Amanda Leins

One of the more colorful people we met while attending QuiltCon in Austin this past February was Amanda Leins.

Amanda, a former archaeologist who has turned to quilts to tell stories, began quilting in 2002. Her quilt, “Eggs and Darts” from her new book Wanderlust Quilts, won First Place in the Modern Quilts category at the National Quilters Association in 2015. One look Amanda’s new book told us all we need to know about her passion for history and architecture.

Like Amanda, we all know (or happen to be!) one of those people who visited Rome and took pictures of the “quilt block” mosaic floors along with the more standard pictures of ancient ruins. It seemed natural we found her book to foster that kindred spirit and gift us with a remarkable and fresh approach to using those same ancient motifs to design contemporary quilts. Amanda’s fascination with how the material objects we make and what it tells about their maker’s lives served as the inspiration for many of the quilts she designed and made for the book. We recently spoke with Amanda about how it all came about:

“Going Places”

Did you fall in love with quilting immediately or did it grow on you?

I made my first quilt at my grandparents’ house on a 1947 Singer. The whole family – parents, aunts, uncles, and grandma – had all used it to make a crazy variety of things and I wanted to be part of that tradition. I knew I loved making things out of fabric, and have always admired embroidery and handmade pieces of any type. It’s the “made-by-hand” legacy I love. After I made that first quilt there was a gap between that and the next because when I went back home, I didn’t have a sewing machine! My first sewing machine was a wedding gift from my husband, a little travel Janome 760. At that point I was hooked because then I could sew whenever I wanted to!

“Lovely Fishbourne”

“Mosaic Pillows”

What did you find most challenging when getting started?

The hardest part for me was sorting out good cutting technique. I just discovered spray starch in the last year, along with a few other techniques that make the cutting more accurate. It wasn’t until I started longarming my own quilts, though, that I realized how much I needed to “straighten up”! I think everyone should have to longarm a quilt or two of their own, just as an educational experience. I shaped up pretty quick after that embarrassing round of realization. The dreaded “quilt rules” exist for a reason, and being able to know what they are and why they exist means you can then bend and break them and still finish with a solidly constructed piece.

“Star Crossed”

Was there anyone out there in the quilting world who inspired you?

“Architectural Sketch”

The quilters I admire the most are the ones who foster a sense of inclusivity and are genuinely excited about teaching and passing on their technique, those who create an environment that fosters growth. Thankfully, that is quite a few people!

Architecture was such a pivotal inspiration for me because it illustrates so many of the elements of good design. Those same elements also make quilts successful: proportion, scale, balance, eurhythmia. Those elements influenced Renaissance artists. Even the ancient world casts an incredibly long shadow, though we don’t always recognize the origins. Modern architecture is often these same principles in their purest forms, the essential line and shape. Knowing some of those principles can help us in our own journeys as quilters.

What led you to write a book?

When I wrote the book, I really felt that I had a lot to say about how growing in our work and craft doesn’t mean we have to change our style or appreciation for Modern quilts. For traditional quilters, I wanted to show that so many traditional quilts have a basis in art from somewhere else. Can’t we all just get along? Additionally, I was hoping to write a book that would inspire people to maybe tell their own stories in their quilts, using these techniques, even if they didn’t necessarily make the quilts from the book. I guess I care passionately about quilting and the people who do it, their having the space to grow and learn and make what they want without fear of being told it’s “not right or doesn’t fit in”. I love all quilts, in all styles, from all periods.

More About Amanda Leins

“Strawberry Moon”

Amanda lives in Saratoga Springs, New York, with her husband, two little kids, and one “crotchety old cat”. For an excellent primer on using color in quilts, check out her “Star Crossed Quilts” tutorial on Bernina’s We All Sew website.

To purchase her books or learn more about Amanda’s free tips, techniques, and information about longarm quilting, visit her blog, Mandalei Quilts.

Photography from “Stash Books.”  Photographer: Nissa Brehmer.

