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Tina: You are listening to the podcast for makers, makers who crave a vibrant life on their own terms. I’m your host, Tina Vandenberg, and today on our, one of our special live episodes, I have the pleasure of talking with Nan Webb, the cloth merchant, I love that term that you have on your website, um, by the name of Bolt and Spool.
So you can check out her website, boltandspool. com. Nan, welcome to the show.
Nan: Thank you, Tina. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here for my second, second debut .
Tina: Yeah, so Lean joined our Break the Rules of Sewing series. Which of those of you who were part of it, um, we had a live session. It was super fun, really, uh, authentic and vulnerable.
And Nan has a wonderful sense of humor in what you’re gonna find out here in the show. And then we had technical difficulties and it didn’t record for us. So I wanted to have her back because one, the folks that were there or were not able to join us live, they missed out on talking or hearing from you.
And two, I wanted my greater podcast to be able to hear from you as well. So
Nan: thank
Tina: you. This is you. This is like the
Nan: dream sequence,
Tina: right? ? Yes. Yeah, exactly. So those of you who are here with us live, as always, you’re welcome to post any comments you want in the chat. At the end, we’ll do a little Q& A with Nan, and you can ask any question you want.
And I imagine you might have a few, because Nan owns a beautiful brick and mortar, uh, fabric store, which I’ve not visited in person, but I have seen her website presence, and it’s just beautiful. So I know that that’s probably a secret dream of a lot of us, to like be able to run our hands through fabric all day.
Oh
Nan: yeah, yeah, we pet
Tina: it a lot. So Nian, tell us a little bit about yourself, about who you are as a maker, and, um, what it is you love to create with your two
Nan: hands. Oh my god, I’m a crazy maker. I like to do everything, but the one thing that seems to have been consistent throughout my life has been sewing. I never seem to get tired of it.
Um, you know, I might take breaks or do different things with sewing, you know. Maybe I need a quick win and I’ll make a, like a little zipper pouch or an apron. Um, but I have, really bad ADHD. So I tend to start and stop and pick up and I’ve got my hands in any number of projects at the same time. Um, but I just recently read that that’s a really cool thing because it’s not that you have, I mean, you do have a bunch of projects started, but you go back to them based on your energy level.
So maybe You’ve got a lot of energy and you feel like, Oh, I’m going to tackle something big that takes a lot of thought or precision. So maybe you make a code or something tailored, um, or you just need that. I just have to make something really fast and so you just pick something up maybe that you started a while ago and just do a few stitches on like handwork or something.
Um, so I love that you invited me on initially for the break the rules because I really don’t follow rules. I always hated being told what to do. I understand that.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah. Before you move on, I just, there’s a little point I wanted to make, which I think is really fascinating that you bring that up because, so I just had a retreat on Reckon Island last week.
I saw that, that looked delicious. Yeah.
Nan: It
Tina: was delightful. It always is. It’s just amazing. And we keep making it longer and longer. So this time they’re like, let’s add one more day. I’m like, we are already at six days. I think we need to stop. But, um, So we do have a really great time. But one, we were talking about projects and we’re talking, and we always have like a mindfulness kind of women’s circle at the beginning,
we’re
Tina: talking about like the pressure of having projects that maybe you don’t finish.
Um, sorry about that. And one of the students. there mentioned that she has really just giving herself grace. She’s like, if I start a project and I don’t finish it, then that was all that project was meant for, for me. And I go
with
Tina: ease. Like I just let it, maybe it even leaves her like totally, like she might
pass it
Tina: on or she might.
throw it out or recycle it or do whatever she needs to do. But she’s let herself just have the joy of starting the project. And if she no longer has the, the joy to finish it or the joy to work through it, like she doesn’t give herself pressure to do that. Like knowing that she will finish things. It’s not like she never finishes anything.
Right. When the time comes, you, you get it done, but
Nan: some of them, maybe you don’t get done. Maybe that’s yeah. Yeah. And then you grow and it’s like reading a book, maybe. You start it and Yeah, I’m not that into it. You put it down, maybe you pick it back up later. Maybe it speaks to you later. Maybe you just bail, um, donate it or something.
But no, I like that a lot. I like
Tina: that. We can have so much pressure, right? To like finish things. You got to finish what you start. But it’s like, do we, do we have to finish all the things we start?
Nan: Oh God, that would be oppressive. No. And then the other big pressure that this conjures is the The perception that everything has to be perfect and oh, pick it out if it’s not, if you make a mistake and that’s one thing I’ve really been working hard at is to just let it be, you know, it’s okay if there’s a pucker.
