by Quilt Alliance | Sep 22, 2013 | QSOS Spotlight, Uncategorized
Did you know that next year–2014–will be the 15th anniversary of the Q.S.O.S. Project? Over the past 14 years we’ve collected almost 1,100 interviews with quilters around the world! This week’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight shines on one of the very first Q.S.O.S. interviews from 1999, Paula Nadelstern (who’s also one of many special guests at our upcoming Quilters Take Manhattan event!). Paula shared with interviewer Lorraine Jackson a bit about her kaleidoscope quilts, her family, and the unusual places she finds inspiration (like photographs of snowflakes from the 1920’s)! Paula started by explaining a bit about the touchstone quilt she brought with her: Kaleidoscopic XX: Elegant After Maths Each quilt that I’ve done has lead to the next idea, and the next idea. So, working in a series, creating a body of work in one series, has really stretched me as an artist. I mean, there are ideas in here that are rather simple that I didn’t think about in my first quilt, or my fourth quilt, or my tenth quilt. I love the idea that what might look very simple to somebody looking at this quilt, were very new ideas to me that I came to because I really stretched the one idea. So, there’s that sense of it. I started working with a lot of silks in my quilts, starting at about my fourteenth or fifteenth quilt, so there’s a lot of silk in this quilt. The “elegant aftermath,” the aftermath really relates to the fact that, this is really the result of understanding the sense of the kaleidoscope and the geometry that is involved in the kaleidoscope, that I know now how to make an image seem as if it’s fleeting and is spontaneous, and really give the sense of a kaleidoscope, using the methods and materials of quiltmaking. The fabric part of quiltmaking is very, very important. And shared a bit about her studio and very patient family! I live in my two bedroom apartment in New York City with my husband and my daughter. She’s a college student and she’s twenty-one and beginning to move out and I’m still working on my kitchen table. I’ve never had a studio, though I’ll probably be able to start working in her room a little bit… They don’t mind stepping on pins in the living room. At this point, they are used to the kitchen table being my studio instead of the place where they, you know, have dinner, that sort of thing. They’re very supportive. Inspiration for a kaleidoscopic quilt can start anywhere… I’ve written two books one on group quilts and one on the kaleidoscope method. And a few other little things for Dover. And I’m now starting a book on snowflakes… Yes, actually a snowflake is really a six-sided image, in some ways it’s very much like the quilt we have in front of us. Except that basically I’ll use a blue and white palette. Not a very rigid blue and white palette, really stretching that but then also using it in the shape of a snowflake. I will be working in one sixth, designing the snowflake from that one sixth and then duplicating that six times. Photomicrographs of snowflakes were taken in Vermont in the 1920’s so we have these small, little images that I’ve used to identify the specifics of a snowflake. I’ve made one quilt like that and now I’m doing a book about it. Interested in reading more about Paula? You can find her interview and more quilt stories at the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Alliance’s site! Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
by Quilt Alliance | Sep 15, 2013 | QSOS Spotlight, Uncategorized
In just under 2 weeks, the Quilt Alliance will headed to New York City for our Quilters Take Manhattan event. We’re busy preparing for the event, so we’re definitely in a New York state of mind! It seemed only fitting that we shine this week’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight on New York Beauty quilts. There were a number of Q.S.O.S. interviews that featured a quilt made with New York Beauty blocks and even more that had a story about tacking this beauty of a block! Jeri McKay shares a red and white New York Beauty made by her great-great-grandmother. It’s both a stunning quilt and a symbol of Jeri’s life as a New Yorker! “Okay, that was made by my great great grandmother Edna Frances Sanders Carrell. And it was passed on to me by my aunt who had a few of her quilts. I’m the only one now that has one of her quilts in the family. We never knew what happened to the others. She gave them to friends, but not to family at the time. It’s a New York Beauty and I found that I was given that in California, where I was born and raised. But the New York Beauty was not in a state that any of my family ever lived in. And it turned out that I lived the last half of my life in New York. And so it was really quite amazing how certain quilt patterns I have picked through my life, which I’ll probably mention later have turned out to be very portentous in what has happened in my future.” New York City might be bustling, but it was the natural world that inspired Jean Wells Keenan’s New York Beauty! “Well I am kind of obsessed with gardening at the moment. I love to garden and Ihave always been a real outdoor person