Jack Edson

What do you get when you combine a self-taught sewer (in kindergarten), the meticulous precision of a professional librarian, and hundreds of tiny bits of fabric?  You get Jack Edson, collector of all things folk art, Americana, and remarkable portrait quilt artist.

Jack studied art history and completed his Master of Library Science at the University of Rhode Island, and is the director of the newly expanded Hamburg Public Library (where quilts, of course, are on display) in Hamburg, New York. He began quilting in 1976 when he saw two exhibits of antique quilts, one from the Smithsonian Museum that was traveling across the United States. “I loved quilts at first sight, wanted to own quilts, and started making them to have a collection of quilts.”

In addition to working full time, Jack teaches his technique of using a grid, color and tonal value to make realistic images of faces and figures in patchwork. We spoke with Jack about collecting both Americana and bits of fabric, and his process for creating these portraits.

You collect a variety of things – what attracted to those types of items?

I am often attracted to the age of an item, from antiquities to the Nineteenth Century. I like to have items that people used in their daily lives many years ago.

You mentioned that you are inspired and influenced by the artist Chuck Close. Can you tell us more?

I love portraits, and Chuck Close creates huge portraits of his art friends. In many cases, he uses a grid pattern. This grid keeps the shape of the portrait intact, but each square can be a wild little work of art in itself.

Thomas Eakins portrait by Jack Edson

Tell us a little about how you get started on a piece, your work process.

Thomas Eakins portrait quilt (detail)

First, Like Chuck Close, I have to pick a subject that I like very much as I will be working with that image for months. I love art history, so I try to select a portrait of someone who I probably would like to know, if they were alive today.

I do not organize my fabric. It is mostly mixed up. I might put a few similar colors near each other but it does not stay that way for long.

I usually approach the fabric selection two opposite ways: I start with the fabric. If I like certain pieces and want to use them, they end up in the quilt. Second, I can pretty much visualize which color is needed for a certain space- it should be “pinkish” for example, and it should be light but not too light, and then find where that color is in the fabric pile mess!

I do try to work in certain fabrics into most every quilt. There is a yellow fabric that you could almost identify my quilts by. Also, I kept a number of my mother’s blouses when she died. They are good for flesh tones in faces and they certainly remind me of her when I am working.

Where and how do you find fabric in so many shades and colors to create what you make?

Round and assorted log cabin quilt by Jack Edson

I haunt sale racks in fabric stores, people give me fabric again and again, I buy most of my clothes at second hand stores and with plans to reuse the fabric in quilts when I am done wearing the clothes.

When my old quilter, Margaret Carl, died this past February, her family told me I could take whatever I wanted of her fabric stash. This bonanza greatly enriched the colors in my last piece. We always encouraged each other to go wild with the color in our quilts and I think of her when I use her fabrics.

Our Quilt Guy group plays a game each time we meet. Everyone brings 5 or 10 fat quarters and one person wins over 50 fat quarters. I won the first time I met these guys, and I certainly think of them, and their support out there, when I use that fabric.

Jack Edson – Quilt Guys Retreat

What is next for you?

Jack teaching at City Quilter

I am offering classes in my portrait technique and it feels like my work is attracting a lot of attention from people in the quilt world as well people in the art world. These portrait pieces are conceived as works or art, rather than quilts per se, so I see them closer to paintings or collages than traditional quilts.

Still, I must contradict what I just said. In my last few pieces, the strong quilt block patterns seem to be holding their own against the realistic portrait images. I think this symbolizes my life; there always seem to be two opposite forces working at the same time. We remember that the old quilting bees were social events which brought people together as they worked on their quilts. That is what I need in my life, these social connections, and I think these portrait quilts put a strong face on a gallery wall.

More About Jack Edson

Jack will be teaching in October at The City Quilter in New York. To contact Jack, please visit the Hamburg Public Library website.

Photos curtesy Jack Edson

“In 1993, recognizing the need to centralize information about quilts and quiltmaking, four women joined forces to create Quilt Alliance. This project drew together Shelly Zegart and Eunice Ray of The Kentucky Quilt Project, and Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant, corporate officers of Quilts, Inc. and founders of the non-profit Texas Quilt Search. With the establishment of The Alliance, the founders combined their shared dedication to quilts with their extensive experiences shaping the quilt industry and quilt scholarship in this country.

