by Quilt Alliance | Oct 5, 2014 | Uncategorized
October 5th was designated by the United Nations to be “World Teachers Day”. We’re shining our spotlight on quilt teachers–from nationally-known teachers to first-time teachers, and even one quilter who wishes she had just a little more time to teach. Are you a teacher? Have you ever taught someone how to quilt? Did someone teach you? “World Teachers Day” might be a great day to say thank you to your favorite teacher! Jean Wells Keenan: I started quilting when I was a young married mother and mother of two and I was teaching Home Economics and they decided that we should have boys in Home Ec. and so I was looking for projects that boys could do. I ran across some patchwork kind of things from England. What appealed to me was the accurate cutting and sewing and the geometric shapes. I thought they would appeal to the boys. They made floor cushions. At that time, quilting was not very popular–this was back in 1969 but I was real taken with putting fabrics together. I have been a fabric person since I was a little girl. I love to sew and so it just appealed to me. I kind of discovered quilting at that time and started teaching how to do it but didn’t have that background in my family or anything. It was just more or less something that I discovered on my own. [Q]uilting is–I have been very fortunate, it is like my life. I would do it as a hobby. I also do it as a business. I love to teach and see people learn because I have done the teaching and writing of the books. I am sharing ideas and that is really what I love the most about quilting–is what happens with the people and seeing people want to learn and seeing what they do with the fabric and the creativity that happens. That’s really what I love most about quilting. Lisa Ellis: Teaching is something that I love to do. I’m finding it a little bit challenging with my schedule. I still have kids at home so teaching is harder to do. The occasional lecture is a little bit easier for me right now. I love teaching and I have taught several different classes. I’m hoping that eventually when I’m an empty-nester teaching is something that I can really get back to. A local quilt shop invited me to teach and I taught for a year and I loved it, but I’m just finding that I really can’t commit right now because I need to be available to my kids at this stage. They are all teenagers now and I need to be home in the afternoons and be available. Teaching is something that I love and I’m passionate about and I look forward to the day when I can make the commitment to teach on a regular basis and maybe even start traveling. As to what I teach. I have a couple of different things. Some technique oriented things and then also I do a Praise Quilt workshop. I’ve done the Praise Quilt Workshop class a few times where I have women that want to learn more about making quilts that are an expression of faith. So we do the anatomy of what makes a Praise Quilt and then I teach techniques. But it is also an opportunity for women to explore how they would like to incorporate what they do into making pieces for their places of worship. I look forward to the day when I can really pursue that and do a lot more teaching. Kathyanne White: Understand what speaks to you and why, then learn how to express your own ideas in a way no other artist does. Learn to do original work. This comes up in my workshops a lot. I teach workshops and the workshops that I teach encourage all the participants to express their own voice. When you participate in one of my workshops, your work will look like your work, as you participate in the various exercises. I think that learning to develop your own work, learning to stretch your boundaries, all those types of things. Sarah Luther: Our quilting group was trying to encourage more people to come out and join us so we offered a free beginner’s class and I did the teaching on the quick quilt methods. I enjoyed that because it taught me to prepare ahead and to think about how to discuss the patterns as I was presenting it; sort of like I learned from TV. And I enjoyed it, but I know that I wouldn’t be a professional teacher. [W]e put it in the Trinity Valley newsletter and we announced it in different places, we put out flyers at different places that said ‘Free Beginning Quilting.’ And we had three or four that came a couple of times but couldn’t keep coming because it’s over about an eight to ten week period. We did about twenty blocks and tried to teach different things, aspects of quilting. The log cabin, it started out with the nine patch and worked up to doing one that was paper piecing and one that was crazy quilt block so I kind of went over a range and I had another lady who had done some appliqué in the group so she taught the class on appliqué. But we really enjoyed it and several of the ones that just came to quilt actually made blocks and put together their own sampler quilt. We all gained from it and enjoyed it… It made me feel important. I’ve never thought that I could. But I planned ahead. You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance website. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories…
by Quilt Alliance | Sep 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
