, 2 ironing boards, a mat and rotary cutter will be provided but another 1 or 2 would be helpful.
We have many, many strings already cut and fabric from our sale to make lap quilts for hospice patients (Jen’s hospice) and quilts for kids. The choice is yours. Also MOTO (make one - take one to sew) is an option. These are scrappy quilts.
Just bring your machine, feet, cords, thread, scissors, ruler, travel iron ?, muslin foundation squares (cut to whatever size blocks you are making), beverage and snack. There is always a need for quilts for these organizations so make as many as you would like.
There will be a dinner break. BYO or take out. It will be great to see everyone in person ! Donna and Rita Marie
Bits and Pieces From The Textile World
Clover Cottage and Wildflower Whimsy are mini skeins dyed by Megan Ingman and named by ChatGPT.
Photo courtesy of Megan Ingman.
Generative AI is the new hot topic in tech. You’ve likely seen it mentioned all over the place, and perhaps you’ve had a chance to play with ChatGPT, the natural language processing tool from OpenAI. We were curious to see how craft business owners are putting this new tool to work to increase efficiencies in their businesses.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is “generative AI,” meaning it’s a chatbot that allows you to have very human-like conversations with original text that it writes on the spot. ChatGPT is a large language model that was trained on the vast amount of text available on the internet. Accessing ChatGPT is free. You set up an account and then begin using it right away. Once you enter a prompt and read its answer, you can further refine it as many times as you’d like to get closer to what you’re looking for.
ChatGPT has gotten so much attention because it’s remarkably capable of generating original content, and while we wouldn’t recommend it replace human writers, there are practical applications for this new technology. Craft business owners have already begun to find many ways to incorporate ChatpGPT in their workflows. Here are six use cases to consider.
A starting point for writing
Writing tasks are part of running a business. From ecommerce listings to Instagram captions, to email newsletters, we all have to compose our thoughts on the page at some point, but facing a computer screen makes it hard to get started. ChatGPT is a great way to generate some copy to kick things off.
“I love to write but I have trouble getting started because there is always something that needs doing that takes less brain power,” says yarn shop owner LeeAnn Petropoulos who has used ChatGPT to help her begin writing tasks. “Although I do really extensive editing to fill in gaps and add my voice, it gives me a starting point so I don’t procrastinate for so long. Rather than start from scratch, I prompt ChatGPT to write a draft for me, then take it from there.”
Remember, you can refine your prompt to make the paragraphs ChatGPT generates more specific and better matched to what you’re aiming for, then begin editing and adding your own unique touches.
A way to generate responses to customer service queries
As a craft business owner, you are often on the receiving end of customer inquiries and sometimes those customers are frustrated or rude. When you’re working hard on your business, getting these sorts of messages can take an emotional toll, making you feel angry or defeated. Rather than struggling to come up with a graceful response when you’re upset, copy and paste the angry email into ChatGPT and ask it to generate a graceful response. After all, ChatGPT is a bot. It’s totally removed from the situation and can help you find a way to reply to your angry customer without involving your own emotions.
ChatGPT can also be used to examine your customer service inquiries en masse to determine frequently asked questions and come up with ways to respond to address them. “Friends in my mastermind are using ChatGPT to organize customer feedback given on social media,” says Amy Small, the owner of the yarn company Knit Collage. “For example, asking it to summarize the top pain points for my customers based on all of these Facebook comments. Then use that to create an email subject line that answers their top pain point. Powerful stuff!”
A way to create rough drafts for longer pieces of writing
If English is not your first language or if you’re simply not confident in your writing skills, consider having ChatGPT write the rough draft of longer pieces of writing for you. These might include blog posts, answers to Q&As you’ve been asked to write, or long captions for social media. You can even ask ChatGPT to write your bio and the text on your about page.
Another approach is to write a draft of the text yourself and then paste it into ChatGPT and ask it to rewrite it for you, tweaking the tone, for example.
“For people like me who have problems with writing it has been a big help,” says designer Wendy Sloan. “I have been held back for a very long time because of embarrassment about my written communication. I have found that it helps a lot to correct run-on sentences and organizes repetitive and scattered statements. I never ask it to just generate something from scratch. I always phrase it: ‘rewrite this text for a sign’ and then paste what I already wrote. What comes back is my own ideas and words organized in a way that makes sense.”
A powerful brainstorming tool
ChatGPT can also be a useful brainstorming tool. Consider it to be like a colleague that has a different set of ideas that you might not have thought about. When researching an idea, rather than using Google and getting pages and pages of articles to choose from, consider using ChatGPT as a refined search engine that gives you exactly what you asked for.
If you’re sitting in front of your computer thinking, “How many ways are there to describe a sock?” ChatGPT can get you unstuck
“I used ChatGPT to come up with course names and outlines, course email copy, Facebook ad copy, and more. It’s not perfect but better than staring at a white page,” says Small. “It jumpstarts the creative process.”
