We are recording today on the traditional ancestral and unceded territories

of the Coast Salish and Kwakwakiwak peoples, including Slaywetooth, Squamish,

Musqueam, and Komak's First Nations.

Hello and welcome to Love to So! I'm Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics,

and I'm Helen, the designer behind Helen's Closet Patterns.

We're two sewing beds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.

Join us for today's interview with Christy Johnson.

Hello Christy, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me. It was so wonderful.

We're so excited to chat with you. Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Yeah, so my name is Christy Johnson. I am a textile artist and teacher.

I work with mostly embroidery natural dyes and clothing making, and I wrote a book recently

called Mystical Stitches, Embroidery for Personal Empowerment and Magical Embellishments.

Which sounds incredible. Like I want to read that book just based on the title.

And where are you from, Christy?

Oh, I was originally from West Palm Beach, Florida. I lived there until I was 18. I went to LA

for 10 years, and now I live in upstate New York, or I mean, it kind of like West State, New York,

not really up, but very cool, very cool. And we love to hear our guests sewing stories.

And so can you tell us a little bit more about how you learn to sew and also how you learn to

embroider? Because that's obviously a big part of your life and your career.

Yeah, most of my sewing skills and all, basically all of my textile skills, I learned from my mother.

She was a avid textile, still isn't avid textile artist. She always had some project going on.

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