We’re a day late for this week’s Q.S.O.S. Sunday Spotlight, but we’re right on time for Labor Day here in the United States. While looking through our Q.S.O.S. stories, I noticed a trio of interviews with Vermont-based quilters, each of whom were involved with the Vermont Quilt Festival, which got its start at the Northfield, Vermont Labor Day festival. Though the Vermont Quilt Festival has moved, Northfield continues to have a Labor Day celebration each year.This week, we’re featuring excerpts from 3 interviews, each about the way that a small-town festival influenced their own quiltmaking story.Cyrena Persons told interview Nola Forbes about helping out at the first festival, where quilts were laid on the floor for judging: “Nola Forde: Tell about some of your experiences with the Vermont Quilt Festival.Cyrena Persons: That started out, the first that I knew about it, it may have started the previous year, in Northfield. At the Labor Day festival. I’m not sure what they call it, but Dick Cleveland decided that there should be a Quilt Show incorporated in this festival, this celebration. We met with another lady. […] Yes, Jeannie Hutchinson. We met at the Armory. [laughs.] Dick thought we ought to judge these quilts that came in. I don’t think there were more than five or six quilts. We had no way to hang them up. So somehow he had obtained some newsprint from the newspaper office. He laid it out. Rolled out this newsprint on the floor. A couple of layers of it.NF: This was blank newsprint?CP: Yes. We spread the quilts on it. Why, that was the beginning of my life. That was something else. We judged those quilts […] I’ve always been amazed at the progression of the show. It started out to be local quiltmakers. Then more and more antique quilts came in. I was able to write the commentary about the antique quilts for a time. It’s just a wonderful memory of going to those shows and seeing the progress that quiltmakers have made. The art quilts were developed along with that. Several years after the show got started, I think. It just amazes me. I am pleased that I could have been a part of it.”Connie Page started quilting after being inspired by what she saw one Labor Day weekend at the festival in Northfield:”I can remember going, years ago, my husband and I, on Labor Day were taking a ride on his motorcycle. We ended up in Northfield. [Vermont.] We stopped because there were things going on for Labor Day. They were having something called a quilt show. I didn’t know anything about quilt shows then. I went in to the old Armory there. There were some old ones, beautiful ones. Then I went across the street and in the stores across the street. They were fabulous, I thought. I didn’t know people could do that with fabric. That was the start.”Lucile Leister also shared her memories of the early years of the quilt show in Northfield:”I don’t know exactly, I don’t remember exactly how I got started, but it was definitely with Richard Cleveland. Dick Cleveland and I were kind of–[laughs.] we got along very well. He was very interested in quilts. He didn’t make quilts himself, but as the same thing happened to me, he had some quilts from his family, and he didn’t know how they were made, but he’d like to find out. He thought there were some other people that knew how to do this, and so I got kind of in cahoots with Dick Cleveland. At that point, they were having a Labor Day celebration in Northfield. [Vermont.] He started–the Vermont Quilt Festival started as a group of quilts in the basement of the church in Northfield. Well, we didn’t have very many wonderful quilts in those days, but we had quilts. That’s how it got started, it was very small but there was a group of people that were interested in getting it–getting this thing started. Well, it wasn’t very long before the basement of the church was not adequate, so there was–I don’t remember whether–there was a place downtown that we had it, but I think that was after we even got started at Norwich because we realized that Norwich University had the space that we could use. There were some people up there that were willing to get–to put in some work on it, too. So I was on the Board of the Quilt Festival for quite a number of years, until it began to get so big that I just thought ‘No, I guess I don’t really need to get into anything that big.’ I did teach a few years, but at the point where it just mushroomed–and it really did mushroom there at one point.”Want to learn more? You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance website.Posted by Emma ParkerProject Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our…
by Quilt Alliance | Aug 24, 2014 | Uncategorized
Have you seen our latest news? We’ve just announced the theme for the 9th annual 2015 Quilt Alliance contest: Animals We Love. We’re accepting 16″ square quilts–of all styles, from traditional piecing to embellished art quilt–featuring the animals we love. Don’t worry, you’ve still got plenty of time to get started–the deadline isn’t until May 1, 2015. But in celebration of the announcement of next year’s theme, we’re featuring a quilt all about beloved animals. Read on for the story of this incredible tribute to four-legged and feathered friends by quilter Shirley Kelly! “This quilt is called “…And Friends of the Family.” It’s a number of pets that we have had over a span of forty-five years, either my son or my daughter or my husband and myself. Right now the only living one is the second one down from the top in the corner, the Jack Russell terrier, my daughter’s dog. He’s about four years old, but all the others have passed on. The only true “friend” as such is Kelso, famous racehorse. He’s this one. He belonged to a very nice lady who lives down in Maryland, but she always sent us Christmas cards with Kelso’s name on it, so we count him as one of the friends. The little rabbit toy was my grandson’s toy when he was very small, and it probably had as much love and attention as all the other