Stephanie Carswell, the owner of UK-based craft kit company Hawthorn Handmade, has also used ChatGPT as a brainstorming tool. “I’ve used it to help with product descriptions, slogans, and social media. I’ve been careful to edit it to keep things in my voice, and I often get it to rewrite something I’ve written quickly (and pretty scrappily!) I give it prompts to be more quirky, fun, creative, etc. which helps a lot. It’s helped me get out of writing blocks and sped things up so much for new product launches.”
A name generator
Even creative people run out of ideas sometimes. When it comes to naming new colorways, for example, our creative wells can run dry. ChatGPT can help!
Indie dyer Megan Ingman gave it a try for naming a mini skein set of yarn she’s dyed. She ended up choosing nine of the potential names it suggested including Wildflower Whimsy, Lilac Retreat, Amethyst Isle, Peony Mews, Clover Cottage, Wild Rose Haven, Goldenrod Forest, Meadow of Lilies, and Buttercup Cove. Inman says so far Wildflower Whimsy has been the most popular from this release.
A way to write patterns and other kinds of technical instructions
Perhaps one of the most surprising tasks ChatGPT is capable of is writing technical instructions for things like knitting and crochet patterns. While they’re not perfect, and there have been some hilarious videos demonstrating their flaws, the patterns it writes are actually a solid starting point according to several designers we spoke with.
“I asked it to write a top down yoke style pattern in our yarn, a specific gauge, and for a set finished size. It did it in less than a minute,” says Small. “Then I asked it to grade the sweater into 5 sizes, it did it again in seconds. I think I could have gotten more specific about formatting by giving it our style sheet that we use to create a better end result.”
Ruth Brasch is a technical editor for knit and crochet patterns. She asked ChatGPT to write a pattern for a double crochet worsted weight hat and it was remarkably good. She says ChatGPT could be a useful tool for designers when it comes to doing the math involved in pattern writing. “Grading garments is a learned skill and to be honest ChatGPT feels like cheating,” she says. That being said, it does make mistakes and someone who is inexperienced may not know enough to spot them. “Don’t start with ChatGPT as a pattern writer if you’re new to the industry,” she advises.
Caveats: Watch out and edit
While AI-generated copy can be useful in these and other ways, it’s still vital to read over and edit the text it generates to edit out inaccuracies and infuse your own unique voice. “I feel that it really falls short on storytelling, capturing the voice of a brand and other compelling elements that build engagement, trust, and ultimately loyalty to a brand,” says Leanne Pressley, owner and president of craft marketing firm Stitchcraft Marketing. “I think real, creative people are still going to have to bring that ‘sparkle’ to their marketing in order to be really successful.”
Integrations are everywhere
ChatGPT and other large language generative AI models are popping up all over the place as integrations into many of the apps craft business owners use all the time. Shopify has launched “Shopify Magic” which uses AI to write product descriptions. It’s also now part of Canva, Notion, Slack, and soon Google and even Etsy.
“I think there’s a lot of opportunities for Generative AI,” Etsy CEO Josh Silverman said in the company’s most recent earnings call. “One is in search, no doubt. You might see it in the seller experience and making it easier for sellers to make listings. You might see it in the member services experience and having a better opportunity to get customer support. Our developers may be able to use it to make themselves more productive. So there’s lots of opportunity. We have a working group looking at all of it.”
As this technology increasingly becomes part of our day-to-day lives and business operations, new use cases will certainly pop up. Have you tried ChatGPT yet? How are you using it successfully?
Liberty Worth at work on “River Canyon,” 2022 in her studio. River Canyon is 57”x57”. Silk wool, and cotton.
“Art is a big enough container to hold all the things that we encounter, both the pain and the questions,” says Los Angeles-based textile artist Liberty Worth who creates art quilts inspired by nature and family stories. Using leather, wool, and upholstery fabrics, Worth sews quilts as a way to visually capture moments of her life. Recently, she’s ventured into even more non-traditional fabrics, designing a pair of Ugg-like boots in her signature style.
For Worth, whose work has appeared on television shows and been exhibited in galleries, getting a studio outside her home was a vital step toward growth and success as an artist. Most importantly, it’s allowed her to hire college student interns whose assistance has become vital to her creative process.
Los Angeles-based textile artist Liberty Worth.
Becoming an artist
Growing up, Worth’s father worked as an artist and toy designer. Watching him was both inspiring and intimidating. Worth says she wanted to be a maker, but was worried she would never be as good of an artist as her father.
In college at Pepperdine University she majored in public relations while also taking art and art history classes. A semester abroad in Italy was transformative. It was there that she began experimenting with all kinds of textile processes and became hooked on the materials for artmaking.
After graduation, Worth worked for six years in a corporate setting doing textile design. The corporate job was all digital, and as a break she took up quilting in her off hours.
Developing a style
The signature shape in Worth’s quilts looks like a rose, although that was not her initial intention.
