The Reprintery

@thereprintery.bsky.social

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Charlotte and Michelle are artists, educators and reuse advocates collaborating as we print and sew reclaimed textiles in Portland, OR https://www.thereprintery.com Showcased in the 6th Pattern Directory https://uppercasemagazine.com/spdg6

Charlotte and Michelle stand in front of a Halloween themed quilt wearing their festive costumes. Michelle on your right, wears a black and white gingham dress with matching pointy witch-style hat. She accented the black and white with poison green chiffon underskirt that peeks out under the dress and also as a floppy bow pinned off her left shoulder. Her socks are also black and white in a grid pattern with black flowers. In her right hand is the magic gingham wand created with a variety of ribbons and pompom sewn to a felt star and affixed to a glittery stick. To your left is Charlotte, wearing layers of black clothing and ankle boots. On her Face is a spooky plastic mask of an orange cat with scary big green eyes and tongue sticky out. Her face is hidden which makes it even more creepy!
The Josephine’s Vermie Community Quilt is pinned to the back of this fixture that has rolls Of gorgeous Versace fabrics on the other side. This Vermie is in colors of purples, teal, greenish aqua. Each 3.5” square is pinned to a sewn grid that is a sage color. On top of this shelf fixture is a big potted rubber tree plant. Just about 25 empty spots need to be pinned toward the bottom to complete the layout. We will carefully unpin in the exact placement order, and sew this together as a finished quilt.
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A bundle of rolled shirt fabrics that look like a bouquet of flowers.
Charlotte and Michelle strike a joyful pose in front of one of their “Vermie Community Quilts” at Kat+Maouche, the beautiful rug shop selling traditional Moroccan rugs they have collected from the mountains there. In the foreground and hanging on the wall are three examples of these woven beauties in shades of blue.
A person below neck out of focus wearing a bright pink patched sweater buttoned over a green skirt that also has buttons running up the front, standing outside holding a bundle of rolled fabrics in her arm, the fabrics are in various colors and are yarndyed shirts we have cut from the seams to reuse as fabric for quilting, mending, small projects, etc. there are cut sleeves, shirt fronts (some with pockets) and larger back pieces. Come curate a small bundle for your own projects!
Photo of all the squares of fabric for the Vermie Community Quilt at Kat + Maouche. They are mostly blue colors but there is some purple as accent, too. Each fabric square is made from a thrifted shirt and screen printed with one of fifteen connecting shapes. Every shape will link with the next, no matter the direction or placement. The marks were first illustrated in pencil, then transformed into three-dimensional cardboard reliefs. We combined all fifteen on a single screen to create the sets. Note that each of the four locations has a different color palette!
Charlotte installs the piece “A Thread Through” which is made from reclaimed and unfinished quilt pieces of many colors and thrifted blue shirts, both overprinted with polkadots. She stands on a short foot stool, back to the room, hammer in hand. In the foreground is a vintage Moroccan rug, such as is sold at this shop.
A person holds a blue and white overprinted quilt that has been pinned to a 24” x 36” frame. The excess fabric is rolled to the viewers right side. The person holding the quilt is only visible by their hands on either side of the frame and a few inches of their legs in black pants. The person holding quilt stands a few inches from a white wall. The overprint design is a block we call “Tangled”, and it repeats on all 4 edges no matter how the block is turned. The blue and white quilt is antique, probably from around 1900’s and is mostly hand stitched, but machine stitched along the sashing/border, which seems to have been typical of the time
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Close up of one Vermie printed square printed in hot pink of a pink and white gingham cut from a Ralph Lauren Polo shirt, which is knowable because there is a navy blue Polo logo embroidered on the square shown.