The Alliance’s founders soon gathered a distinguished group of quilt scholars, artists, experts, and enthusiasts to develop a vision for gathering, disseminating, and facilitating the interpretation of the great body of information about quilts and quiltmakers. The Alliance developed projects that tap into the full potential of quilts and inform the study and understanding of history, the arts, and culture.”

Learn more here at the Quilt Alliance Website.

The Quilt Index was then conceived and developed by The Alliance for American Quilts and implemented in collaboration with Michigan State University’s MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters and Social Sciences Online and the Michigan State University Museum. The Quilt Index contains digital images and history on more than 50,000 quilts.

We spoke with Marsha MacDowell, Ph.D., Director of the Quilt Index and Curator at the Great Lakes Quilt Center/Michigan State University about the Quilt Index and its role as a vital resource for quilters and quilt scholars.

We have been examining the many opportunities and uses of “quilts for a cause.” How has the museum’s collection documented this concept?

The Michigan State University Museum has, over the last 30 years, been especially active in leading or co-leading development and implementation of projects pertaining to issues of social justice and to using the museum as a tool for engaging community voices in the documentation and interpretation of cultural heritage. Because textiles have long been used, mainly by women, as a medium to express feelings, values, and experiences that reflect upon and motivate action related to issues and needs in contemporary society, MSU Museum staff constantly look for the possible intersections of quilts, quiltmaking, and quiltmakers in addressing these issues. Therefore, the MSU Museum collection has built a collection of quilts that reflect social justice, political activism, and human rights – and has paid particular attention to acquiring quilts that have strong, documented associated stories. A number of our exhibitions have been focused solely on or include sections of quilts that “speak truth to justice”.

How are online resources important to quilt scholars and people interested in quilts today?

As a freely accessible, searchable online repository of data on quilts, quiltmakers, stories about quilts, and quilt-related journals, ephemera, and other data, the Quilt Index is a remarkable resource for inspiration, research, and education. The Quilt Index is a model for other cross-institutional, public and private collections of data to be preserved and made accessible. Like a public museum or archive, the QI is preserving this cultural heritage on behalf of those who have contributed to and can benefit from it for research and education purposes. The ability to search and compare data from many quilt collections can only be done through the Quilt Index. It is an awesome tool that underpins many types of research inquiry.

How could the quilting community better help the museum community in its collection and care of quilts?

Actually, I believe it is a two-way street of interaction but, to answer the question, I believe that the quilting community – because of its huge numbers and great passion – can lobby museums to collect and exhibit more quilts, can assist in collection care and educational programs, and, most importantly, help fund these activities. At the Great Lakes Quilt Center/Michigan State University Museum (GLQC/MSUM), quiltmakers, collectors, and quilt businesses have contributed to our programs in many ways. From RJR Fashion producing a fabric line based on our collections to quiltmakers sewing sleeves on quilts for our exhibitions to hundreds of quilt owners working with us to document quilts and collect related stories of Michigan quilts to guilds that annually provide funding, the GLQC/MSUM simply could not do its work without these partnerships. And, then, of course, there are all of the individuals, guilds, businesses, and other organizations that are providing financial support to the MSU Museum specifically to underwrite the costs of maintaining and expanding the Quilt Index.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of museums have quilts in their collections and many of these museums would love to strengthen their quilt collections, improve the care of those collections, and engage audiences in using those collections for research, education, and inspiration. Most museums are hampered by the lack of sufficient funding to carry out all of the quilt-related activities they would like to do. It would be wonderful if the individual and collective financial contributions of those in the quilting community could be directed towards museums who have quilt collections for quilt-related collection development and care, research, exhibition, publication, and education activities. At the Great Lakes Quilt Center/Michigan State University Museum we rely heavily on the generosity of donations, large and small, from private individuals, groups (including quilt guilds), and businesses.

