Leslie Rogers

Community quilting series process outtakes. FAR too many thanks to send and people to tag! You all know who you are! The bees and the fibers will be thanking you all year!

SMFA Dye & Fiber Garden Fundraiser Quilts #1 SOLD #2 SOLD #3 SOLD @sleepylabright #4 SOLD #5 SOLD #6 SOLD #7 #8 #9 SOLD #10 SOLD #11 SOLD #12 SOLD @beastofnonation140 #13 (mystery quilt you have not seen) $300 each 25" square wall-hanging. Each has three small, soft loops on the back along the top edge for hanging. This Indigo & Madder Friday, please consider purchasing a quilt made using recycled fabrics dyed with plants from the new SMFA Dye & Fiber Garden! Proceeds will support this summer's Student Butterfly (caretaker & pigment studio-scientist). Every piece was collaboratively assembled by a large amalgamous group of community members including SMFA/Tufts students, staff from the Library, Studio Team, the Dean's Office, Full and Part-Time Faculty, MFA Boston curatorial and collections staff, The Growing Center in Somerville, and Boston community members. I kept a list at first, but lost track! Often, I handed a quilt off to one person and another brought it back, expanding the web. We're so grateful for the incredible community support we've received for the garden so far! Any additional funds will support community events like our upcoming spring seedling distribution, soil nutrients, hopefully sunflower trellises and and if we're VERY lucky, a passive irrigation system from the roof. If you can't make it to the sale in Boston and want to purchase, email me with the piece you'd like and your phone number so I can get you in touch with the folks who can process your payment over the phone, and ship to you. [email protected] Public SMFA Art Sale Days: 230 Fenway, Boston Fri 12/5, 10am-8pm Sat 12/6, 10am-5pm Sun 12/7, 10am-5pm If you live in Detroit, I'm happy to bring it to you with a big smile, and seeds if you wish! This project was installed last Spring with a Green Fund grant from the Tufts Office of Sustainability.

(back) 2025 SMFA Dye & Fiber Garden Student Butterfly Fundraiser Quilt 94" square (king/queen size, but has small, soft loops to hang on a wall as well) $3600 The name of each dye plant used is couched on the back of the large quilt in cursive. The yarn is dyed using those plants. This fundraiser is the first project for our fancy new @berninausa Q20! I, for one, will be couching in cursive indefinitely. So satisfying. This Indigo & Madder Friday, please consider purchasing a quilt made with recycled fabrics dyed with plants from the new SMFA Dye & Fiber Garden! Proceeds will support this summer's Student Butterfly (caretaker & pigment studio-scientist). We also have 13 smaller 25" square wall quilts, each for $300 (impending post). Every piece was collaboratively assembled by a large amalgamous group of community members including SMFA/Tufts students, staff from the Library, Studio Team, the Dean's Office, Full and Part-Time Faculty, MFA Boston curatorial and collections staff, The Growing Center in Somerville, and Boston community members. I kept a list at first, but lost track! Often, I handed a quilt off to one person and another brought it back, expanding the web. We're so grateful for the incredible community support we've received for the garden so far! Any additional funds will support community events like our upcoming spring seedling distribution, soil nutrients, hopefully sunflower trellises and and if we're VERY lucky, a passive irrigation system from the roof. Public SMFA Art Sale Days: 230 Fenway, Boston Fri 12/5, 10am-8pm Sat 12/6, 10am-5pm Sun 12/7, 10am-5pm If you can't make it to the sale in Boston and want to purchase, email me with the piece you'd like and your phone number so I can get you in touch with the folks who can process your payment over the phone, and ship to you. [email protected] If you live in Detroit, I'm happy to bring it to you with a big smile, and seeds if you wish! The SMFA Dye & Fiber Garden was installed last spring with a Green Fund grant from the Tufts Office of Sustainability. #freemotionquilting #freemotionembroidery #quiltingfun #quilting #naturaldye #naturaldyes #bernina