View from standing position looking down, against the wall to create deep perspective. On the wall hangs a vintage yellow sheet with orange butterflies, which has been quilted with a 3.5” grid pattern in an orange thread. At the bottom of the quilt, placed near the floor on a piece of 12” x 4’ wood plank, are perfectly lined up printed Vermie squares, each 3.5” square. They are printed in various orange, rust, yellow and white colors, on thrifted shirt fabric in the same range of colors. The yoga studio has an orange logo, and its “hot yoga”, so we were inspired to make these colors reflect both those aspects. Right in the middle of these perfectly arranged squares of three rows tall and 12 rows long, is a white metal bowl with scalloped rim, holding long yellow pins. Each person is invited to pin one or more square into the grid, and once filled, the pinned squares will be sewn together and finished as a quilt by The Reprintery. The Vermie pattern is a continuous repeat, so all squares will repeat in printed pattern design, as the color shifts across the surface. We request each contributor to add their name to the list, so that this information of contributors will live together as part of the document of this community quilt. We really hope those of you in Portland can come! Thanks
Image with text over it: The image is a stack of orange/peach/yellow hued fabrics cut in squares and stacked together. These are the fabrics being used in the Vermie quilt, they are made from reclaimed thrifted shirts, and printed with a 360 pattern we call “Vermie”, which repeats each direction no matter which way you turn it. The text on top is in a stencil style, and is based on THE REPRINTERY logo but is stacked to be less than clear what it says, which is intentional, because it focuses on the shape of the letters more than what they say. The type is set this way: THE RE PRI NTE RY
A stack of printed fabrics that are part of the Vermie Community Quilt with the words THE REPRINTERY overlaying the image. The type design is based on our logo font, which looks like a printed stencil.
THE REPRINTERY is spelled out in a variety of blue reused shirt fabrics printed with a magenta ink for the letters. Each letter is like a quilt block that will be sewn together.
Closeup of two hands pinning the last square to a community quilt called Vermie
Michelle walks in front of the longarm that’s set up with brightly colored batiks.
The backside of the Cubicle 2” quilt blocks shown on the ironing board. Stripes, plaids, ginghams, chambrays and the seam allowance peaking around has the added prints we reprint of checks and stripes and dots.
Charlotte and Michelle sit on a yellow vintage fainting couch inside the furniture bank warehouse. On their lap is their colorful Quilt Placket, made from reprinted men’s button down shirts sourced at thrift shops, and behind them are rows of mattresses ready to help make someone a comfortable home. We donated our proceeds to this organization from selling abundant scrap packs of our printed fabrics.
A folded pile of button down fresh shirts photographed close up: navy indigo pattern, a few blue and green plaids, some black/grey/orange/aqua women’s, a small greyish grid, a red/white/blue gingham, a pink chambray, a purple gingham, a tiny blue railroad stripe, a purple/teal plaid and a bright cerulean blue oxford.
Charlotte guiding a Longarm quilting machine, photo taken from behind looking over the backside of quilt using a bright ombré backing fabric being sewn w a 1” grid pattern. Behind her is a curtain that parts the sewing space with the fabric shop where there are shelves of fabrics.
Buddy, a fluffy 3legged black cat sits on the brightly colored Sonne quilt blocks being organized on the floor. He stares into the camera with this big green eyes.
An arm holds up a pile of colorful quilt blocks. The arm is clothed in a turquoise sweater with yellow lemons. In background on the design wall is a blurred out maquette of Sonne in a 5” block sampled in mustard and cream color. The edge of a woven straw trivet is also pinned to the wall as well as a board of fabric swatch combinations used to guide the quilt combination process.
View of a wood table with a tablecloth of many colors that also looks like a quilt, but is woven. On this is a self healing cutting mat and a neatly stacked row of batik squares. Also a pile of squares with the Sonne pattern traced out, with scissors near by waiting to cut out. A board with pinned swatches of batik combinations is on the left, and on the right is a coffee cup.
Pink pattern printed on orange fabric.
A wood table with colorful batik swatches grouped in pairs. Reds, yellows, greens, pinks, oranges, teals, purple and some with white.
A large colorful quilt in a Jacob’s ladder pattern held up by Michelle. It’s so big that she is standing on a higher level of the back yard, draping the quilt over a 2’ wall that drops to a lower level in the yard. She has a big grin on her face, as the quilt was just finished!
Sonne is a bright yellow quilt top in a graphic pattern and shown here hanging from a stick resting on a tall ladder in front of a white wall, as we were hanging the show “A Thread Thru-works in process” this past December at wellwellprojects.com.
A wicker laundry basket sits on the wood floor overflowing with laundered thrifted plaid shirts in a variety of colors, mostly blues-ish
Alt text doesn’t show on video-sad face!