Um, and I did also a retreat this summer. I was an attendee at a gathering of stitches retreat in Maine. It was. Oh, it was just so exquisite. Probably similar. I think they’re on the same latitude as Mackinac, but, um, to one of the instructors was like, I’m just taking my thread for a walk and you know, so you don’t have the pressure of go back and fix it.
It’s just leave it there. Just keep, just keep walking it. And I loved that visual and try to keep that mindful when I’m working. And, um, so
Tina: I loved
Nan: it.
Tina: Yeah, I love that. Okay, so you mentioned you were talking about your, your making, we got a little off track, which is exactly where
I like to go, where I love to go.
Tina: Yeah, it’s apropos to bring something and I’m grateful to be able to do that. So you were sharing that you are primarily a garment sewist, right? But occasionally you will sew a bag or a apron or something that just kind of like feels like an inspiration at the moment. How else do you like to create?
What else do you do to make things?
Nan: Oh, well, okay. So I have Pinterest boards for things that I like to do. Um, so Bolt and Spool Pinterest boards and there you will see a plethora of things. I like so playing with paper. I love well textural things and things that are surface designed like all that kind of stuff is just yum.
Um, Right now I’m working on, um, a store display for the holidays and I took all these empty fabric boards. And I’m making a little cityscape like of the skyline of Amsterdam or something. So they’re all, I cut them down. So I have not bought anything new. I’m repurposing. Um, so I paper mache them over the weekend with their little, um, Little fun roofs.
So we’ll see how that turns out. So that was very fun to do. I did it outside. Um, what else do I like to do? Um, uh, cross stitch embroidery. I like to knit sweaters and things. Um, I like to wear stuff, you know, and I, I did at the retreat over the summer learned how to do improv. Quilting, which I’ve always pooh poohed quilting, but it was really fun.
Cause it was just, it was very liberating to just cut stuff up and, you know, you’d sew it and she’d be like, Oh, just, it was with, um, Tara Fonan. She does some patterns. She’s out in California. She was a riot. You know, she’s like, you don’t like it’s rip it apart. Okay. Yeah. Um, but that was really fun just to not have a pattern and just Rotary cut and.
Dick and stitch and, um, yeah, so all, all different things. Um, I’m sure there’s more gardening, bike riding, golfing, Tennising, I don’t
Tina: know.
Nan: All the things. All the
Tina: things. We have a question for you about poopooing quilting. Where does that come from? Is that because this is my take on it? Because I also am not a quilter.
So like this is our like non quilting club right now. Okay. Is it because of all the rules? Is it because it’s so precise? Is that why?
Nan: Oh, that could be. I, I don’t, I don’t like the fabric. Okay. I’m a fabric snob. I don’t like the feel of the fabric and I don’t like how matchy matchy it is.
Um,
Nan: I, I showed.
Somebody was in the store one time who was a big quilter and we, we tear our fabric when we sell it because it gets you the grain. She’s a guest and I, and she’s like, well, what, show me something that you do like, like out of these quilts. So I pulled something out that I liked out of a book and she’s like, Oh, you like scrappy quilting.
Like, well, it doesn’t have to match. So to my detriment, I probably don’t have a great quilting following because I don’t buy. The entire line of, um, you know, what do they call them? I can’t think of the word, you know, when they have all the things that match in a scheme, I can’t think of the word anyways.
Um, so I, I just buy the ones that I like and I have my vendors that I like the feel of the fabric. Maybe it’s organic Ecotex made in the United States, you know, like I like to be as sustainable as possible. As you can possibly be so um, but yeah, I don’t like the fabric and the retro it’s just kind of moody vibes when you get into that.
I don’t know. It just seems dark. Oh, no, it’s supposed to be comforting, I think. Um, but I like happier things.
Tina: I love it. I love it. Okay. Yeah, this is so intriguing. Because, okay, well, okay. Why don’t you like quoting? Why don’t you like quilting? Excuse me. I think it’s very similar in some ways. It’s not the fabric so much.
And I do think of quilting as like the quilting fabrics I can think of. Because I wear really moody fabrics, right? I wear like, I love like a dusty rose, I like Oh yeah. I like, um, a lot of jewel tones, and if they’re sort of saddened a little bit, they have a little, a little black in them. That’s actually one of my favorite colorways as well.