What is next for the Quilt Index?

Currently the presentation of information on QI is object-driven; information about the artists and the stories of the quilt are not very visible and sometimes difficult to find. Planning is underway for ways to better showcase artists and stories.

The QI team is looking for new ways of using crowd-sourcing tools to engage others in easily helping correct and expand the data in the Index. We want to tap the knowledge and expertise of many to make the data in the Index be as accurate and complete as possible. Tools to make direct public submission of data by individuals on quilts, quiltmakers, and quilt stories (written, oral, and video) are being developed and tested.

More about the Quilt Index

The Quilt Index is a project of the Michigan State University Museum, Matrix, and Quilt Alliance to preserve images and stories about quilt artists, quilts, and quilting activities and then to make this information searchable and freely accessible for research and education. The Index houses tens of thousands of images and stories of artists and quilts from private and public collections around the world. Navigate this link to the Quilt Index website. Find them on Facebook. Follow the QI Blog. Visit the App Store and download the QI App for IOS, or find lots more on the Quilt Index YouTube Channel.

After your first original quilt, “Loss”, what came next?

I have made a sequence of quilts dealing with my feelings of grief, loss, and guilt, about ten altogether. The quilts that function in my life as art are those formed not from someone else’s pattern, and not for the main pleasure of manipulating the materials, but those that come from a personal need—an idea or emotion that is preoccupying me, that is disturbing me.

Many artists work in response to the natural, physical world, others work from the inside out. I am not responding to the material world outside of me, but bringing out into material the world inside me. Although each quilt is different in intent, they are bound together by the originating motive of response to Jeremy’s death.

Penny Gold – Shelter

Did you find the work more emotionally draining, or was it cathartic?

The extent to which this work is deeply self-centered is unsettling to me, and a case can certainly be made that art should not be done as a kind of therapy to work out one’s own problems—rather, the purpose of art should extend outwards, to affect others. But for me, the art has been therapy. It has enabled me to stumble, to creep, back into life, to see further into the future than just the next hour. It has provided me a way to live with grief.

If others are also moved by what I have created, that is good. If the work helps someone understand the rupture and persistence of loss, and what is below the surface—determining factors in a person’s life—that is good, too. I learned this as I worked on the “Loss” quilt. Making the quilt was a private endeavor. It’s not something that will ever be used on a bed or hung on a wall. It has served as a kind of therapy for me. And it has also become art—something with the potential of communicating to others, even if that was not my original intention. When I was at the design workshop, well along in working on the quilt design, I brought the small maquette over to Bill to ask him a straightforward technical question. Oddly, he didn’t respond. When I asked again, he said, “Penny, it’s not so easy for me to look at this. I have my own losses too.” It hadn’t occurred to me that something so personal, so specific to me and to David, could also strike this kind of chord with another person.

Had you considered that you were also sending a message with your quilts?

It was not my goal to communicate with others, but my experience and feelings are not unique. Art that embodies my experience can build a bridge to others. In this way, perhaps I fulfill what Roger Sessions sees as the human responsibility of the artist: “above all [the] awareness of the human condition, a common involvement and a common stake in it” (Questions about Music, 166).

Penny Gold – Regret (front)

Are all of your quilts as emotionally charged?

I have made many more that were entirely different in nature, centered on playing with shape and color, either through using/adapting an existing pattern or working in an improvisational style. One of these quilts was in QuiltCon this year, “Wild Geese,” and it is being published in Sherri Lynn Woods’ new book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters. This type of quilt is engaging to me, and I can happily spend the day piecing hourglass or half-square triangle blocks. I don’t experience them as hard work, in the way that I do the art quilts. I am glad to have both in my life.

What else would you like to share with our readers about your family?

My husband David Amor and I had one child, Jeremy, born in December 1985.  Jeremy graduated from high school in June 2004, and would have entered Lincoln College that fall. He died on July 17, 2004, as a result of a car accident.

What can you tell us about “Self Portrait, Year Two (Beneath the Surface)”?