Blocks laid out on the wood floor to set the pattern for sewing, but orange kitty Marmalade wanted to join the party and disturbed the layout just a bit. But she is so cute as she looks up at the camera! The Cubicle blocks are colorful 16-patch blocks finishing at 8” each
On the table is a working pad with a layout of 16 squares of printed shirt fabrics in dots and checks. Above it on table is a tray neatly stacked with 2.5” square fabrics ready to assemble into more block lay outs.
Studio wall on an angled shot to get the whole wall in. On the white wall is pinned 8 sets of strips of Cubicle quilt. Sewn 16 patch blocks with printed shirt fabrics in colorful pattern.
The corner of the closet size gallery with a sliver of sunlight from the skylight, shines on the Placket quilt on the right side, just hung up with ladder still standing in front of it. To the left over a white metal clothes rack is draped some shirt skeletons (the remainder of the shirts after we cut them apart to cull printing and quilting fabric) and resting over that is the Cubicle Quilt. In direct foreground is a vintage wood iron board being used as a table to hold hanging tools such as hammers and tape.
In a gallery space, the walls present our quilts. In a corner is a display of shirt skeletons hanging like a net, these are the left over from what we cut to print and sew the quilts to each side of the skeletons. Directly in front of the “thread through” quilt is a table set up with screen printing supplies. A green screen with “The Reprintery” logos rests against the table. The printing station sits on a large white canvass drop cloth.
A white room with a wood floor and window filled with 3 clothes drying racks filled with drying reprint fabrics. On one rack are a few of the paper cards we print sometimes, too! In the foreground is a tall vintage wooden accordion style rack filled with yellow prints used to make the Sonne quilt.
Two magazines laying flat on a colorful patterned ground. The magazine is Uppercase, the 6th pattern design directory. The first magazine shows front cover and is bright promos and red abstract flowers with black printed words “keep making things” by artist Sarah Matthews. The back cover is our colorful quilt “Cubicle” made of 2” squares of reprinted shirt fabrics.
Charlotte on left of frame lays down a green and purple plaid shirt front on the clamshell press that’s been prepared to ink the large polkadot print inked in a pale aqua color. In the foreground is the glass palette with the ink mixed and rolled out.
Table shot of a cluster of supplies, center of which are two Lino plates, the checker plate and the large polkadot in progress with Lino crumbs and a flexcut tool. A pile of shirt scraps to the right, printed shirts and cut printed 2” squares on left and bottom, and in bottom right corner you are first shown the sewn Jacob’s Ladder block. This was the first quilt called Placket.
A fluffy 3 legged black cat looks into the camera while casually lounging outstretched on a series of quilt blocks set up on the wood floor. The quilt being worked on is Placket, made from printed shirts. Colorful polkadots in pinks, greens, reds, and checkers in olives, neon orange, purple, and some striped of purples and greens. The quilt pattern is sometimes called Jacob’s Ladder.
Looking at the throat of a sewing machine, the machines light illuminates the quilt Vermie which is also seen out of focus pinned to wall in the background.
Pinned up to the white Studio wall Cream color paper printed with our Lino plates of big polkadots and grids in blues and aqua teal colors.
Video of Charlotte unfurling a very colorful Scrap quilt outside while standing on a stone wall.
A colorful assortment of printed name labels, printed mostly in red, using old type on a letterpress proofing press. We printed on scraps of our printed shirts, so our names are printed over large and small polkadots. They are thin strips of fabrics pinned to the studio wall in a collage as we wait for them to dry. One color is yellow with purple polkadots, and other blue plaids with blue polkadots or hot pink tiny polkadots.
A vintage multi-clip metal skirt hanger holds many Fabric linen napkins and dish towels that have been dyed in earthy natural colors of blues, greens, pinks, ochre and greens. They hang on a wooden framed wall fixture that is used as a pin board and has also a Liberty of London calendar, fabric scraps, a cross stitch of a country cottage and an old jumping toy Charlottes mom made her when she was a baby. There is a wood carved and painted elephant head that was purchased at an artist market in Salta, Argentina when Charlotte lived there.
Sewing close up showing the backside of the Vermie Iteration quilt which is printed on shirts in shades on blue and white. The seams are clipped together w pink and aqua binding clips. The wood table has a woven red/white/black decorative table runner. The white Juki machine lights up the area being sewn.
