Untitled #16 (Thread) at the Denver Art Museum

As mentioned in the News and Notes section of the November/December 2008 issue, team Fiberarts (Editor Marci Rae McDade and Assistant Editor Liz Good) were on the scene for Untitled #16 (Thread), an evening of how-to fun hosted by the Denver Art Museum on June 27. A variety of hands-on activities were thematically arranged to connect with the exhibit on display, Gee’s Bend: the Architecture of the Quilt (the exhibit is currently on view through December 14 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art). Here we share additional images from the event.

Visitors tried their hands at crochet, sewing, and collage with helpful tips provided by visiting artists like Jaime Jennings and Amber Corcoran from the Fancy Tiger, a DIY boutique in Denver. The dynamic duo taught passersby how to crochet with over-sized hooks and strips of recycled linens with the goal of communally creating the world’s longest scarf.

Liz helps crochet the world’s longest scarf with help from Jaime Jennings of Fancy Tiger in Denver.

Amber Corcoran of Fancy Tiger in Denver, crochets part of the world’s longest scarf.

Liz and Marci were first in line to help make the world’s longest scarf.

Frau Fiber (aka artist and activist Carole Lung who is profiled in the November/December 2008 issue) taught visitors some of the basics about garment construction, transforming old bed sheets into new shirts.

Frau Fiber conducted a sewing workshop to make shirts from donated bed sheets.

One of Frau Fiber’s completed shirts.

For those interested in quilt design, tables were arranged with cardboard squares, fabric swatches, scissors, and glue sticks to experiment through impromptu collage.

Denver Art Museum visitors collage quilt designs.

Liz and Marci proudly display their quilt-design cards.

The evening was “embellished” with a performance by the Spirituals Project Choir in the exhibit gallery, binding the stories of those quilts to their African American heritage through uplifting song.

Marci gets swept up in the moment outside the Denver Art Museum.