The idea of this quilt goes back to sometime in 2005/06, in the second year after my son died. The expectation of the first year after the death of a loved one it that it will be very difficult; but that after a year, having moved through one marker after another until the anniversary arrives, things would ease up. That was my own experience after the death of both my parents in the winter of 2003. By the summer of 2004, I was feeling I could get back to the normal run of life. But then Jeremy died. A year passed, and the loss continued to dominate my inner life.

How did you begin to move forward with your life at that point?

I carried out daily life, as one has to do. I taught my classes, attended meetings, laughed at jokes, and responded to friends. From the outside, the loss was invisible. But on the inside, I continued to be shaped by loss, grief, and regret. In an early attempt to express this feeling of disjunction between outer appearance and inner condition, I made a small maquette (11 x 14″) that put it in abstract form: a field of black patches in the bottom two-thirds of the rectangle, a lighter field at the top, and the two separated with a narrow band of lavender fabric that represented my external appearance of equanimity.

Only after choosing the color, did I learn from a friend that lavender was the Victorian color of mourning, allowed after black had been worn for a period of time. A few slivers of red were inserted in the black field, representing the stabs of anguish that surfaced without warning. I liked this design, but did not feel a push to take it further into the making of an actual quilt.

What other ideas developed?

I was haunted by the memory of the yellowish mud that covered Jeremy’s body after the accident. I looked for fabric just that color, and after I learned to dye fabric, dyed many samples until I settled upon the hue close to my memory. In parallel, I thought about a statement that would reflect how my identity had changed since the loss of my son. I ended up with “I am a woman whose child is dead.” I searched for ways to inscribe the message in an obscured way, representing its invisibility to others.

How did the idea for a stark black-and-white version develop?

Penny Gold – Self Portrait, Year Two (Beneath the Surface)

For a while I planned to appliqué large letters of the same fabric onto the mud-colored background; I also did trials with just stitching letter patterns in the same color thread. At one point, in 2012, I was talking through the project with Bill Kerr. I meet with Bill from time to time for help with ongoing work.

“I’ve been working on how to make the words only slightly visible,” I said to Bill, “to represent how invisible my state of agitation is to everyone around me. But sometimes I think the quilt should scream out how I feel—that I should proclaim it in bold black and white.”

“Maybe you should make two quilts,” said Bill. These simple words of insight and affirmation were key to the development of the quilt. As Bill and I talked, we developed the idea of making two quilts, with the intent to show them at an exhibition in such a way that the “hidden message” quilt would be seen first, and then afterwards the bold quilt. I eventually changed the color of the first quilt from mud to lavender, pulling in the color from the strip of lavender in the earlier abstract maquette. I dyed several versions of lavender, until I came up with precisely the dusky lavender that I had in my mind. I also moved from the idea of two quilts to one double-sided quilt, which was completed in 2014.

What were your thoughts on how the quilt should be displayed?

In designing the self-portrait quilt, my intention was to have the lavender side be the front, with the quilt hung in such a way that the other side would also be readily visible. If viewed from far away, the lavender side looks empty, but from close up, you can see that a message has been stitched into it; since it’s stitched from the front, the letters are backwards, so further obscured.

When I submitted the quilt to QuiltCon, I designated the black-and-white side as the front, as I thought it unlikely that the lavender image would be juried into the show on its own, though I did ask that the quilt be displayed with both sides visible, if possible

Can you tell us about the construction?

It was a technically challenging quilt to make. Often, a final piece looks simple in design but is the result of many decisions on multiple fronts. Choosing what font to use for the message was one decision. I am very satisfied with my final choice (Helvetica Neue Bold), but it came only after many weeks of trying out various fonts, reading about typography in general, and about Helvetica in particular. The size of font to use was another decision, and then figuring out how to print out letter templates that large. Bill Kerr and Tim Stedman of the Knox College Art Department helped with all things typographical.

How did you decide on the layout?