and like hiking and all of that and have been tuned into nature so I think most of my quilts have a feeling coming from nature because that is where I get inspired from. And I think what has happened with me personally is that you see things in nature that you might not be able to think up yourself like color combinations because it works there then it is going to work in a quilt so I really let that be my guide. And I don’t think I could have done this quilt had I not been a gardener and really tuned into the subject matter that inspired me.” Lucinda Mayan combined a 19th century pattern with a celebration of the upcoming 21st century: “It’s called the “Millennium Beauty.” It’s a New York Beauty design. I think that’s where all those little points get their name. It has eight millennium prints throughout the quilt. In the center the fabric has “Millennium” in fourteen different languages. It was just a way of expressing the year 2000 and it’s coming. I can’t believe it’s the year 2000, but it is. I quilted for a long time, and it was challenging. I wanted something that would challenge me. I like the traditional quilts, especially when you look at some of the older quilts. They have so much work and detail. I’m amazed at what they did years ago. You can still look back at them and appreciate what they did. I don’t know that we’ve gotten any better at what we’re doing. We’ve gotten faster. We’ve gotten more accurate ways of making our pieces, but what they did was just wonderful. As soon as I saw this one I thought, ‘Oh, I’d like to make that.’ When the challenge came I thought, ‘Well, this is what I want to do.’ I love fabric. I appreciate it. So I wanted a design where you could appreciate the fabric and what the artist did to design it. I just took the 2000 theme and went with it.” Interested in reading more? You can find more quilt stories at the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Alliance’s site! Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
by Quilt Alliance | Sep 8, 2013 | QSOS Spotlight, Uncategorized
I love the feeling of starting a new quilt–deciding on a design, choosing the fabrics, sewing together the first few pieces. Unfortunately, this means that I don’t always end up finishing my quilts–I’m usually looking forward to the next project long before it’s time to sew on the binding. I’ve come to learn that my favorite quilts are quick quilts–quilts that can be finished in just a few cutting and sewing sessions. However, the Q.S.O.S. archives are full of stories of quilts that took months or even years to complete! In today’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight, 3 quiltmakers share stories of that quilts that took their time. It took 5 years of planning before Ellen Danforth began her quilt, “You Can’t Wear That”: “The idea for this quilt came to me as I was nearing my 40th birthday. I didn’t start its construction, however, until nearly five years later. I finished it just before my 46th birthday. It took me a little more than a year to make, although I was designing it in my head for those almost five years. During that time I was thinking about four things: I wanted to celebrate my “coming of age”–at age 40 instead of 18. I chose to work in the technique and style of a Victorian crazy quilt because I wanted to express a sense of myself that I had repressed. The slow process of making the quilt by hand was not unlike the process of self-discovery. The butterflies in the chemise represent my transformation and my ability to grow after a period of inertness and effort. This quilt is also a “visual conversation” that I had with my husband of twenty years. It was the best way I could find to express myself to him on a subject that I found difficult to speak about.” Mary Andrews’ first quilt took so long that she thought she’d never make another quilt… but she couldn’t stop and has been quilting ever since! What got me started in quilting was finding some Sun Bonnet Sue quilt squares in her atticafter she died. The fabric on them was from the 1930’s and even her sisters didn’t know where they came from. It looked like her work. I decided that I would put them together and make a quilt out of them. I was working as a dental hygienist at the time, so I got one of my patients that I knew was a quilter to show me how to put them together. Someone else showed me how to quilt them. I did a terrible job quilting them, [laughs.] because I had never hand quilted before. It took me five years to make that quilt and I thought I would never make another one since it took so long. I went to buy one and saw how expensive they were and thought to myself, I can make this. I made some for my children and then started taking some quilting classes. I joined a quilt guild and got hooked. Karen Musgrave shares a collaborative quilt (made for a Quilt Alliance fundraiser in 2004!) that took an entire lifetime to create: “I worked on [this quilt] very intensely for four months… There was a lot of activity. There were days that I worked 14 hours on it. There were other days that I only worked 1 ½ to 2 hours on it. When people ask me how it took me to make the quilt, I tell them almost 48 years. Why do you say that? Because it is life experience that took me to be able to make this quilt. I’m not afraid of color. I like color. I like texture. This is a very colorful quilt. It has a lot of texture. It has a lot of symbolism and I love symbolism. I’m really happy about the label that I made because it is three women with hands connected which represents the three people involved in the quilt.” Interested in reading more? You can find more quilt stories at the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Alliance’s site! Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
