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 …
by Quilt Alliance | Jul 7, 2014 | Uncategorized
Today’s Q.S.O.S. Spotlight is about genealogy. But not in the way you’re thinking! Sometimes, in searching the Q.S.O.S. archives, I find small, delightful connections between interviews. Today, I was reading an interview of Canadian quilter Lorraine Roy from 2008. In it, interviewer Bernie Herman mentioned a project by quiltmaker Dominie Nash. His question was about ‘quilt genealogies’–the way that quilts relate to each other and their history, their lineage, connections, and references. Both Dominie and Lorraine shared their thoughts about the way the quilts they made referred to their own past work, their evolution as quiltmakers and artists, and their quilt making process. These two Q.S.O.S. interviews are very different conversations, but they’re all part of the great family of quilts and quiltmakers. In the spirit of quilt geneologies, this week’s Spotlight starts with an excerpt from Dominie Nash’s 2001 interview, as she explained the great variety in projects she’d been working on recently: For a while I had been obsessively filling up areas of my quilt with little tiny pieces of fabric and I decided I wanted to simplify, so that at least for me worked here because as you can see the shapes are not as complex as some of my earlier work. And it led to a series which I’ve been very pleased with I’ve done five altogether… The series that I worked on before this and I don’t think I’ve finished with it is called “Peculiar Poetry” and it’s done in very much the same style although as I’ve said the use of fabric is a little more complex. Each of the big shapes was filled with many more smaller pieces of fabric and from the same color range to kind of create an overall color for each shape. And then I’ve done, I’m working on a series that I call “Deconstruction/Reconstruction” where I take old quilts that I’ve done that I haven’t been happy with and cut them up and recombine them to make new quilts so I’ve done maybe five or so sets of those. I have more candidates waiting in the wings. And then is a series called “Chimera” which involves taking pieces from one quilt and using them as a starting point for the next and those are based on drop cloths that I accumulate when I’m dyeing and printing the fabric. So with most of them I’ve taken a whole piece of cloth that has a lot of paint and dye splashed on it and I add some to it and use that as the ground for the quilt and then add, pieces on top of that from the previous quilt, do stitching and printing on top of the whole newly assembled piece… I don’t usually know when I do the first one or even two whether it’s gonna go on and I have some that have just sort of dead ended. But I like to work in series because it’s a way to develop my ideas and have what everybody seems to want is a body of work that kind of hangs together. I never say, you know I’m going to do ten or four or whatever, it just happens and at some point with some of them I might say this is finished and with others I know that I may come back to them. But I usually have two or three different series that I’m working on at the same time which may not look anything like each other. So I have to be careful when I’m presenting my work not to confuse people. 7 years later, Bernie Herman interviewed Lorraine Roy and mentioned Nash’s work, sparking a conversation about the ever-evolving technique and passions of an artist: Bernie Herman: Your thoughts on this question make me remember two conversations with two very different artists working in the same medium. First, some years ago Dominie Nash described a quilt project in which she made a quilt, rent or cut it into parts, recycled those parts into a second generation of quilts, rent or cut those into bits, recycled those fragments into the third generation, etc. In the end, many generations later, traces of the original continued to surface. Second, Irene Williams of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, explained a process in more or less these words, ‘Every quilt I make remembers all the quilts I’ve ever made and all the quilts my mother, sisters, aunts, cousins, and grandmothers ever made. In fact, every quilt I make remembers every quilt that has ever been made in this place.’ So, in the context of quilt genetics (for want of a better phrase), how do your quilts, using the example of “Luck and Skill,” express their genealogies? Lorraine Roy: My first love in textile technique was embroidery. Even though embroidery techniques were not taught in the area where I grew up, I sought out every possible source of information and was able to master quite a few different types, including canvas work and white work. Needless to say, these are slow painstaking methods of expression, and I wanted to work larger, faster, and in an even more painterly way. Over 20 years I developed the collage technique that I now use, but only in the past 10 years have I been using quilting as a way to finish and present the work (I was previously stretching onto frames). Because my imagery is so strongly influenced by the linear and painterly character of embroidery, my hangings are rarely called ‘quilts.’ In fact I have never made a real quilt, and because French Canadians have a stronger tradition of weaving and rug hooking, I was never exposed to them while growing up. So we could say that “Luck and Skill,” like all my other hangings, expresses its genealogy by referring more strongly to the linear and painterly elements of embroidery than it does to the traditional construction of quilts. As for visual genealogy: grids have appeared in almost every one of my series in some form or another. One of the reasons I was so drawn to my early Canvas embroidery was the orderly rows of stitches and the rhythmic motion of the work itself. I respond to grids in other artists’ work as well, so I suspect it’s simply part of my natural inclination or vocabulary, a symbol of order that balances beautifully with more chaotic elements… [E]ach piece I make captures (in the best way I can) one moment in a continuum of moments. It is not perfect but it has built on previous experience, and is a step to the next level. Just because one individual piece is not perfect does not mean it has less value. On the contrary, it has much to offer someone who is truly observing and searching – the mistakes, the inconsistencies, the omissions, the triumphs and failures – they are all there, plain to see. Each viewer enters it, contributes to it, and grows with it, in his own way. The viewer is a co-creator with the artist. 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 …