So it’s interesting. So I think of quilts as like, sometimes they have so much color that I find them. Oh. Sort of. Overwhelming that way, but really scrap quilts are my favorite as well. So that’s kind of interesting. I don’t always love all the patterns. Occasionally I’ll see a quilt that maybe has a white background and it’s using texture.
So maybe it has all the pieces, but they’re all like in a, a white and they just have the color here and there. I find those really attractive. I agree. Yeah, I think they’re too busy for me, honestly.
Mm hmm.
Tina: Typically. I’ve seen them done in a way where I really have I can like somebody who has just a master of color flow and can really put them together in a way I have seen that where I’m like, wow, that’s a really beautiful quilt and I love I love my grandmother quilted I love her quilts that might still exist and I made
Nan: Something else attached to that Um, to, you know, something sentimental.
Oh, well, I did. I do like so one of the instructors that I met over because I took this because I wanted to learn about the quilting and stuff, but I also took it because this wonderful woman, Sarah Hibbert, she has, um, quilting cornerstone and her things are beautiful. If anybody wants to look her up quilting cornerstone, she’s a British woman, just absolutely lovely.
And. She uses linen in her quilts. Um, so not as much going on, but she has little pops of color, similar to what you were, were saying. So the textures are lovely and it’s very, um, purposeful, but not. What she does, I don’t know, people can look her up, they’re not looking at, looking at me, but, um, um, yeah, so her things were beautiful.
Um, the other thing with the actual act of quilting is the mess it makes. They’re all these little tiny pieces and there’s a lot to clean up. Right, I can see that.
Tina: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I can see that. All right. So you mentioned your store and you mentioned that you maybe don’t have a huge quilting following because you don’t focus on the whole colorway or whatever that was.
Oh, the
Nan: collection. I thought of the word. Collection.
Tina: Yes. Yeah. Let’s back up for a minute and tell us that your store opened in 2010 and it’s a brick and mortar store, but you also have a website presence. People can order from you online. Yeah. And I do want to mention real quick before I forget, is one of the beautiful things that you had talked about in the Breakthroughs of Sewing because some of the guests on that show were like, I hate ordering fabric online.
I never know what to do. Fabric’s my most like frightening part of the whole process. Exactly. You’re like, this is my favorite part. And you really encourage people to call the store.
Nan: Oh, they can. Yeah. We can probably walk through people all the time. The, you know, what we’ve got. And since we’ve spoken, we have a, a swatch service too.
I can send out five, swatches for free. We put them on a little card and label everything with the width and the weight and, you know, what you need to know. Um, yeah. And then you can pet them in person. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. Which is perfect. So tell us, uh. Check out the Modern Quilt Guild. I will. I had a, I think I just filled out an application to, to join
Tina: you are really branching out into the quilting world.
Look at you. Well, yeah. Yes. And yes. And no. Okay. So bring us back to 2010 before you open the books or excuse me, I had a bookstore. You have a fabric store. Oh, that’s another fun thing to have. I was 25 when I opened a bookstore and they had it for just four years. But, um, and then. It was in two, 2007 in, you know, like the economy had Oh yeah.
Tanked. And that’s when they closed it down. But 2010, you are about to open the fabric store. What was the impetus for starting a fabric store? And just tell us, walk us through what it feels. I, yeah. Um,
Nan: so I guess, well. Back up to me in high school. Okay. Back up to me being seven, I have older sisters that, so, um, you know, they’d make their prom dresses and their homecoming dresses.
Um, and I think if that’s my sister on MP iPhone, that’s the one of the ones I’m talking about. She, um, she was homecoming queen and she made her dress. Um, so, um, you know, I had, I had them to look up to and I had aunts that sewed. My mom mostly swore when she sewed, pardon, pardon my French. And, you know, so I grew up thinking damn was a French word.
But, um, No, so I, I played with their scraps and made stuff for my Barbies. Um, and then I really started sewing clothes probably in high school cause I had taste that was bigger than the pocketbook probably. Um, and then on to when I got a, A real job after college, but I really wanted to be a fashion designer.
I think when I was in high school and no, that was not going over, you know, I needed a bread and butter major. So I majored in journalism and I did love that cause that’s creative when I got to talk to people. Um, yeah. And then I did my MBA after I worked for five years, um, and I worked in finance and corporate banking, which was.
Horrendous. And then I quit and then I had kids and it was when I had my, my younger child was leaving for kindergarten that I decided I needed to do this because I was playing with all of their projects, their school projects. And they were like, this is my mom, get your own project. So that’s, I, I needed something, an outlet.