2025 SMFA Dye & Fiber Garden Student Butterfly Fundraiser Quilt 94" square (king/queen size, but has small, soft loops to hang on a wall as well) $3600 This Indigo & Madder Friday, please consider purchasing a quilt made using recycled fabrics dyed with plants from the new SMFA Dye & Fiber Garden! Proceeds will support this summer's Student Butterfly (caretaker & pigment studio-scientist). The name of each dye plant used is couched on the back of the large quilt in cursive. The yarn is dyed using those plants (see next post). We also have, 13 smaller 25" square wall quilts, each for $300 (impending post). Link to all + more info in Bio. Every piece was collaboratively assembled by a large amalgamous group of community members including SMFA/Tufts students, staff from the Library, Studio Team, the Dean's Office, Full and Part-Time Faculty, MFA Boston curatorial and collections staff, The Growing Center in Somerville, and Boston community members. I kept a list at first, but lost track! Often, I handed a quilt off to one person and another brought it back, expanding the web. We're so grateful for the incredible community support we've received for the garden so far! Any additional funds will support community events like our upcoming spring seedling distribution, soil nutrients, hopefully sunflower trellises and and if we're VERY lucky, a passive irrigation system from the roof. Public SMFA Art Sale Days: 230 Fenway, Boston Fri 12/5, 10am-8pm Sat 12/6, 10am-5pm Sun 12/7, 10am-5pm If you can't make it to the sale in Boston and want to purchase, email me with the piece you'd like and your phone number so I can get you in touch with the folks who can process your payment over the phone, and ship to you. [email protected] If you live in Detroit, I'm happy to bring it to you with a big smile, and seeds if you wish! This project was implemented last Spring thanks to a Green Fund grant from the Tufts Office of Sustainability.

A tiny sampling of the ~50 uniquely colored fabrics we made this week from the SMFA Dye & Fiber Garden for a few impending fundraiser quilts. If you like planty colors, buy one at this year's annual Art Sale and the garden will have an official Student Butterfly to steward it again this summer! These colors are only possible because of last summer's Student Butterfly, Jamie Atchinson @ok_kiddo_ SMFA Art Sale: 230 Fenway, Boston, MA Friday, December 5, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, December 6, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, December 7, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The many color variations come from lifting them from one dye pot and plopping in another, chaotically and at random, without administrative tasks like organized list-making or keeping track of time. The triangles are made by stamping an alum acetate mordant paste on unmordanted cotton, a recipe & technique I learned @penlandschool this summer in a Painting & Printing with Natural Dye workshop taught by @ambientdesigns & @ship_at_sea from @maiwaschooloftextiles ! I'm currently taking their asynchonous advanced dye chemistry & indigo courses online. Invaluable! The Dye & Fiber Garden project and my attendance at the summer workshop were made possible by the Green Fund at Tufts. @greentufts Pictured: Marigold Orange Cosmo Madder Hopi Sunflower Iron (not a plant) Not pictured (yet): Indigo Stay tuned

Hello quilters and the quilt-adjacent, Please join me in Fibers to make some collaborative quilts for this year's SMFA Art Sale! We'll use fabrics dyed using plants from the new Dye & Fiber Garden. Proceeds from the sale 🤞 will fund this summer's Student Gardener! Poster attached. No sewing experience necessary! There's endless measuring, marking, cutting, and ironing to do as well. Come hang loose, and you might pick up some quilting or dyeing skills by accident. 230 Fenway, Fibers Studio Rm. A208 Fri 10/31, 3pm-9pm Fri 11/7, 3pm-9pm (I'm away the 14th) Fri 11/21, 3pm-9pm Sew you later

Dinner performance event by AIR Leslie Rogers in the garden this Friday 8/22 & Saturday 8/23, 6-8pm each night! Reservations limited to 30 guests per night, RSVP via link in bio! This is the handmade risograph printed drink menu that accompany Leslie’s “99 Bottles Drink Service,” which accompanies the meal! All 70+ plants represented in the recipes were illustrated by volunteers at Leslie's studio in Detroit, or members of the Soil Factory community during her residency in Ithaca. 99 Bottles Beverage Service: I've made 99 different herbal drinks including beers, wines, syrups, water kefirs, ginger beer plants, shrubs, and kombuchas. They'll be distributed in 2oz samples as I (we?) sing the entire 99 Bottles song, 20 bottles at a time, serving each poop seed course in between. You do not need to try all 99 drinks. None of the beers are made with hops, barley, wheat, or malted grains, and none of the wines rely on grapes. All 99 drinks are made from edible weeds, flowers and medicinal herbs in my garden, things I've foraged, been gifted, and fruits I've picked or been given. Volunteer performers will serve food and drinks. We have a colored wristband system for those who are underage or prefer NA beverages with a corresponding colored sticker on all non-alcoholic bottles to ensure that those who do not want to be served alcohol are only served NA beverages. Anyone is welcome to put on an NA wristband at any point if they are finished with alcohol for the evening. We will also mark gluten-free drinks on the menu and on the bottle. Dessert: Dessert is a surprise, and an invitation…