How to lay out the eight words of the message was another decision. Should it be horizontal like a billboard, which I had in mind when choosing Helvetica; or should it be vertical? I chose vertical because it is closer to the human figure, and I think of this as a self-portrait. I also decided how many lines the message would be, and where the line breaks would fall.

Many versions were printed out in small format on the computer until I came up with the one that felt best to me. I enjoy hand appliqué, and assumed I would use that for fixing the letters to the background, but I decided that crisp edges and corners were more important than the pleasure of handwork, so I fused on the letters instead. I tried out horizontal quilting lines, but decided on vertical, and then tried out various spacing for the vertical lines. I ended up with spacing just a little narrower than the width of the letter elements. I also tried out various battings, ending up with a layer of felt for the batting, as I wanted the quilt to be very flat.

Did it go together easily at that point?

There were many challenges throughout the construction process. Because the quilt is meant to be two-sided, and I didn’t want a rim of binding around the edge, I used a “pillowcase binding,” which is difficult to do on such a large piece. I kept all the layers lined up by laying them all out on the floor, secured with masking tape. I laid out all three layers (top, bottom, batting) on the floor, holding them down with masking tape.

After the sandwich was stitched and turned, I needed to mark the quilting lines. I needed something 8 feet long, rigid and straight. Wooden molding was not straight enough, so I found a heavy strip of metal that worked. I used that to mark the placement of the rows, using a marker to mark increments. Then I used it as a guide for mark the lines, running a Hera Marker along the edge. A final challenge was to keep the white fabric clean throughout the process!

What did you think when you were finished?

I look back through my notes and samples, done over a period of nine years, and marvel at the idea’s permutations. The measure of the quilt’s success for me is looking at it and knowing I would not change anything. The response by viewers at QuiltCon suggests that the meaning of the quilt came through to viewers, further deepening my satisfaction with the quilt—and my gratitude towards the teachers and friends who have made it possible.

In our early correspondence, I said, “It is a memorable, intensely emotional quilt, and from my experience I can predict it will go down in history as one of the iconic quilts of the early 21st century. That’s how good it is. This is why quilts matter!!” When you first read that comment, you were not sure how to respond. Now that you’ve had a little more time, how would you respond to that statement?

Well, I’d love to turn the question back to you and ask you to explain what led you to make this statement! I have been bowled over by the extent of response to the quilt, and the enormously positive nature of that response. I am moved by the number of people who commented that the quilt helped them understand the nature of grief at the loss of a child, and those who, understanding it all too well from their own experience, expressed appreciation for my giving voice/vision to these feelings.

To call the work “iconic” suggests that it represents a larger trend, and will continue, over time, to stand out as a memorable example of that trend. Certainly the use of lettering and words as a central design element is a noticeable element in art of the last fifty years or so. Cy Twombly is a special favorite of mine. Also, letters and words are also used in some contemporary quilting; Sara Impey and Judy Hurwitt are two artists whose work I follow. Not long after I settled on the final design of the quilt, I saw Elizabeth Hartman’s billboard quilt-along, another example of using text on quilts. I can understand that the strong emotion expressed through the simple, stark design of my quilt may make it especially memorable.

More About Penny

Penny Gold received a Ph.D. in History from Stanford University, and taught history at Knox College for 36 years, until her retirement in 2012. She lives in Galesburg, Illinois, with her husband David Amor. Their son, Jeremy Gold Amor, died on July 17, 2004. Penny’s blog may be found at Studio Notes.

Photos are courtesy of Penny Gold.

Penny Gold

Editor’s Note: Followers of our Why Quilts Matter on Facebook know that we here at Why Quilts Matter – History, Art & Politics have been looking a variety of charity quilts, awareness quilts, and quilts made for specific causes. We were deeply moved by this story and wanted to share it with our readers in a two-part series. Our heartfelt thanks go to Penny Gold for sharing her story.

One of the most talked-about quilts at QuiltCon 2015 in Austin Texas was “Self Portrait, Year Two (Beneath the Surface)” by Penny Gold of Galesburg, Illinois. The quilt stirred very strong emotions. People stopped in their tracks; complete strangers openly weeping in front of each other and hugging, all because of what the quilt said, and how it made them feel. The remarkable black and white quilt had eight simple words with a not-so-simple message: “I am a woman whose child is dead.”