Close up of the back corner of a Vermie Iteration quilt, the backing being a pink/yellow/orange/teal/green/red thrifted sheet, sewn with a blue/white gingham quilt label w printed logo THE REPRINTERY-Portland Oregon
Marmalade an orange tabby cat proudly sits on the Juki sewing machine extension table, her tail neatly tucked around her front paws. Behind her on the right are flat files mounted on top with a small table top etching press. Behind her is a wall of shelves in studio packed with supplies.
View of the studio and the shelves and books and fabrics and vintage sewing machine, typewriter, baskets of yarn, letterpress proofing press. On the table in the foreground is the linoleum clamshell press and and inks and palette knives, also the screen used to print Vermie Iterations. On left wall posters from Work Shirts Reworked are pinned up and a sign that says “AND”. Colorful and organized chaos in shelves that reach the ceiling.
A batch of green polkadot and striped prints on the metal clothes drying rack. Plaids and stripes and checks are reprinted as well as some white paper cards.
A long row of woven plaid men’s shirts at a thrift shop. A grey cement floor is sliced diagonally with this long rack of shirts starting with red and black buffalo checks on foreground and blending into soft blues at the end of the row.
A drying rack of printed chambrays against a wall. The chambrays are subtle pinks, lavender, blue with the micro check printed in subtle similar color over top. The art in background is bright color painted stripes on reclaimed packaging materials that have been cut up in wiggly shapes and nested into each other. This piece by Charlotte uses an inset technique that makes the paper flat, it is not glued one piece on top of the other, so it is essentially a paper quilt.
View of the studio work table with a grey linoleum plate being carved. The pattern is a stacked set of circles about 1.5” diameter, with the center cut out so the frame is about 1/8”. The circles have been stamped on the Lino plate in black is and used as a guide to cut. There are three Lino cutting tools and cutting crumbs nearby. The wood table also has a ceramic coffee cup sitting on a vintage woven mat and the edge of some books show, on being titled “textiles of Japan”
A left hand holds a round 1/2 ball-like magnifying glass with a wood frame held over a red and orange polkadot quilt block. The magnifier distorts/stretches the fabric in the edges of the sphere and enlarges just the center.
A picture of Charlotte as she stands at a table, behind it, as she is in the process of screw printing. The screen is raised up with her left hand and filled with a blend of pink and lemony-green ink. In her right hand is the squeegee full of ink. This printing table was set up in the Well Well gallery, during the Thread Through show. Behind her on the wall is the quilt in the show, Thread Thru, made of vintage fan blocks and shirts that were overprinted. A man in black outfit stands behind her, looking at the quilt on the wall.
This is a picture of Michelle, and she sits in one of her favorite spots, behind the sewing machine! She wears an emerald green shirt that offsets the background, because behind her is the studio wall pinned up with the in-progress quilt Vermie Iteration #1. She also is sewing (on a Juki) part of this quilt as she looks into the camera with a big smile. The Vermie quilt is 4” squares of thrifted men’s shirts reprinted with a squiggly line that connects from one block to the next. Each block that is printed is a bight color of pink, orange, blue, green, yellow.
Standing on a stool looking down from Above to a wood floor, 64 quilt 10.5” quilt blocks are lined up in rows of 8. The block is yellow and white and has a looping wavy connecting line and sun rays coming from that. It’s called Sonne, sunshine in German, to honor Charlotte’s family heritage. Two extra blocks are off to the right side.
Birds Eye view of the print table. Top of picture is the glass printing palette showing mixed bright green ink rolled out and the brayer rolled up in the green. Some tins of ink are nearby. Below that in image is the wooden clamshell press open and on the press bed is the (covered) 1/4” polkadot plate ready to print strips of blue, aqua, navy and teal bias tape that’s been laid down on plate in vertical stripes so each 1/2” stripe of vintage bias tape will be printed with a row of the green dots.
Close up of a fan block we created with a variety of Libery Tana Lawn floral prints that are in pinks, purples, blues, and combined with The Reprintery fabrics, including a Reprintery printed logo on a blue and white gingham. The fan block is reprinted with the small 1/4” polka dot in Liberty brand purple color and the base that the fan block is sewn to is reprinted with the 1” polkadot in same Liberty purple color.
A screenshot of the Uppercase weekly newsletter. The main photo is a picture of the Reprintery studio wall, and it is pinned with portions of the Cubicle Quilt in progress, including chain-piecing. The fabrics are all of the thrifted shirts with our colorful prints of polkadots, checks and stripes.