Dinner performance event by AIR Leslie Rogers in the garden this Friday 8/22 & Saturday 8/23, 6-8pm each night! Reservations limited to 30 guests per night, RSVP via the link in the bio! “I Pooped the Seeds for the Food” Many seeds benefit from animal digestion. Some are meant to be spread via endozoochory (“endo”-inside, within; “zoo”- animal; “chory”-process of dispersal) or to rely on stomach acids to weaken the seed coat, aiding germination. Previous to planting, some industrial tomato farmers etch the seed coat in an acid meant to simulate digestion. Over the last two years, I’ve pooped food seeds and harvested them from my poop in an elaborate ritual. I’ll explain this while you eat. My tactics are not always necessary, but they sure make it easier and more tolerable to get seeds from your poop. Some seeds can be pooped straight outside, and some require more care. I pooped the seeds that grew your dinner. I made the dish you’ll eat on, which declares this fact. Though the dinner is free, you are welcome to purchase the plate and/or matching cup afterward to reverse-fund the event if you can and if you wish. (Cont’d in comments)

The Soil Factory welcomes Leslie Rogers! You may remember prior visits from Leslie, in which we produced a wild whirlwind of milkweed seeds in the warehouse (and now they’re growing all over the parking lot)... Leslie’s coming back with a dinner party spectacular that engages the Soil Factory’s very poopiest inclinations. Leslie is an artist living and practicing in Detroit, but working in Boston at Tufts University teaching fibers, sculpture, performance, and community collaboration. She loves quilting, puppetry, and solving her problems for free with weeds from the yard. She grew up in Vestal, NY and spent many truant high school days in the early 2000’s under a pseudonym swimming nude in Ithaca’s gorges with a gaggle of friends. From Leslie: “On August 22nd & 23rd, please join me for I Pooped the Seeds for the Food, a dinner performance. I pooped the seeds. I retrieved the seeds from my poop. I grew the seeds. I harvested the vegetables. I prepared the vegetables in a culinary way. I invite you to eat the food. There was science involved. You poop seeds too, and actually some of them would prefer it that way. I will tell you all about it. You may decide to start your own poop garden the very next day.” Leslie will share an artist talk, project presentation, & solicit volunteer participation on Tuesday August 12, 6:30-8pm! Leslie will present a bit about her practice and how this project fits into it. Leslie says: “This dinner will be fun! It will run kind of like a play! There are movements and transitions! There is a lot of running around pouring drinks! Hopefully even music! I would love a lil’ gaggle of volunteers who want to be a part of the poopiest catering dinner theater gig of their lives! Or might help in a simple way, like bring rice! or ice!”

It's due time I got organized for an upcoming endurance performance of "99 Bottles" as the beverage service for a dinner I'm hosting this August at The Soil Factory in Ithaca, NY titled "I Pooped the Seeds for the Food". To drink are 99 different drinks I made including beers, wines, kombuchas, ginger beer plants and bugs, shrubs, and sourdough sodas. The seed pooping, most of the food plant growing, harvesting, processing, cooking, and a whole lot of drinks are done. Dinnerware & zine menus on the way. Extra special thanks to @rex_abandon for the invitation and the Soil Factory network for hosting!

Sour Patch Kid Shroud of Turin citric acid discharge test on brazilwood (not assigned) during this mind blowing Natural Dye for Print & Paint workshop at Penland Textiles. Hosted by MAIWA School of Textiles educators Sophena Kwon & Danielle Bush. Thankful for the invaluable chance to ask one million incredibly nuanced questions, and to learn so many techniques in such a short period of time. It's like a year in 10 days.

The catalpa bloom marks peak front yard season. This year, featuring Poppy with her orange namesake and the catmint.