Sometimes the quiltmaker isn’t the only one who has a story to share about a quilt. At this year’s International Quilt Festival, Susan Stewart shared her quilt “Blue Plate Special”, winner of the Superior Threads Master Award for Thread Artistry. Can you believe almost all of the color on this quilt is machine embroidery?! After Susan shared her story, her husband Mark did a Go Tell It at the Quilt Show! interview about his experience living with a quilter, traveling to quilt shows, and the quilt world in general. Thanks so much to Susan and Mark for sharing two sides of the same quilt’s story! [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI5ia3wPNlM&w=560&h=315] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjKkeldPOU4&w=560&h=315] You can watch more quilt stories from the International Quilt Festival on the Quilt Alliance’s Youtube page. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
Were you at our 2015 Quilters Take Manhattan event? Even if you missed it, here’s a GREAT post from Alliance board member Laurie Russman. There are more than 10 reasons to add QTM 2016 to your calendar now, but these are some of our…
Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a day to honor the men and women who lost their lives while serving in the armed forces. Throughout their history, quilts have been used to remember, comfort, and honor servicemen and women and their loved ones. From quiltmaking projects that gift quilts to grieving families, to quilts that capture the history of military sacrifices, today we’re sharing a few stories of quilts as memorials to those who served. Dianne Higley shared her experience making quilts to comfort families who lost loved ones in Iraq: I did a quilt for the Home of the Brave project too that the DAR did or is doing… I think it was maybe last year or the year before they did that project, the Home of the Brave. They asked each of the chapters to donate quilt squares or quilts and they would go to the families of the young men and women killed in Iraq, as a memory quilt. They used what is called an Album pattern where they had a little white square in the middle where the people could sign their names and the ladies in our chapter put their names in those little squares before we sent it in. Back during the Civil War where this pattern came from, they would have the family members sign their names and then they would send the quilt off to war with their soldier and a lot of these soldiers carried those quilts all the way through the war, but not many of them survived. When a soldier was killed, he would be buried in his quilt. Quilts have come a long way. Back then they were made out of scrap fabric what was left out of clothing that could no longer be worn, but now we go to the store and we buy fabrics and make them. Carole Lyles Shaw created a quilt to honor African-American servicemen and women. This quilt is part of a series of quilts and other mixed media art work that I am creating to honor the memories of ordinary men and women who served in the American Armed Forces, particularly in the early part of the 20th Century and most of the work features images and documents and so forth from 1960 or earlier… I happen to have been born in 1948 so in my lifetime literally we moved from a legally segregated army to a desegregated army although for many years there was still lots and lots of discrimination and limitations of roles that African American men and women could play. I downloaded the first page of Truman’s executive order and I superimposed over that these words, ‘They fought and died for American freedom before they had their own’ and those words, those are my words and to me it just captures once again the honorable service that African Americans have given since the Revolutionary War obviously, even though at the time of the Revolutionary War we were still enslaved legally. Following the Civil War we were legally free but not full citizens. That took many, many more years to happen, and now we have an African American supported by Americans of all colors and walks of life… Making quilts can also help heal the grieving. Sandra Branjord shared a quilt that she made 10 years after the death of her son, who had served in the US military. [youtube…
Usually we focus our Q.S.O.S. Spotlight posts on interviews from the Q.S.O.S. archive (hence the name!). But we’ve just posted a fresh batch of our Go Tell It at the Quilt Show! interviews (short 3 minute video interviews with one person talking about one quilt) and wanted to share a few with you! First, an interview with Australian quilt and fabric designer Lynette Anderson. I love this interview for the unexpected childhood backstory of the name of the center panel in her quilt:
Next, a pair of interviews about a stunning red and white quilt exhibited at the International Quilt Festival’s Ruby Jubilee exhibit. The quilt was made as a tribute to Joanna Rose, from whose collection more than 600 red and white quilts were shown in the 2011 Infinite Variety show in New York City. Hear Andrea Murray and Deborah Semel Bingham tell the story of this amazing collaborative quilt: And finally, an interview with a young but accomplished quilter, Karlee Porter. Did you catch how many Swarovski crystals Karlee added by hand to this quilt?! These interviews (and 180+ more) are available to view on the Quilt Alliance’s YouTube channel. At only three minutes long, they’re a quick way to hear the stories of quilters and quilt lovers from every corner of the quilt world. What’s your favorite Go Tell It video you’ve seen so far? Let us know in the…