The very first piece in this style represented water and was inspired by trying to capture a moment of joy. On a trip to Costa Rica, her three kids were in the pool and were all getting along. She asked herself, “Could I capture this moment of joy?” The resulting quilt is called “Swimming” and is mostly in blue tones.
Worth works with repurposed interior design samples of fabrics leather, vinyl, and even wallpaper. Her quilts often radiate out from a central point, curved pieces hugging smaller curved pieces, creating the rose-like motif. She richly textures some pieces with stitches and others she leaves plain.
As she creates her work, she starts from the center and works outward, with a form that’s circular until the very end, then adds edge pieces to make the piece into a square or rectangle. Her works are often square and mounted onto wood panel for ease of hanging.
Left/top: “Swimming,” 2019, 35” x 28”, by Liberty Worth. Silk, wool, and cotton. Right/bottom: “Pura Vida,” by Liberty Worth, 2021-detail section is about 6”x8” of a piece which is 25” x 30”. Silk, wool, and cotton.
Securing studio space
Worth’s biggest jumps forward as an artist have come as the result of friends urging her on. Her best friend, for example, told her she needed a studio. Worth remembered a time when she had borrowed studio space and had made 21 pieces in one month and she decided her friend was right. She rented a studio in spite of the high price of rent in L.A.
“It’s an investment in myself that I’ve come to value, that it’s really, truly like a room of one’s own. And I don’t know that I valued it as much until I had it. It took somebody else telling me I needed one.”
Having a studio space outside of her home makes it possible for Worth to work with interns, and that step was equally significant in the development of her creative practice.
When a mentor of hers told her she needed an intern, she initially didn’t feel worthy. But then she searched online and looked at internships in the arts in her area and thought “I could design something better than that” in terms of what the opportunities offered to student interns so she decided to develop a program and give it a try.
Interns in front of Distorted Reflections,” Liberty Worth’s studio, 2021. Distorted Reflections is 30” x 30”, cotton.
She asked her very first intern why she was applying for this unpaid internship, “She said, I’ve had other internships, I’ve worked on all sorts of aspects, but I’ve never been able to sit down with an artist and understand the artist process before they get to the museum or the gallery.” That helped Worth to see the value of what she had to offer. She works to design as fulfilling an opportunity as she can for the students who come into her studio, and to respond to the skills and interests they bring.
While the first internship was scheduled to be for three months, at the three month mark the student wanted to continue.
Worth and her interns periodically review how things are going and she helps the students update their resumes, translating what they learn into resume-friendly language. Her interns have learned how to handle customer interactions, sewing, photography, and more.
Once the internship program was established, Worth actually found that her business was growing because of the work her interns were doing and this allowed her to pay them. Currently Worth has an intern in her studio about two hours each week. Their presence requires prep work which makes her more productive.
“I learn from them, too. It definitely makes work for me sometimes to prepare things for them to do, but if I plan well, so much extra work gets done, sometimes things that were sitting on my list to do for months.”
Liberty Worth, working in the studio, 2022; piece includes silk, wool and cotton.
Life of a working artist
Today, Worth teaches art at a private school first thing in the morning, and then heads over to her studio where she spends about four hours creating her own work each afternoon.
Her commissions include memorial quilts as well as work for interiors and she currently has a five month waiting list for new commissions. One of her quilts appeared on a TV show and another will be in a forthcoming commercial. Living in LA, Worth has made connections through meeting people in professional associations and at galleries where entertainment industry staff rent art for use on television sets.
Worth is now expanding her practice by renting the studio space next door. She’ll use that space to teach classes, as well as rent work space to fellow textile artists.
“I am trying to encapsulate a moment that I love with my kids or anger or to process the death of a loved one,” Worth says. “Art is the only container I’ve found that’s big enough to hold all that.
What I want from it is to help me keep wonder alive. And I think that that’s the way I define an artist, someone who’s able to do that.”
3. Instagram seems to be further integrating various types and lengths of videos, allowing some Reels to play in their entirety within Stories.
4. There's something so fun about peeking into a creative space. We just subscribed to Workspaces, a newsletter that delivers one to your inbox each Saturday and Sunday (loving this one and this).
5.“This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World” at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Now through April 2nd, 2023. https://americanart.si.edu/visit/renwick
6.“Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art By Women” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D. C. November 18, 2022 – April 16, 2023. https://americanart.si.edu/
7.“Purpose-Repurpose” at the Council for the Arts in Chambersburg, VA. Now through April 23, 2023. https://www.councilforthearts.net/gallery
4. “Intent/Content” Celebrationg Women Artists” at the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, PA. Now through May 21, 2023. https://susquehannaartmuseum.org/calendar/intent-content/
8. “Wild and Untamed. Dunton’s Discover of the Baltimore Album Quilts” at the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore, MD. Now through September 2023. https://www.mdhistory.org/exhibitions/wild-and-untamed/[1]