I needed a creative outlet. Um, but we would also, my husband. He’s, he’s an orthodontist, but he lectures all over the world. He’s a professor as well. And he invents appliances, braces and all different things. So he lectures all over the world and we would travel with him and, oh my God, the fabrics and the clothes in Spain and Italy and just everywhere.
We’re so gorgeous, but you couldn’t even make them. here because you couldn’t find the fabric to sew them with. Right. And I think it was also on the cusp of like the big knitting boom that had happened and sewing was just starting back up that hill. Um, because the year I launched, I think Merchant and Mills also launched and Deer and Doe Patterns.
Yeah.
Nan: Like there were all these indie sewing patterns that were also Just starting out at the time. And, um, so it was kind of this serendipitous adventure and, and I would go to bed at night and I would picture ribbon and colors and just kind of manifested it. And then, yeah. And then this little space opened about five minutes from here in our university circle area, little Italy of Cleveland.
Um, and it was perfect. It was just like a size. That was doable for me. And then we’ve grown since then. But yeah. Yeah. So now I have all those things I always wanted and beautiful fabrics from Europe, then, you know, India, South America and yeah, it’s
Tina: exciting. I have so many questions for you, but first, um, first question that came up is, are you still in the same building that you were when you began?
Nan: I
Tina: am.
Nan: We started, there was a little room, so it’s an old schoolhouse. So as you can imagine, there’s. Lots of rooms. Um, and at the time there were more boutiques in there. Um, now it’s mostly like artist galleries and architects and a marketing firm or two. Um, but I’ve, I moved up the hall and I now have, you know, Three rooms that are connected and I’m right on the front porch.
And, um, what’s fun about it. Well, it’s in little Italy, so of course it smells good all the time. Um, but there’s the church bells from Holy Rosary church. They kind of feel like you’re in Italy and we’re on a cobblestone street, which is fun, but we get. All the influx of international people and visitors to the Cleveland clinic and the art museum.
And I just love it when people come in. Purposefully like they find me and then they’re like, Oh, we’re going, we’re going to the art museum after this or we’re going to the rock hall. So I put myself on par with those big attractions in Cleveland. Um, but it’s nice because we do get a lot of visitors, but then we’re a destination for, you know, Like the Heights area, there’s Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights, which is just up the hill where I am right now.
Um, and, um, you know, if they need thread or elastic or something, you know, they don’t need to travel far to one of the big box stores to get it. So, right. Yeah. Nice. Because we’re a cool city. You don’t have that.
Tina: Yeah. So those three rooms that you have, do you have, obviously you have fashion fabric, and it’s all beautiful, amazing fashion fabric, and you have some quilting, or maybe a great deal of quilting.
Nan: Some, some. I have Tilda, which I love her. I do, I love Tilda’s things. Um, yeah, so I’ve got, I have, okay, so the main room is, uh, apparel, garment sewing. So I’ve got all the patterns on a wall. Um, And then Knits, Double Gauze, Wool, Corduroy, Liberty of London. I’ve got their Tantalons plus some of their silks. Mm hmm.
Oh my God, they’re gorgeous. Um, and then Merchant and Mills linens. What else? It’s some Japanese, a bunch of Japanese fabrics that are yummy. Um, and then in, um, in the back, I call it the back room. It’s not really a back room. It was, but now we use it for quilting cottons. I’ve got a big wall just of quilting cottons.
Um, so Tilda Art Gallery, Cloud Nine. Some birch kind of think what else a couple dear Stella’s because her things are kind of fun. Um, and then Oh, and then notions and stuff. So whatever you might need interfacing muslin that kind of stuff’s in there. But the room that you enter in from our front porch is, um, Hand sewing, so needlework, needle felting, embroidery, hand embroidery, only hand embroidery, sashiko, um, kogen, cross stitch, and then everything that you’d need for bag making, um, lots of noodle head patterns, um, and the dry oil cloth, and fun strapping from merchant and mills, and stuff like that,
Tina: so.
That sounds amazing. I have a quick question for you. So dry oil cloth, is that the same as wax canvas? Is that different? Do you know?
Nan: Uh, that’s a good question. It doesn’t have, it’s not like a laminate. It’s not that shiny. It’s um, and you can reoil it, I think, to make it more waterproof. I don’t know.
Tina: It sounds very similar.
Somehow it’s made in snow. I don’t know. So the wax canvas that I’ve used, you can also recharge with wax and um, it isn’t shiny or sticky. No,
Nan: yeah, this isn’t.