animals put together. This is only a very small representation of all the animals that my family have had over the years, but these are the most important ones to us. […] I think the fish were the first ones that I did, and they were just a picture. I never got around to quilting them. Then that was kind of fun, and I thought it would be interesting to do the horse at the top, Kimbo. Then the tiger cat was my lap kitty, and he was getting rather old, and I thought it would be kind of nice to do one of him too, so I ended up with three of them, and just suddenly the idea clicked that I could do all of the others.They had been done in one way or another, either photography, drawing, something like that. Practically all of the ones up there have been done with pencil drawing at least once, and now they’re immortalized with fabric.” Ready to get started on your contest entry? Learn more about the guidelines here. You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance website. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories qsos@quiltalliance.org …
by Quilt Alliance | Aug 17, 2014 | Uncategorized
Today’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight features two quiltmakers, Sharon K. Naegle Eshlaman and Theresa Boock, answering the same question: In what ways do you think your quilts reflect your community or your region? Though these women live over 2,280 miles away from each other, they each feel their quilts say something about themselves, and where they live. Read on as they share more about their quilts and their communities. First, Sharon K. Naegle Eshlaman, of Michigan: It’s a quilt I made some years ago, probably around the year 2000. I was always interested in stars. It came out of a magazine, which I’ve since discarded, can’t tell you what year, what designer, really anything about it. I love plaids and stars, so I chose that pattern. JR: What do you think someone viewing your quilt might conclude about you? SE: It’s Americana. I love my country. I love simplicity and it speaks country to me, country life. JR: In what ways do you think your quilts reflect your community or your region? SE: Well, as far as the Americana that I really enjoy, the stars, with the wars in the world now and our people coming back from overseas, I think it relates to that. I like appliqué floral quilts, thinking of my garden, that I occasionally tear myself away from quilting to work on. I work with a lot of homespuns and basically I’m just a down-to-earth girl. I’ve got my chickens and my garden and I think my quilts kind of show that’s the type of person I am. Next, Theresa Boock of Eugene, Oregon: I can tell you this quilt is a king size quilt. It’s 103″ square. It’s a very traditional style quilt, although I designed it. So it is a traditional style pattern with more modern fabrics. A combination of old and new. It’s got roses on it, and leaves, traditional rose wreath patterns and blue ribbons. Green leaves and burgundy roses, and pink. LP: Who made it? TB: Well it is a friendship quilt. I belong to an organization called the Pioneer Quilters, and we had a friendship block exchange. There were twenty-four of us involved and every month we distributed our patterns and whatever fabric we wanted people to use and they had a month to make our block and return it, and it took two years altogether from start to finish, the friendship exchange. And then, I pieced the blocks, and added a little bit more to the boarder, and then the group Pioneer Quilters quilted it. And it took eight months. We quilted on it about four hours a day, for eight months. I mean, once a week for eight months. LP: In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or region? TB: Pacific Northwest is sort of cutting edge for quilting. It’s really fascinating to have watched it evolve over the last thirty years. I sometimes feel like I’m a step behind because I’m not into the bright colors a lot of the quilters around here are in the Pacific Northwest… Being a fourth generation Oregonian, what you see in my quilts is a reflection of my region. And anything else I’ve brought into it by traveling, but truly, I’m about as dyed-in-the-wool Oregonian as you can get… LP: In what ways would we see that in your quilts? TB: A lot of the folks that came to Oregon in the 1800’s, some of them came from New England, and there is a lot of traditional New England beliefs hidden in design. Some of the folks came from Northern Europe, and you see a lot of, for instance, my father’s family is Dutch, German and Belgique and they were very fine craftsmen. And I see that eye for detail. How do your quilts reflect your region? You can read more quilt stories–from all over!–on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance website. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories qsos@quiltalliance.org …
by Quilt Alliance | Aug 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
