Kristin Barrus
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kristinbarrus.bsky.social
Kristin Barrus
@kristinbarrus.bsky.social
quilts, nature, family
Oregonian living in Utah
Academic Quiltmaker
Museum Studies PhD researcHER U of Leicester
Focusing on the anthropology of quilts
Kristinbarrus.com
Pinned
Yo! I’m Kristin, an academic quiltmaker. I make and research 21st century quilts. I ride my bike and climb mountains, love BBC murder mysteries and chocolate cake. I beat cancer, work in personal finance, and serve on the Board of American Quilt Study Group - join us!
April 15, 2025 at 2:53 PM
For my January dissertation writing I explored data around the businesses these women entrepreneurs in the Quilt World own. Here’s a few word clouds:

Her products and services
Tasks she hires out
Tasks employees do

#quilt
#quiltsky
#women
#womenentrepreneur
#shopsmall
April 2, 2025 at 6:32 AM
My 2024 presentation on the rotary cutter (object bio, cultural icon, safety hazard 😅) for American Quilt Study Group is up on YT now. Give it a watch!
And check out AQSG - join the fun!
#quilt
#quiltsky
#research
#womenshistory
#iconic
March 30, 2025 at 2:50 PM
March 29, 2025 at 7:25 AM
A thoughtful editorial in honor of Women’s History Month by my art student daughter:

#womenshistory
#herstory
#illustration
#culture
#women
March 26, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Looking at data from my participants’ Gen X media influences via sports, magazines, and teen bedroom posters.

Full disclosure: my posters were NKOTB and 90210. And Mary Lou Retton will always be my perfect 10 score hero.

#genx
#ethnography
#quilt
#quiltculture
#culture
#media
#fandom
#fanstudies
March 22, 2025 at 3:17 AM
We bump into each other a lot aesthetically in the Quilt World: at shows, retreats, guilds, workshops, etc. We may be working with fabric, but let us not forget its people. ALL kinds of people, too.
Fabric from my grandmother’s and sister’s 1970s-90s stashes (2015).
#quilt
#quiltsky
#ethnography
March 18, 2025 at 5:17 PM
More word clouds from my survey data on GenX women entrepreneurs in the Quilt World: politics & books in their formative years, & degrees earned. Lessons learned: these are intelligent ladies who READ a ton in their early years and absorbed a lot of fraught politics for women.
#quilt
#womenshistory
March 5, 2025 at 4:03 AM
All of February I wrote my dissertation chapter on the barriers GenX women entrepreneurs face. So you could say it was a dark month. However, here’s just one example of how these #changemakers defy the odds and innovate. So inspiring.
#quilt
#quiltsky
#womenshistorymonth
#culture
#anthropology
March 3, 2025 at 11:56 PM
I’d love it if every month, every textbook, museum, publication included, featured and told the story of women. So until they do I will keep writing. And when we are represented + equal pay, we won’t need #Womenshistorymonth. I, however, am having a women’s history life.
Do not erase us.
#quilt
March 1, 2025 at 2:21 PM
February 24, 2025 at 4:15 AM
My first day of #quiltcon!

#quilt
February 22, 2025 at 6:03 AM
This is a few linocuts from my daughter’s thoughtful multi media art. She’s in art school rn and killin’ it. Find yourself some love this V Day with her merch. She’s got water bottles, candles, laptop sleeves, wearables galore.

ZOEBARRUSART.com

#supportsmall
#artstudent
#heart
February 14, 2025 at 3:45 PM
For my research on GenX women entrepreneurs in the Quilt World, I asked about media influences in formative years. These word clouds visually show some of their answers by topic - movies, TV, music. Larger words denote higher occurrence. What would you add?

#quilt
#research
#genx
#fandom
February 13, 2025 at 3:57 PM
The GenX women entrepreneurs I’m studying for my dissertation aren’t waiting for life to be calm. They don’t wait till they have enough money or know all of the software. They go and get it done to build a biz and contribute to the Quilt World.

#quilt
#bizwoman
#entrepreneur
#craftswoman
#genx
February 13, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Haven’t mentioned it here, but my college daughter and I climb to a giant Y painted 1.22 miles up a mountain in our area . . . every week. For a lot of reasons. Last week was 46 weeks in a row without missing, 6 weeks straight and 11 times up in 2025 (bc sometimes we hike it twice).

#hike #ymount
February 11, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Feb’s writing is about the barriers women entrepreneurs hit in the Quilt World. Some are external, some are internal. Anti-women, time, health, care of others, capacity. They negotiate them in diff ways, but overall with patience, loving deliberate lives in an art form they love.

#quilt
#research
February 11, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Went to a gorgeous pottery exhibit about moving through frustrating politics with love by Ben Behunin. I always love his work + this time it’s very quiltesque.

#quilt
#pottery
#art
February 10, 2025 at 2:15 AM
February’s writing is about the barriers women entrepreneurs in the Quilt World come up against.
Some are external & internal forces. Others are anti-women, time, motherhood (not that anyone was complaining) and a variety of health issues (enter complaints here - it can be the absolute pits!).#quilt
February 5, 2025 at 11:46 PM
In 2020 I was doing my master’s ethnography research at #quiltcon and counted sightings of the tote for that year pass by me 42 times every 15 mins.

And that’s the Quilt World. Culture being born every minute online and off. Quiltmakers SEE!

I’d love to say hi at QC this month in PHX.

#quilt
February 5, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Check out my article in American Quilt Study Group’s 2022 Uncoverings on the Modern Quilt Movement (MQM). It began in the mid 90s in the US and has 4 aspects: the people, the aesthetic, the approach, the community.

I’d love to say hi at QuiltCon.

#quilt
#modern
February 4, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Some thoughts simmering in my writing.

#quilt
#craftswoman
January 31, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Running a small biz takes creativity for the art and skills for the admin, for sure.

#quilt #craftswoman
January 28, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Will I see you at #quiltcon next month?
January 28, 2025 at 4:13 AM
The mind map for my dissertation! Top = what influenced my research group during formative years. Middle = my group + research questions. Bottom = the exciting results.

#write #phd #quilt
January 15, 2025 at 3:50 PM