February, march 2023

dishcloth manifesto. 100 dishcloths knit with various combinations of natural fiber yarns: cotton, linen, hemp. The dishcloth part is to make 100 and get them out to people who wash dishes. The manifesto part: to help, if just in the smallest way, to reduce our reliance on the more plastic-y materials in our midst — in this case faux sponges — and provide a beautiful option that brings more of us over to utilizing natural fiber cloth. Read the December entries further down below for more details.

IF A CLOTH IS “STARRED” IN THESE IMAGES, IT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

GREEN GROUP

MIXED GROUP

RED GROUP

PINK AND YELLOW GROUP

mid-december 2022

dishcloth manifesto is my latest obsession in textiles (see entry directly below). It is not so much a commercial enterprise as it is a quiet attempt to shift human behavior from using the lowly dish sponge to using the lowly dish cloth instead. Because the lowly dishcloth, if made with natural fibers, is compostable. You can bury it and it will disappear into the earth. If it ends up in the ocean, I dare say that should it appear at all tasty to a sea animal, it is more digestible and benign than plastic anything. And on the artistic side, for me, it is an exploration of color interaction on a small scale. A colorful winter project for change.

december 2022

a very little small tiny climate action.
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I am knitting one hundred dishcloths to go out to one hundred people with the hopes that we will shift away from using faux sponges made with non-natural materials for dish wash up.
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I have found that my hand knit dishcloths made with cotton, linen, hemp, and combinations thereof, are superior to the sponge thing. I grew up washing dishes with a dish rag. Those rags were laundered and used again and again. How did I/we get duped into the notion that a repeatedly purchased sponge is a good practice? They get gross within a week and I have not had great success getting them clean enough to re-use so there they go, rapidly adding to the abundance of waste. So unnecessary.
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So if you are a sponge person perhaps re-consider, or newly consider, the dish CLOTH, pretty or plain, that will last years rather than a week.
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The knitting details: At the moment I am knitting a five/five rib pattern on US2 size needles to achieve a rough square, roughly the size of your palm. The funnest part is messing around with marls. If you are not familiar with knitting terms, marls are the combination of at least two strands of yarn, each a different color. They combine to create a new overall color and The Interaction of Color by Josef Albers is seriously in the air.

may 2022 — a little nap love

how naps are taken around the world…“ In Mexico, echar un coyotito — literally, “throw a little coyote” — means “to take a short nap.” In Venezuela, it’s more common to talk about a quick snooze using echarun zorrito, the word zorrito being a diminutive for zorro, or “fox.” “ . I just love these language bits I heard while listening to A Way with Words (episode #1593) heard on public radio

april 2022

Sometimes you go off to tiny loom land and make a potholder with your worn out socks. The result can be a wondrous raw energy even for a potholder. I don’t know but I have a notion that loop looms were maybe developed to make use of the “rounds” you can cut from socks? Just a thought. [EDIT, fall 2022: potholder looms were developed during the depression by stocking companies to make use of loops that were a byproduct of sock/stocking manufacture.]

early march 2022

Ukraine

december 2021

December is a month for knitting hats and cowls for anyone living on the financial edge. These knitted items will go to Mass Appeal Cape Cod later this month so folks can select items for themselves, their family and friends. Warmth.

september 2021

I super welcome the first day of fall. It is so beautiful this time of year in Provincetown and the crowds begin to thin. Needless to say the vibe here is more chill in all ways and this is all good for creative work. ✨

september 2021

june 2021

I am pleased to announce that my quilt no. 029 is currently hanging in a group show at the Albert Merola Gallery, 424 Commercial Street in Provincetown. Please stop in through the end of June to see this beautiful show: IN AND OUT AND ROUND AND ROUND. You can also see the exhibit online at albertmerolagallery.com if you are not able to be here in person. Thank you and enjoy!

june 2021

Provincetown is re-emerging with a flurry of visitors who seem overjoyed to be out and about together. The past several months have brought what so far appears to be the fairly successful covid-19 vaccination of an ever larger population. Provincetown no longer has enforced mask wearing even indoors and so far, so good. This enables me to have guests visit in my studio at 424 Commercial Street. During your visit you are welcome to wear masks if you feel it is personally necessary and I am happy to wear one as well if you wish.

