Sunday 29 January 2023: Online Talk (Feed Sacks with Chris English & Linzee McCray!)

Linzee McCray & Chris English - Sunday 29 January 2023 - 7.00pm to 9.00pm (GMT) Online Interactive Talk: The Wonder of Feed Sacks!

As well as hosting educational and interactive classes here on our Zoom platform, our desire has always been to provide you with some very interesting Online Talks from some great experts in their crafting fields. The online talks give you a chance to grab a glass of wine or cup of tea, sit back and relax as our experts talk about their areas of expertise or their passions. As always you will be able to ask your questions and be very much involved in the Talks; it's almost as if you were all in one room, but of course the beauty is that you don't have to leave your house or jump on a plane! Simply buy a ticket, press a button, sit back and reeeeeeeelax!...

For our first talk of 2023 we're absolutely thrilled to welcome Linzee McCray author of Feed Sacks: The Colourful History of a Frugal Fabric, to the CraftyMonkies spotlight alongside CraftyMonkies regular and Feed Sack 'afficionado' Chris English for what promises to be an interesting insight into Feed Sacks and their many uses... This 'class' costs only £15 for a couple of hours and we think this will be exceptional value and a thoroughly enjoyable evening!...

Linzee McCray has this to say:-

"Hi CraftyMonkies! I'm so honoured and excited to be working alongside Chris (I've been a fan of his for some time) and have the opportunity to chat to you about Feed Sacks. Some of you may say, "what are they?!" I have talked at length across America on this subject and of course have written the above mentioned book, so I love them! People always find the history of them and their uses fascinating. I'm really hoping to teach you something new and inspire you on the night! Also looking forward to chatting to you too and taking your questions. It will be a wonderful evening! 

Here's a brief insight. Long before “sustainability” was a household word, people reused the fabric bags that once held everything from animal feed and seed to sugar and flour to ballots, hams, and even laxatives. Based on my book Feed Sacks: The Colourful History of a Frugal Fabric, I’ll share both the beauty of feed sacks and their importance in the social and economic history of the times in which they were made and used. The lecture features historic photos, vintage advertising, and fabric patterns, as well as actual sacks and the clothing, quilts, and other items made from them. It is of interest to lovers of fashion, textiles and design, historians, quilters, and those with an interest in sustainability. So please do come along. I'll be teaching too later in the year with CraftyMonkies, so its a great way for us to get to know each other!"

Chris English has this to say:-

"I first spoke to Rachel about my love of Feed Sacks during the in-person Sewing Retreat at Oulton Hall in Leeds, in September 2022. She had never heard of them and was fascinated the more I told her about them. Janet Clare was also at that dinner and said that she knew a lady, Linzee McCray, quite well and perhaps she could put her in contact with Rachel to organise an online chat. The rest is history as they say and here we are together, and I'm super excited. I actually knew of Linzee as I bought her book some time ago and I absolutely love it, it's a thing of beauty you must have a look at it!

I probably didn’t realise when I first saw a quilt made from feed sack fabric, I think I just saw this amazing fabric and loved it and thought where is this fabric from. As I’ve increased my understanding of feed sacks and what they were and how they are used so has my usage of them in my quilts. I have a couple of super helpful quilt dealers in the US who keep an eye out for me for feed sack orphan blocks and for actual feed sacks. I particularly love the more utilitarian ones with the distinctive branding on and now use these as whole pieces in my quilts.

Using Feed Sacks fabric has also challenged me to use other types of fabric in my quilt and not limit myself to ‘quilting’ fabric, it’s amazing and super forward thinking that these fabrics were designed to be used for something after their initial purpose had been served. And I think is a lesson that we could learn from today, i.e. designing for sustainability. So will you com and join us? I do hope so..."

It would be wonderful to have your support: if the talks we are providing prove popular, we here at CraftyMonkies will aim to provide many more for you! We look forward to seeing you on 29 January 2023!...

This CraftyMonkies Online Interactive chat is being broadcast from the United Kingdom and the time given is based on GMT (Greenwich Meantime). We advise you check via Google Search (or similar) to see corresponding start-time in YOUR location! Here's a great world time zone reference:-

https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

IMPORTANT!

This class is a live Zoom-chat ONLY and as such we are sadly NOT able to offer a recorded Pay-On-Demand video for sale after this event.