Tina: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Nan: That’s interesting. I don’t know. I’ll have to. Let me, I’m writing a note. Okay. Excellent. Waxed canvas.
Tina: So, what has surprised you about owning a fabric store?
Um,
Nan: the fact that I still get nervous going to work. I don’t know. I think I’m, I’m more, I’m like an introvert, extrovert kind of person. Yeah. Like, as you, I’m a little nervous talking to you, but, um. I don’t know. I get anxious because I’m afraid somebody’s going to ask me something I don’t know. Um, and I don’t like to teach because of that, I think.
Because I’m self taught. I never had, this summer was the first time I had real sewing lessons from the instructors at camp. So, yeah. Um, but it’s funny because I surprise myself that I do know stuff when people ask me.
Tina: Right.
Nan: And that’s like, I knew that.
Tina: I have no doubt. Yeah. So you said you You put the fabric often.
So like, tell us about. Cause I know that there are other people out there that would, this is like, you know, some kind of a latent dream where, so tell us, like, I just imagine you with maybe a glass of wine or a cup of tea or coffee and you’re like petting the fabric and you’re laying it over and you’re looking at the drape and you’re like, is that how it goes?
And it’s just like, maybe there are butterflies. Oh, every day we get the wine out.
Nan: Well, we do get wine out. We have open sewing sessions. Um, And the evening we alternate mornings and evenings on Tuesdays, and they’re free. But in the evening we do get wine out. And maybe toward the holiday we’ll have some in the morning.
We’ll do little mimosas or bellinis. Yeah, well, I think what started it was we had this faux fur, this bolt of faux fur, and I need to get it back because it, it’s amazing. It feels like rabbit fur, but it’s polyester, which, polyester, it’s plastic, I know. But it was so big, like it wouldn’t fit on a shelf, and so it wasn’t, we had it in a basket, and I swear to God, every child that came in was like, come in and just hug, hug the bolt of fabric.
Like, um. Yeah. And so then that’s, we just started calling, you know, feeling it, we were just petting the fabric. But yeah, cause it’s like, you know, if you like it, that’s
Tina: what you want to do. So yeah. So what are your favorite things to sew in the garment section? Like do you typically sell from patterns? Do you do any?
Nan: I do. Cause I, well, okay. So I felt the need to wear stuff that I made because so this is a merchant and mills. Yeah. So I like to sew. easy things because, you know, I got to get it done or it might not get done. Um, so this is a merchant and mills. This is their, um, I don’t know. Can you guys see it? Um, it’s that quilted pre quilted stuff that they have.
Yeah. You’ve seen it. Probably. Yeah.
Tina: It looks like a double gauze. Is it a double gauze, but it’s pre quilted? I don’t have
Nan: glass. I’ve got my sunglasses.
It’s, um.
Nan: They’re prescriptions so you can see it could be but it’s like a quilted. I think they call it a quilted jacquard quilted cotton. It’s just here.
Let me get up close. It’s quilted. Um, but it’s one of their sweatshirt patterns, but I didn’t use cuffs. I just folded it in. Um, oh, there’s liberty peeking out. That’s what I like to use the liberty for is little fun. Um, and then I used their cord because I didn’t want to put, I thought it was dressier. Can you guys see this?
I put one of those little cord stops on it to cinch it in so you can bring it in. And then these pants, I’m going to get up on my chair. I love it. These are pajama pants, but since I made them out of nice linen, I didn’t wear them out. But I did draft these myself. So. What about your shirt? Is that homemade as well?
No, that’s from Madewell. Delightful. I could do a t shirt if I wanted to. Um, yeah. Oh, you know what? Though, I did. I made, um, 100 acts of sewing because people, you know, this is what, this is what surprises me. Okay. As much as I have this self confidence thing, I’m not afraid to just try stuff, the number of people that are so afraid to try to sell.
And I don’t know, I don’t know. I’ve never used a rotary cutter. I don’t know. And well, you know, let’s start, let’s trace the pattern. Cause you might want to use it again or whatever. Oh, I don’t know. You know, it’s like, it’s a pencil and tissue paper. I think you can do it. You know, that’s. That’s probably the biggest thing, the lack of self confidence in the general public.
So, but then there’s the other extreme where somebody will come in and say, I’ve never sewed, but I’m going to a wedding on Saturday and I’m going to make this silk charmeuse dress. I don’t have a pattern, but I’m just going to wing it and I’m like, God love you do it. So
Tina: you never know what, yeah, no, kind of crazy, but so one of the things I hear so often from my students is a fear of cutting into precious fabric, right?