[HISTORIC EDIT, early 2023: looking back at this entry, and thinking back to the summer of ‘21, it turns out that taking off masks was premature due to the just-emerging Delta variant. Provincetown proved to be a first big hotspot for this variant. Visitors were eager to get back to their fun, sans masks, but rainy weather on July 4th sent everyone indoors, into close quarters, and Delta thrived along with the Ptown groove. And then everyone returned home, carrying the virus with them. It was not a minor blip. The CDC visited town to better understand this unexpected urgent development. Covid kept going; masking resumed.]

spring 2021

a pillow for charlotte and

a pillow for susan

january 2021

Wishing everyone a happy 2021 with timeout for naps.

Studio update: This year will feature front stoop studio visits! After some trials regarding a new studio location, my new working space is the upstairs at 424 Commercial Street, above the Albert Merola Gallery in the east end of Provincetown (which also happens to be across the street from where my little shop was, for those who may remember). If you would like to do a front stoop, physically distanced and masked visit, please call or send email. Thank you!

may 2020

COVID UPDATE ABOUT SHIPPING…

Through my own personal experience of having ordered a few items online, I feel I can now begin to ship orders with extra time and precautions taken in regard to packing and shipping. I recommend that you quarantine your package when you receive it, up to 14 days before opening (I tend toward extra caution). Please keep in mind that the postal service is delayed in general so I thank you for your patience!

#STAYHOME #STAYHEALTHY #WEARAMASK #SOCIALDISTANCE #SAVELIVES

march 2020

#STAYHOME #STAYHEALTHY #SAVELIVES

january 2020

Yep. Here we are and I am slow stitching.

January 2019

Welcome to the newly re-designed Nap website now providing online sales. You can go to SHOP right here to purchase my handmade goods. (sept 2021 edit: the SHOP and CART are no longer part of the site. Please connect through email for inquiries and purchase). My real-time gallery, the little shop at 427 Commercial Street in the east end gallery district, is permanently closed. But I remain in Provincetown year round. I am hoping to have select work carried by merchants in town (tbd) in future seasons. More likely a pop-up may appear now and again. Please add your name to my email list for future announcements (please connect through email if you would like to join my email list). Or follow on instagram @nap.provincetown (sept 2021 edit: my nap instagram account is no longer active as of September 2021; it might make a fresh re-appearance in the future. TBD. Thank you to all my followers and the folks I followed throughout the time my account was active, 2018-2021.)

Saying good-bye to my physical shop was a tough decision because the greatest joy was meeting so many people and indulging in lengthy conversations with old friends and new. Thank you so much for venturing in and for all your support!

Now I am happily cloistered in my circular cellar studio just across the street from the former shop. Cave-like and cool, and originally built for root storage back in the late 1800s, it is a wonderful retreat just steps from the madding crowd of Provincetown. It is perfect for focused ‘piecen’ (**see historical fun facts below).

You are always welcome to make an appointment for a studio visit. Stop in for a moment or an hour; talk about quilts, the weather, learn the village gossip**. Rehydrate and relax. Please feel free to call/text me at 302-690-5265. Thanks! 

— Julie, 2019

** “The Cape Cod house always followed the same basic pattern in floor plan, whether a half house, a three-quarter house, or a full Cape. Central to this plan was the “keeping room,” which extended across the back of the house. This large rectangular room with its low six- to seven-foot ceiling and wide-board pegged floor served as kitchen, workshop, and living area. Here the family gathered at the end of the day, the young children playing while the older children and adults did the chores. Here, too, the womenfolk gathered to “piecen” their patchwork quilts, and learn the village gossip.

Off the keeping room were two small but very important rooms — the pantry or buttery (pronounced “buttree”) and the borning room. Food, dishes, and other household items were kept in the buttery, and much of the food was prepared there. A trapdoor in the floor led to a circular Cape Cod or “beanpot” cellar. Vegetables were stored in the cellar during the winter, and perishables were kept cool during the summer….”

— excerpt from A Book of Cape Cod Houses, by Doris Doane, illustrated by Howard L. Rich, published by David R. Godine, Publisher, Boston, Massachusetts, 2007

september 2019

spring 2018

Hello and welcome to the second season of Nap! The new season brings new exploration albeit much more slowly this year due to life events that demand their own time. My mother passed away in the winter. She was an artist and teacher. She enthusiastically encouraged my early years of sewing and my further education and practice in design and artistic pursuits.

