Project Overview

Over the course of four weeks in the summer of 2022, Zak Foster - renowned quilter, podcaster, and convener of the QUILTY NOOK - joined us in the studio. Zak created a series of tapestries and taught nearly 100 students how to sew. Here is an excerpt from his proposal:

When Molly [Hemstreet] was giving me the tour of the facility at Opportunity Threads, I was impressed at how they have streamlined the process of making a memory quilt. I found myself especially drawn to the leftover bits of T-shirt: the one side of the garment that it had a giant square die-cut out of it. When I saw that, I knew I had the direction for my project. These leftover shirts can operate like a frame and can help focus us on what matters most. I paired one shirt with one piece of foundation fabrics also sourced from TOSS and Material Return, and arranged them in such a way as to 1) capture a human gesture and 2) highlight a detail of the foundation fabric.
I also love the idea of extending the remembrance of the life of someone I don’t even know. Using these cut out frames from someone’s loved ones old T-shirt, is a way of connecting all of us to one another, whether we know each other’s name or not, whether we even know whether or not that person exist.
I am also captured by the idea that by removing a piece of the shirt we have opened up and exposed the heart space of the garment. The space points to the core of the person who used to wear it wear it. And by asking the viewer to contemplate the space, I’m asking them to think not only of the value of the textile being framed, but also the value of the heart of the person who wore this garment at one time.
Working with these discarded T-shirt frames, I created a series of ten wall-hangings called Afterlife that showcase textiles at least two different ways. First, the t-shirt itself. Secondly, the foundation fabric that forms the backdrop be carefully selected to heighten color combinations, textures, and pattern. It’s important to me that everybody looking at these pieces see themselves reflected in the work so to that end I’m selected different kinds of t-shirts: some band shirts, some tie-dye shirts, some athletic jerseys, even a button-up shirt.

Process