Because fabric is expensive and it’s hard to, um, sometimes it’s hard to make that first cut. And so like they will, that will be the thing that stops them. Does that ever stop you? No,
Nan: no. I mean, if that’s stopping people, make a Muslim first or make do little practice. If that was scary, but
Tina: no. Nice. No, I love it.
I imagine because Um,
it’s sort of along those lines of, right, you just have to jump in, right? And if you are working with something that you love, like your, your chance of creating something that you love is going to be so much higher if you’re already working with a fabric that you adore. Oh,
Nan: I think so. And nicer fabric is way more forgiving than, you know, and then if you do make a mistake, No one’s looking at it because it’s.
The fabric is nice. And if you look at stuff that you buy at the store,
No, there’s mess, there’s goofs all the way through. Like stuff doesn’t line up, or the buttonholes are wonky, or Yeah. I, yeah. Give yourself some grace. Yeah.
Tina: Yeah. So you said earlier that you hate rules, and I know that when we talked in the Breakthroughs of Sewing, you shared your process, and I believe if I remember correctly, this was back in April, um, So many of us start from different directions, right?
Like I typically will start from a design aspect. Like I’ll decide I want a dress that feels like this, looks like that. I’m typically a dress wearer, so that’s usually what I do. Yeah. And I’ll start there and then I’ll try to find fabric that will work with what I want. Occasionally I’ll buy the fabric first and have that be inspirational.
And I think I recall you saying that you are often inspired by fabric first, which of course would make a ton of sense. Is that true?
Nan: Yes. Yeah. Right now I’m obsessed with, um, feather whale corduroy and I want to make a dress. Well, I wanted to make the dress for tomorrow night, but God, and I’m busy all day tomorrow.
Um, no, but I got the corduroy, but I just have to find the right dress. thing. Right.
Tina: Right. Yeah. Makes complete sense. Tell us what that corduroy was again. The corduroy? Yeah.
Nan: It’s a feather whale corduroy. I think it’s like a 21 whale. Um, and it’s a merchant in mills. Okay. I need to get more of their colors.
Um, it’s like this delicious mustard curry color. Oh yeah. It’s really nice. Perfect for the summer I know. And I’ve got this Tomorrow night and Saturday I could double duty. ’cause they’re in different cities. I’m going to Pittsburgh, but Yeah. Shh. Don’t tell anybody. Um, but it’s not gonna get made unless I stay up all night.
Yeah.
Tina: Right.
Nan: I’m a night, I’m a night sewer, I think.
Tina: Are you, is that typically when you’re sewing for yourself?
Nan: Yeah, and I, I think it’s because I feel like I have to get like real stuff done during the day. Right. And I only give myself that freedom to do what I want to do. Like after I have realized all my responsibilities, so yeah,
Tina: yeah, I can understand that.
I think I am trying to shift that in my own business because I think that the more creative I am, the more I mean, and my business is teaching and selling fabric, but it’s not so different. Like you still, your enthusiasm is what’s going to sell what you are carrying, right? Like, Oh yeah. I’ll need to be like, look at this beautiful thing I made out of it and how excited you are about it.
And. So I personally have been trying, and this is a constant try. It’s a constant sort of, it’s a constant try to make this happen. But I keep thinking I want to really schedule in more time in my work hours to be creative, because I think that’s just going to fuel what I do. So,
Nan: Oh, and
Tina: so, well, yeah, because
Nan: you, you’re playing with techniques that you want to, Oh, does this work?
How do you, you know, like, and then you share that. And, Teach people and they get it. I mean, they can feel your sense of enthusiasm. So, yeah, they want to come back for more.
Tina: We’re both getting permission right now to put that into it. Okay. That’s authentic work. That’s part of it. It is.
Nan: It is. But it needs habits and discipline and all that stuff, which It does.
God, yes.
Tina: It does. So one of the themes I like to explore on the podcast is, um, the idea of living vibrantly and living full of joy. And I would definitely say that you have a beautiful spark to you. So I love to share or have the guests share what ways they ensure that Joy and kind of a grounding or a piece in their everyday life.
Like for instance, to give you an idea where this is going for me, one of the most important things that I can do in the day is I can do a morning routine and that changes for me and I try to keep it not too stringent because I also don’t like rules, so I have to keep it sort of flowy for myself. But I know that if I spend some time in meditation or journaling, some kind of mindfulness and some kind of movement.