by Quilt Alliance | Sep 1, 2013 | QSOS Spotlight, Uncategorized
One of my favorite questions that’s often asked in Q.S.O.S. interviews is “have advances in technology influenced your work?” Almost always the answer is yes–from new sewing machines to embroidery machines and even the rotary cutter, now tools and technology have certainly changed quilt making. One tool that’s mentioned over and over again isn’t available in a quilt shop, but many quilters use it every day: the internet! In today’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight, three quilters share the way the internet has affected the ways they learn, create, and collaborate in the quilting world. Patricia Wright tells how she uses the internet to learn new techniques and tricks: “Now of course the internet, online, there’s so much information that you can grab just like that. If I have an idea, for instance recently I was thinking about, I don’t do machine embroidery, I don’t do that, but I saw some bobbin work embroidery that I thought was really fascinating and it would be something that I would enjoy doing. So, I just went to my computer, typed it in, and there it was, any kind of information you need. Of course, I think originally I got that idea for the bobbin work was maybe a TV show, or a magazine, I’m not sure there’s just a lot of information out there. We’re really lucky.” Mary Kay Davis talked in her interview about how sharing a quilt with her mother-in-law was made even sweeter by developments in technology: “I recently made a quilt for my mother-in-law–she just turned 90–and I had made one for her when she turned 80. I didn’t know I’d be making one for her when she turned 90. And, it was so much fun because of the Internet age, so here I sent her this quilt which was fun, but then her granddaughter took pictures of her opening up the box and showing the quilt and then she put that out on Facebook so that I got to see the pictures so the whole family was involved in seeing this quilt and learning about the quilt, and I think that was a lot of fun.” Collaborative quilts and block exchanges are nothing new, but Jill Herndon used the internet to make quiltmaking bee an international experience: “[In] about 1990, I was already online, and I belonged to a group called The Meta Network, which is a transformational community. It’s the longest-existing online community. And we met–this was before the days of the Web as we know it now–it got me online and I learned about lists servs and news groups, and I joined a list serv group that was a Nine Patch block exchange. And so I would make up eighteen blocks, somebody was organizing this, I’d get the addresses, send them all over the world, and get eighteen blocks back. And so I would get them from like inside the Arctic Circle. I had to write and ask some people where they were. And they were in remote places. So the Internet itself has made the quilting community closer. Just picturing that Nine Patch block coming from inside the Arctic Circle, and she couldn’t get the variety of fabrics that she wanted. This was wonderful to be able to use what she had and share and trade.” Interested in reading more about how technology has changed quilting? You can find more quilt stories (online!) at the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Alliance’s site! Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
by Quilt Alliance | Jun 23, 2013 | QSOS Spotlight
Summer is officially here! And with it, plenty of trips to the pool, glasses of lemonade, beach visits and especially summer road trips! In this week’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight, Joyce Saia shares her story of making a quilt on the road, complete with an emergency fabric order and a stop at a laundromat!”Well, my quilt is called “Logs and Leaves” because obviously I’ve got the Log Cabin blocks and the leaves in the border. It’s 80″ by 80″ and I made this in Beaumont. Actually, I finished it in Beaumont, Texas but I made most of it while I was on the road. Every year my husband and I travel for about four and a half months in the motor home. I always take my sewing machine and my supplies and as much fabric as I can sneak on board. This particular quilt I made in 2009. I knew that I wanted to make a log cabin quilt and I had a collection of Cherrywood fabrics. Before we went on the trip, I cut a whole bunch of fabric strips. So I just took strips, I didn’t have to take a bunch of fabric with me on the road. I made myself a block and copied it on paper foundations and took that with me. On the road, anytime we would stop for a couple of days, I would sew. I just made