Tonight is the seventh night of Hanukkah, and Christmas is only three days away–we’re right in the middle of a season of giving. Whether it’s new gadgets and gifts to friends, quilts for family, or a donation to an organization near and dear, there will be a whole lot of giving going on this week! Today’s Q.S.O.S. features 4 quiltmakers on giving. What do you plan on giving this year? Violette Denney, interviewed in Carollton, Georgia: In all I have made about 189 quilts. I do keep a log of my quilts and I probably have less than 100 still, so those others I’ve given away. So I’ve given lots of quilts away. And that doesn’t count the quilt tops that I’ve made, I did five for the DAR that were quilted by someone else and used as fund-raisers. We’ve made many, many for the children’s home, we’ve made them for Kosovo and troops and I did one for Merrill Gardens, the assisted Living Facility here in town. I did one for the Historical Society to be given to the city during the anniversary celebration and it’s hanging in City Hall [Carrollton, Georgia.] now. My daughter-in-law works for Home Depot and I did a quilt for her and it actually ended up in the Home Depot Museum. So, anyway I’ve done lots and given lots away, but I guess my favorite is giving them to the children. I gave 8 to hospice last year for the children patients at Heartland Hospice and made pillowcases with animal prints and all for them too. So I like to do things like that. Judy Whitson of Tuscaloosa, Alabama: I love to give. It is a sign that you really care for somebody when you give them a handmade item like a little baby quilt or a quilt for their bed or something, and it is more or less a memory quilt. I always put a signature block on there saying who it is for, the date, and who designed it and who made it, quilted. Judy Kriehn, at the International Quilt Festival in Houston said: I don’t have kids. I’m not married and I don’t have kids. All I have is fabric. [laughs.] I have three sewing machines and fabric. I had a lot of cousins who were having babies so I made baby quilts for them. I make a lot things that I give away and people are like, ‘How can you give that stuff away?’ Well because it’s personal even when it’s a baby quilt. It’s coming from my heart and I’d rather give it to somebody who is going to appreciate it than try to sell it and be unhappy no one wanted to buy it. And I just love the way Sue Stinner in Elkton, Maryland talks about her grandchildren: Most of the quilts I’ve made though, I’ve given away. But know that I’m building up a stash of grandkids along with a stash of fabric; I’ll probably be making more for family than I will for friends. You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance site. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
Today’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight is shining on a 2002 interview with Rosemary Zaugg, in Fort Worth, Texas. In her interview, Rosemary shared about the 30 year gap between her first quilt and her second, how she came to quilt-making (again), and her advice to new quilters. Read on for more words of wisdom from Rosemary: My first quilt was when I was 18 and right out of high school. When I was 15 or 16, I made a list of things that I was going to accomplish in my life and one of the things on there was ‘piece a quilt.’ And so I took a cardboard shoe box and took some cardboard templates, I first went to see my dad’s cousin who had tons of quilt tops that she had made all her life. People brought her scraps and people in the town had given her scraps to make quilt tops and they’d come and she would sell the quilt tops and she had hundreds of them. So I went to visit her and I picked out a pattern and she gave me her templates and I had cardboard templates and I cut out all these triangles with the scissors. The pattern was supposed to be “Hope of Hartford but I got the pinwheels turned around, half of them, so I called it “Hope of Rosemary.” And I got the quilt finished, my mother put it on the frame, and she had her friends come and quilt it. And I was going to learn to hand quilt and I pricked my finger and it bled on the quilt and my mother said, ‘Honey, you can serve the lemonade.’ So I never learned to hand quilt because I was serving the lemonade. So I checked off on the list that I had made my quilt and it was quilted. And that was in 1964, and I never did a quilt again until 1994. […] In 1992, I had a liver transplant and I could not go back to work as an accountant because I couldn’t–I wouldn’t have the stamina to take that many hours. I had done our daughters’ wedding–we had two daughters get married and a liver transplant in eight months and when that all was over with, I got bored. I couldn’t go back to work and I said, ‘I think I’ll piece a quilt.’ My husband said, ‘Well, why don’t you write a book?’ and I said, ‘No, I think I’ll piece a quilt.’ I got a quilt book and by the first time I had–by the first quilt I got done, I had three more cut out. And it was just my thing and I just got into it and I made thirty-two full-size or queen-size bed quilts. I’ve made over 180 quilts. I have paper-pieced 1500 blocks in wall hangings, jackets, and quilts and I’ve got a few unfinished projects […] Edie Jones (interviewer): What advice, in parting words, would you give to new quilters? Rosemary Zaugg: The first couple of years, I said, ‘There are quilters who talk about it and quilters who do it.’ I said, ‘Get out there and do it. Don’t just go to meetings and learn about it. Don’t go to classes and never make a quilt. Get out there and do it.’ And the vender booth Pastime Fabrics has this display and she’s got these quilter’s quotes out there, and as I walked past it yesterday, I pointed to the one and I said, ‘It says, She who dies with the most fabric wins.’ I said, ‘That’s not really true. She who dies with the most fabric is still dead, so get out there and use the fabric, make the quilts, don’t just collect the fabric.’ You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance site. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