Guest Blogger Bill Volckening – Guest Blogger at Why Quilts Matter recently interviewed Penny Gold to learn more about her story. Here is Part I of the two-part interview.

When did you learn to sew and make quilts?

My mother taught me to sew when I was about 8 or 9; my first project was an apron, made on her treadle machine. My mother also taught me to embroider, knit, and crochet. I sewed simple clothing for many years, which is how I came to be comfortable with a sewing machine, though knitting was usually my craft of choice. I enjoyed looking at quilts, but never gave any thought to making them myself. It was not something my mother did, and learning from her was how I learned needlework. But in the spring of 2001, a friend’s daughter, whom I had previously taught to knit and sew, asked if I could teach her to quilt. Spurred by her interest, I checked out a pile of books from the public library and learned enough to begin. My first quilt was made jointly with her, a Cathedral Window quilt.

How many quilts have you made?

About 80 quilts, plus a number of smaller projects like placemats and table runners. About half of the quilts are small in size—baby quilts or wall hangings.

How has your quiltmaking evolved since making your first quilt?

Much as I was enjoying this new hobby, I was also frustrated by the greater challenges presented by quilting, and the many more choices compared to knitting; where I’d choose a pattern, select a color from the limited range of yarns available, and follow the directions. In quilting there are choices to make every step of the way, even when using a pattern. While my ability to use color, value, and shape improved through many small projects, I was very aware of how much I did not know about design, especially color and composition.

When did you make your first larger quilt?

In 2004, I had enough confidence to undertake a bed-sized quilt—a quilt for my son to take with him to college. We chose a log cabin design, in his favorite color, blue. Jeremy was to begin college in the fall of 2004, and I wanted the quilt finished by then. I had almost all the blocks done by the beginning of the summer.

And then Jeremy died.

Penny Gold – Self Portrait, Year Two (Beneath the Surface)

How did your son’s death affect your daily life?

For a week or so, the dark chasm that loomed on all sides was kept at bay by the round-the-clock presence of family and friends. But then I had to step back into the routine of life, and found it difficult. It was summer and I wasn’t teaching, so my days were unstructured by work.

Until my retirement in 2012, I was a professor of history at Knox College. The scholarly research I planned to do that summer was of no interest to me. Reading, which had always been a large part of my life, was also of no interest. One day it occurred to me that sewing might help me pass the time—the days were so long. I went over to the corner where I kept various projects, and found some small appliqué blocks that I had entirely forgotten about, all set to be stitched. It turned out this was just what I needed to help me through the day. The soft colors, simple shapes, and the hand-sewing itself were calming, and they kept my mind occupied in a way that helped keep at bay images of Jeremy’s accident and of his dead body.

The blocks were quickly finished, but I needed another project like it. The sewing was a kind of analgesic, almost an anesthetic. I lined up another project, this time going even further into the hypnotic effect of repetition by sewing again and again just one simple shape, a circle.

With these projects, the reason I was quilting had changed. It was not just a pleasurable pastime, resulting in gifts for friends, but something I needed to do for my sanity, that I needed to do to get through each day. And the resulting quilts were no longer something I could give away. I needed them by me.

What about the Log Cabin quilt you had started?

As I worked on the simple appliqué pieces, I also considered what to do about the log cabin quilt I had been making for Jeremy; how could I finish it, now that he was no longer here to receive it? But how could I discard this quilt I had been making for him? I finally thought of a way that I could finish it, embedding in it my grief. At the time Jeremy died, I had only three blocks left to complete the forty-eight that would make up the top.

I decided to change the design for the last three blocks, making them off of a five-sided center, rather than off the four sides of a square. When set into the diamond pattern Jeremy had chosen, it expressed for me the way in which his life had so abruptly gone off course. I thought a lot about where to put the three last blocks. I put them together rather than scattered through the quilt; towards the edge rather than in the center; towards the bottom rather than the top; catching the eye, but not dominant.

