On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast, we’re talking about sewing, quilting, and embroidery with my guest Bianca Springer.
Bianca is a garment sewist, pattern designer, sewing instructor, and experimental quilter. She is the creator of unique sewing pattern weights to improve sewing efficiency and speed. Bianca is a contributing writer for Sew News magazine, Creative Machine Embroidery magazine, and is a fiber artist. Bianca shares her talents as a Brand Ambassador for Shannon Fabrics, Nature’s Fabric, and is an Arrow Creator. Bianca is the author of the newly released book, Represent! Embroidery: Stitch 10 Colorful Projects & 100 Designs Featuring a Full Range of Shapes, Skin Tones & Hair Textures.
This episode is sponsored by Craftsy.
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We begin this interview with Bianca talking about her upbringing in the Bahamas and learning to sew from her mother who had great style. Bianca also talks about learning to print fabric in school. Bianca talks about her desire to have a career helping people and the journey she went from studying psychology to working in different settings before landing in a really interesting role at the University of Houston. Bianca and her husband’s first child was born prematurely after a challenging pregnancy and it was then that she really returned to sewing and making things by hand.
Bianca talks about going to Quilt Market in Houston to help quilter Latifah Saafir in her booth and meeting the acquisitions editor at C&T Publishing. She was hesitant to write a craft book when she didn’t see anyone that looked like herself represented in the available books on the market. Bianca worked with C&T on diversity efforts and once she was able to see the company’s true commitment to change, she went forward with the book contract. Bianca’s book, Represent! Embroidery features over 100 designs in a full range of shapes, skin tones, and hair textures.
Next we talk about a project called Nude is Not a Color which was born from an experience Bianca had with an Alabama Chanin product that was named “nude” but was a pale color. Bianca talks about her reaction to seeing this name and how it turned into a collaborative project in collaboration with quilter Hillary Goodwin.
And, of course, I ask Bianca to recommend great stuff she’s enjoying right now. Bianca recommends:
Keep up with Bianca on her website and on Instagram.