In her last few years we lived in close proximity so the experience has been all the more startling. I believe that this affects one’s approach to their work though what exactly that means for my own will take time to reveal itself. My first work since her passing has taken on a more ethereal quality. I have been drawn to lighter weight fabric and to letting the needle be my guide via slow stitching which includes aspects of embroidery, appliqué, and more freeform design overall. Slow stitching may take time but it is particularly satisfying and feels entirely worthy of every stitch, especially now.

Provincetown is surrounded by nature; the sea, sky, and sand are omnipresent. I spend time out and about finding respite while making fresh observations. I believe this guides my work stylistically; being in nature and taking in the ever-changing landscape. It is an incredible sensory experience. My current work seems to be reflective of this even if the result is but a sliver.

Thank you for visiting and as always, sweet dreams.

— Julie, 2018

august 2017

august 2017

Nap received some welcome press this season!

Nap is in the Boston Sunday Globe (and online) this month with a sweet profile by style correspondent Marni Elyse Katz also known via @stylecarrot on social. Thank you Marni! 

july 2017

Nap is "The Buzz" feature in Provincetown Magazine this week. Yay! So happy to be given this colorful, full-page feature in our hometown publication that visitors and townies rely on to keep up with the abundance that Provincetown offers in season. Thank you Jeannette de Beauvoir and Rebecca Alvin!

January 1, 2017

The new year brings a new, year-round location to view and purchase Nap goods in real time: 427 Commercial Street in the East End of Provincetown. The first several months of 2017 will be dedicated to setting up the gallery and making work. I will be in and out with more consistent 'open' hours in the spring. Thank you and Happy New Year. -js

2016, first website intro

Hello and welcome!  I live, work and snooze in Provincetown at the very tip of coastal Cape Cod where, as one might expect, our most manifest topic, the weather, comes in every extreme from startlingly sunny skies, to drenching nor'east bluster, to soft foggy stretches of thoroughly washed out color in every direction. all conducive to making quilts inspired by this ever shifting palette. 

Inspiration for color and pattern combinations materialize as well via memories: nostalgic references to the everyday textiles of my grandmother's home; or to mid century furnishings aided by the serendipitous finding of a few swatches a la mode; the hyper-bright colors of a candy shop; the rugged mood of a camping excursion; and there is always the ever-present inspiration of other artists... these days, Morandi and Klee, among others, but also, and not least, the humble yet visionary heritage of the ladies, and men, who express(ed) their creative impulse through the crafting of domestic items of necessity. 

Patchwork --- piecing together color and pattern --- and slow but satisfying hand stitching, keep me focused on the work I love: the joy of handling fabric and the creation of something that is the only one of its kind in all the universe. this magical delight remains as astonishing to me now, as it did when I was younger, up nights, sewing my own one of its kind wardrobe till 3am. if only I could rummage through the remnant pile from those days!

Now I will take remnants from anywhere. and when I am not sifting through salvaged clothing, precious purchased yardage, and bewildering mounds of scraps; when I am not stitching, stitching, stitching, I can surely be lured into a snippet of one of life's other necessities: a nap. A healthy pursuit that i hope to further encourage among kids of all ages, newborn to ninety-nine. thus, the name of my company. nap.

Thank you and sweet dreams!

— Julie Simms, 2016

October 2016

The Nap pop-up shop in Provincetown happened!! Even in the midst of the East End re-paving project as they were earnestly trucking away busted up asphalt and sidewalks in the gallery location. Thank goodness for the three- day holiday weekend that gave the mega power machines and determined crew some rest for a moment. And thanks to the crew for stopping just shy of taking up the sidewalk directly in front of the gallery so we had a sidewalk for most of our pop-up 'week' including our Friday evening opening. No small thing for the brief opportunity to welcome customers and friends.   

Many heartfelt thanks to all who stopped in to support Nap’s first venture into exhibiting and direct selling. So gratifying to receive such an overwhelming positive response; to speak with those who know textiles from their own practice, and with those who find joy in the work from the perspectives of color, pattern, workmanship, and just plain love of quilts (and pillows) as dually artful and functional.

Thank you also to Johniene Papandreas for making her Gallery Voyeur space at 444 Commercial available. Her pop-up concept provided myself and other artists a perfect opportunity to show work this season.