Before I start my day, the day goes so much more peacefully and where it is. I wonder, do you have any rituals or practices like that, that you do on a regular basis? No,
Nan: but it just, no, I did. I did. I did for a year. I would, I would the dog anyway. Um, um, I worked out twice a week for a year with a trainer.
Yeah. That was hard. I mean, that the, I mean, she was hard, but at that discipline at seven in the morning, that was, that was hard, but I think necessary. And I think I need to do to do it again. I stopped for a bit, but yeah, you know, cause it gets you, you need to get up and not, not touch your phone, brush your teeth, make your, like, don’t even touch your foot, like just keep the phone somewhere else.
And to get your day going so that it’s your day and not somebody else’s day. Um, I guess if that’s a habit, that’s what I do.
Tina: Don’t touch it. Sure. That’s a huge habit because the phone is a time and life sucker, I think. And then there’s so much beauty to the internet, there’s so much beauty to our connection and our ability to be connected.
But I think that particularly the phone, it can just, I don’t know how many times, and even somebody who’s trying to live very mindfully and have all these things in place, I don’t know how many times I have had like an hour after I put my boy to bed before I want to go to bed. And I’m going to read I’m going to watch this video that Has purpose like I’m purposely going to do something I go to check something on my phone and pretty soon It’s like 11 o’clock.
I’m like,
Nan: yes. Yes. No, it’s it’s hard It’s hard to not do that Like there was a day last week when I I woke up and I wake up to the radio to NPR And my phone happened to be on the nightstand, which I don’t normally keep it there And I it was like I had to stop myself like no, don’t touch it. Don’t touch it Just leave it there.
Go make coffee with the dog, you know, like get the kids up, whatever. Um, but yeah, I think that that’s. Do you need to? Yeah, not do that.
Tina: So the, before we open this up to any questions, uh, those listening might have the thing that I love to ask all of my guests is, um, what do you wish people knew deep in their hearts? that you think maybe they don’t know.
Nan: Wow. That’s, um,
um, that they have agency over themselves and, and what they do day to day. Um, and that they can do more than they think they can, not more like produce more, but that it’s okay to be afraid and still do something anyway. Yeah. Um, yeah, I have this thing, a magnet on my Our kitchen door is metal, so it’s our refrigerator, essentially, um, for magnets and, um, it’s a circle of like your comfort zone and, and the gross circles beyond that.
And so I look at that when I leave every day and it’s like,
okay, scared, but that you, you have agency over what you’re doing. What you choose to do and how you choose to live, even with all the demands that you have on you, you can still make. Um, beautiful things in your life. Beautiful. Yeah.
I love that.
Nan: Thank
Tina: you, Nan.
You’re welcome.
Tina: So, those of you who are here with us live, if you have any questions that you’d like to ask Nan directly, it could be about fabric, or you want to share some insight or some thoughts about things we talked about.
Feel free to, um, post your question in the chat and we’ll have you join us live if you’d like to. Um, again, Sybil did mention that there’s the Modern Quilts Guild. So we’re going to both check that out because yes,
Nan: I want to check and see, make sure that’s the one I, cause if I were, that would be the one
Tina: that modern look to it.
Nan: Yeah.
Tina: Very nice. And so while though, while people might be formulating their questions, man, what are you working on right now? I mean, obviously it’s not the quarter I dress for not the quarter. Um,
Nan: I, Oh, Oh, I know what I’m working on because it’s the fabrics in the dryer. I put it in the wash last night. My niece owns a toy store here in town.
It’s the most amazing toy store. It’s like the Apple store for children. Like this place is amazing. It’s called Sifu play S I L like the French spelling, but P L a Y. Um, and anyway, so she had asked me last week. If I, um, If I had a pattern or if I could, um, make up some children’s aprons for the holidays, she wanted to sell them in her store.
So I picked out some really crazy things. And I do have a, I do have a pattern. I need to post it and have it like be a freebie because I just made it up, but I just have to put it on Adobe. Yeah. Pick it somewhere on the website, but, um, so that’s what I was going to do this afternoon is whip up some, um, kids aprons for her shop.
Very nice. What kind of fabrics are you using for those? I picked out, um. I have, there’s a couple of Riley Blake Liberty Christmas prints that I got last year. It’s funny because Christmas prints don’t sell, but, um, yeah, so I haven’t, I didn’t get any new ones. Oh, I’ve got some Liberty lawn Christmas ones coming next week.