blocks most of the summer. When I had them about done and when I got to Pasco, Washington, I have a daughter in Pasco who quilts; we went to her Bernina store or the one where she frequents. They happened to have this embroidery pattern that was with leaves called “Colors of Autumn”. The rest of the way I embroidered. But first I didn’t have enough fabric to make the border out of. So we ran to Anacortes, Washington and I had the number for Cherrywood. I called Cherrywood fabrics and talked to Carla there and said I needed some yardage quickly because we were moving. I couldn’t stand and wait for mail to come. I didn’t know for sure what color, but I thought chocolate brown was safe, I know what color that was. I asked her for chocolate brown. She shipped two yards of chocolate brown to me by priority mail. She sent it that day and I had it about two days later and then of course went to a laundromat and washed the fabric. I ironed it and then started cutting it into strips to make the border. The embroidery design I just made up as I went along. I put one design in the center and then I just made four borders the same. I couldn’t put it together on the trip because I can’t put a big quilt together in my motor home. I had it all ready to go for when I got home. Then I put the quilt together and did the border. For the binding I found a stripe that was the perfect coloring. I found the embroidery design that seemed to just match it perfect. It’s actually appliquéd but it has embroidery on it. It’s one of my favorite quilts.” You can read more stories about quilting on-the-go AND at home at the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Alliance’s site.Posted by Emma ParkerProject Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our…
by Quilt Alliance | Jun 16, 2013 | QSOS, QSOS Spotlight, Uncategorized
There are plenty of stories in the Q.S.O.S. archives about moms and grandmas–many quilters describe how they learned the art of quilting from a mother or grandmother–but there are many stories about fathers, too: from fathers with a knack for sewing, to husbands who are always willing to take the kids while we pick up a few more things at the quilt shop! Today’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight features two interviews with quiltmakers who share stories about what their fathers taught them, as well as an interview with a quilting dad: Richard Tims, father of renowned quilter Ricky Tims! Victoria Findlay Wolfe of Bumble Beans, Inc. described how her father’s job as a upholsterer provided early quilt inspiration: “My father had an upholstery business in Minnesota and I grew up on a farm in MN… When I started sewing, I had one of those Barbie sewing machines that had a glue cartridge that you would put in and it would put glue dots on the fabric. That really worked well (laughter). Then I moved up from there gradually and would steal my father’s scraps and upholstery sample books. I’d sew them together on my mother’s Singer. I remember him teaching me how to do a blind stitch and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world because you couldn’t tell there was a seam on the outside finishing it up. I thought it was pretty cool cause it looked like my Dad’s work then.” Jill Herndon describes a quilt she made for her father: “I give quilts as gifts. I have made a special quilt for almost every member of the family. It’s become somewhat of a family tradition. It’s become a wonderful emotional bond with each person who has a unique quilt and the conversations with each one are very unique. One I made for my father has been on TV… It was a departure. I scanned photographs of him from when he was a boy through to his eightieth birthday, and printed them on fabric. And then I framed them in kind of crazy Log Cabins and embroidered a center panel that says it is Edward Beverly Herndon’s quilt. He has hung it at the end of his hallway with lights on it and there are many touching stories about it… It was before people started talking about scrapbook quilts. This is something people do a lot now, and I can see why, because it was really a celebration of my father and of our relationship, that he taught me how to sew, he taught me how to photograph, and he was an inspiration in my going into information technology as a career so that I knew how to handle all of the [scanning and.] printing on fabric at home, using my own computers and printers.” Richard Tims tells the story of starting to quilt while working as a truck driver: “Why did I start? Well, I was working with the trucking company and I was working four days on, and four days off and I didn’t have nothing to do around the house but nothing, and I says if Mama can make a quilt at 85, Richard surely you can make one at 65, and I started in. And I worked four days off in here by myself and then I’d go back and work my four days and come back work another four on the quilts. Something to play with, pass time away, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.” You can read more stories from quiltmakers (and their fathers!) at the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Alliance’s site. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