What’s the most important part of a quilt? Perfect piecing? Even stitches? The ideal binding? Here at the Quilt Alliance, we think there’s one part of a quilt that’s always worth adding: a label. Today, we’re kicking off a mini-series here on the Q.S.O.S. Spotlight. We’ll be sharing excerpts about labels collected from Q.S.O.S. labels–why we label, why we don’t, how we do it, and what we love about it. Today, 3 quilt makers share the reasons they label their quilts. We’ll feature another installment soon with more labeling stories and ideas!Looking for an easy way to label your quilts? Check out our Quilt Alliance Labeling kit. It has everything you need–labels, a great fabric pen, instructions and ideas, and a sample of StoryPatches iron-on labels provided by stkr.it–to get started labeling your quilts and saving its story.Alyce Foster: “I have a little photo album that I’m taking pictures of the quilts that I have made. I’m also now signing my quilts. One time I was just doing them and not putting a label on them. Now I’m putting labels on them and the one on “The Real Eve,” we had to put a label on it. And also it’s an art quilt. I sign my name on the front of it now. Because when people go to a museum in 4010, I don’t want them to say, ‘Unknown Quilter.’ […] It’s good because when we went to the Renwick [Museum.] and saw the beautiful quilts there and so many of them had ‘Unknown Quilter.’ And I said to myself, ‘You want to be know when we’re looking down from heaven, that someone is admiring our work and know our name.”Janet Miller: People will, you know–acquaintances–we’ll meet someone, “Oh, you’re a quilter,” “Oh I got grandma’s quilt or so-and-so,” and “Is there a label on it? What’s the history of it?” “Well no.” So I’ll talk about you’ve got to, if you know the history and your kids aren’t going to, you’ve got to put a label on it so that there’s knowledge.Jean Wells Keenan: I have two sisters and we all have some of the quilts [from the family.] and I know that I have already decided who is getting which quilt in my family. I have two children. They are putting dibs on things too, but making sure that the quilts do stay in the family and putting labels on the back is important. You want to be able to document when they made and who made them. I try to really push that sort of idea when I teach classes, too and you know, I just love quilting so much and what it has been able to do and you know through teaching you get to–you have a voice that is differently sometimes than just a local person and so I really try to push those, you know, concepts and ideas. You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance website.Posted by Emma ParkerProject Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our…
by Quilt Alliance | Aug 3, 2014 | Uncategorized
Every year I get so excited to see the quilts that roll into Quilt Alliance HQ as entries in our yearly contest. They’re always a stunning, cheerful and diverse group of quilts. It’s amazing to see how differently each quiltmaker interprets that year’s theme. This year, the theme was ‘Inspired By’ — each entrant chose a quilt from the Quilt Index or the Q.S.O.S. project, then made a quilt inspired by their pick. The Members’ Choice winner this year was Pauline Salzman, for her quilt News Hounds. She was inspired by Jamie Fingal’s quilt, Soul Sisters, from the Quilt Index. Pauline was interviewed for the Q.S.O.S. Project in 2000, and we’ve featured a bit of her interview below. Congratulations, Pauline, and to all the rest of the fantastic quiltmakers who submitted quilts to this year’s contest! Pauline shared the story of starting over — re-quilting a quilt in response to a comment she’d gotten at a quilt show. Pauline Salzman: This quilt was Best of Show at the P & B. It was a challenge quilt, challenge fabric and I did this as a challenge so the choices of fabric were not mine necessarily but I like challenges because they make me expand my horizons. So 95%–75% of this quilt had to be that series of fabrics. Some of them are turned upside-down, and one of them is used on the backside. This quilt traveled for one year as best of show but then went to other shows and did okay and won a few awards but came home two weeks ago. They always come with critiques and the critique was a woman didn’t like how I quilted the body parts. They were inappropriate. And I thought, ‘What a stupid comment.’ So I unrolled the quilt and I realized she was right. And I ripped all of the body parts and re-quilted them. I ripped the hair and I requilted it. I am now going to rip the shirt and the pants and the fish and requilt them. I won’t do anything with the background but one of the reasons I enter quilt shows is not just to win a prize but to get a critique and learn. And sometimes the critiques are valid and sometimes they’re not. Sometimes they’re stupid. This, however, was a valid critique and I learned something. While it was a pain to rip it all, it looks a hundred times better than what it did. And these jeans and this shirt are going to look better. And because I want this to be the best I can do, to me it’s worth ripping and redoing, because it’s a learning experience. Jo Greenlaw: How was it quilted before? Pauline Salzman: It was kind of quilted in snail’s trails following the bodies’ curves. But they didn’t make you feel like the body was rolling. You didn’t feel the curvatures. They were there but you didn’t feel them like you do here. You didn’t feel the toes. And here, you didn’t feel the shirt moving like you should. It has movement but it’s quilting that’s there and not doing anything. Like, this is the sand and I can go with this for grounding, and here’s some leaves, and up here are bigger leaves because it’s in the background. You can see the leaves–they’re straight lines with–whatever. You see the leaves here? And I’m a free hand quilter. And it is important for me to fill a space not just with stitching but with something that means something or gives texture or feeling to the piece.” Have you ever finished quilting a quilt, just to re-do it all over again? You can read more quilt stories on the Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories page on the Quilt Alliance website. Posted by Emma Parker Project Manager, Quilters’ S.O.S.- Save Our Stories qsos@quiltalliance.org …