So those are cool. Um, so I’m using the, the quilting cotton on the front and then some Essex linen on the back just to give it some, so they’re two sided. So if After the holidays, they just want to wear them. But to make them fun, I got some little pom poms to put on them. So, so they’re cute. So I’ll put those out.
I’ll take pictures of those and put them on Instagram. So I’m best on Instagram if you don’t want to know where to find me. What’s your handle on Instagram? Bolt and spool. B O L T
A N D
Nan: S P O O L. Let’s just cat Bolt and Spool. So that was a
Tina: little, a little broken up on this. I’m just going to say Bolt and Spool.
B O L T A N D S P O O L. Okay. So Bolt and Spool on Instagram and also on the website. You can check them out. Check her out. Yeah. Yes.
Nan: Yeah. And Facebook. And Twitter. But I haven’t Twittered. Xed. Whatever.
Yeah, um, I don’t know. What are you working on?
Tina: Oh, great question. So I, I have finally learned to some degree, although I just gave us permission earlier to work on creative projects during work hours and consider it work time. Oh, good. But I have finally learned to create programs that allow me to make things that I really love to wear.
So then when I make samples or I work through the process and I get something that I really love. So it’s like this little again. Yeah. Right? Good. Yeah, so I have a series right now that’s going called with ease and we’re going through we’re taking a basic pattern and then changing it into three different dresses.
So I just worked through all the instructions for the final dress, which we learned next Saturday. And so I’m going to sew up a sample of it, um, hopefully today. Uh, so I’m excited about that. Oh, good. Yeah.
Nan: Fun.
Tina: And I have, it has these big dramatic, and mine are going to be extra big and extra dramatic, like swashbuckling sleeves is what I call it, especially a bishop sleeve.
And of course I work almost, if you’ve been following me for any time, I work almost exclusively with knit. So I’m interested. I’m going to ask you a knit question after this. Okay. Um, so it’s got big billowy bishop sleeves, but it’s a fitted dress. And so I, I’ve worked with this. Set before and I know that I love the sleeves out of a really drapey like rayon.
Oh, yeah But they’re not really voluminous, but they have a lot of drama, but I don’t want the dress in that exact. Um weight of fabric and so I actually found a Jersey that was thicker, but in the same exact colorway for the, for the base of it. And then the sleeves are the exact same color, but they’re in a much lighter, Ooh.
I thought, oh, this is gonna be so much fun. So I can’t wait to kinda see. Oh, that’s cool.
Nan: Yes. Are there cuffs? Like, are there like Yes. Yeah,
Tina: so I like having a big long cuff as well, so like maybe a seven inch cuff and then having this so cool. I know. It’s so fun. Okay, I for that. Tell me about the knits that you carry.
What are your favorite knits that you carry at the store?
Nan: Um, so I’m like a newer knit sewer sewist. Um, we’ve, I think we have some bamboo. Mm-Hmm. . Um, and that’s really fun and drape. I, I got a couple of liberty knits, but they didn’t have very much stretch for them, so, um. I think I only have that. I have just one colorway in that knit.
Um, but I like, I like cotton, you know, for tops. Like if you use it for bottoms, like the knees stick out, like there’s not much recovery if you use them for bottoms, unless they’ve got some decent spandex in them. Right. So, right. Yeah.
So the Liberty,
Nan: the Liberty, Panties are nice. Those are
Tina: very fun. The Liberty Knits that you carry, are they printed?
I’m guessing. Does Liberty do it? Yeah, I just have one.
Nan: Yeah, and I can’t find them. I don’t know if they stopped because they used to have corduroy also that I had. Um, and I, I should ask her, email them and ask. So, but yeah, they’re printed. Right, right.
Tina: Man, your, um, internet just cut out on us just for a moment again.
So you said they used to have corduroy, but you can’t find them now? Is that what you’re saying?
Nan: Yeah, they haven’t had them on their platform lately.
Tina: Oh. I wonder if the Liberty knit that is printed is more stable because obviously whenever you would stretch out a print of a knit, it starts to distort a little bit.
Yes. I see Liberty being like, we’re not gonna accept it. No, right, exactly.
Nan: Yeah,
Tina: yeah,
Again, if you want to check out Nan’s website, it’s boltandspool. com. And it was wonderful to have you here with me today.
Nan: Thank you, Tia.
I’m
Tina: And thank you for all of those who have joined us. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Bye. Bye.