Did that quilt influence your approach to quilting?

I didn’t realize its significance at the time, but the decision to alter the log cabin block to carry personal meaning turned out to be good preparation for the workshop that would change my life. In June 2005, I attended a week-long design workshop with Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle. Many quilting workshops focus on technique, with students replicating a quilt designed by the teacher. In contrast, the workshop with Weeks and Bill taught a design process, rather than a specific technique or pattern. My hope was that learning more about design principles would help me in the innumerable choices of quilting.

How did you get ready for such an intense experience?

To prepare for the workshop, we were supposed to come up with three possible ideas—memories of events, things we’d like to do in the future. These prompts didn’t work for me, so I turned to something else of interest—the late winter midwestern landscape. But then it got to be June, Design Camp was a week away, and I realized I was bringing with me only one idea, not the three they had asked for. The weekend before the workshop, my husband David and I went to a nearby state park to get away for a few days. We had lots of time to talk, including sharing how bleak the future seemed to both of us. At one point in the weekend, feeling the press of needing to come up with a third idea for the workshop, I asked David for help. It immediately occurred to both of us that our feeling of the future without Jeremy was something that could be the central idea for a quilt. As we talked, thinking together of a possible design, I sketched out our ideas—a mosaic of colors on the left, which would represent the brief span of Jeremy’s life with us, and a chasm of unbroken black on the right, representing our future without him.

What happened when you got to the Design Camp?

I arrived with two ideas, high expectations, a good deal of fear, and uncertainty about what direction I would be taking with a quilt. What I didn’t know was the extent to which this workshop would be a transformative event in my life.

One of the exercises was to create a portrait, using color in an abstract way to represent a particular person. There it was, an open door inviting me to work on a portrait of Jeremy, something that could be the base for the multi-colored strip in the sketch David and I had come up with.

How did you put it together?

The portrait was made with small scraps of fabric and came to me spontaneously, without a struggle. It put something of Jeremy’s character, and about how I felt about him, into a visual form. The choices of colors and shapes came easily because I had in mind the central idea I wanted to express: that it was about Jeremy, about his energy and intensity, about his sharp edges, about the problems as well as the joys; that his life was varied, but also limited.

With the maquette of the mosaic side of the quilt already done, the rest of the design came readily, putting the color of Jeremy’s life next to the blackness of our future. There were still many questions of size, scale and method. In the past, I would have been frustrated by so many decisions—frustrated that I didn’t know the “right” answer. But with this project, I felt entirely different. I was content to just keep at it until I had a method that felt right.

How would you describe the design process?

In all the quilting I’d done previously, I’d begun with a design made by someone else. For each of the subsequent decisions: fabric, color and value, border, binding, quilting—for each of these I had only the guidance of wanting to make something that would look nice, perhaps even beautiful. But now I had begun a quilt with an idea of my own, an idea about which I cared deeply. For every decision I faced, I had this idea to guide me. It wasn’t a question of what “looked best,” but of what best conveyed the idea I wanted to express.

What lasting impact did the Design Camp experience have on your work?

Penny Gold – Loss (front)

This principle of using a essential, originating idea as a generative source for a work of art of course was central to the design workshops taught by Weeks and Bill, a principle that applies elsewhere as well—writings by Twyla Tharp, the choreographer, have been helpful to me, as well as Roger Sessions on musical composition.

In the process of making the quilt (titled “Loss”), my reasons for quilting changed again. I still had pleasure in doing the handwork. And it still helped me to live with grief. But designing and making this quilt also brought out into the world the expression of something I felt, something for which words were inadequate, despite months of intensive journal writing.

Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle also contributed to a change in my identity from scholar to an artist. When I returned home from the 2005 workshop, I changed my study to a studio. (You can read further thoughts on the change here.)

I have been lucky to extend the influence of these workshops over subsequent years. A number of the participants are from the Chicago area, and I live only three hours from there, making it possible for us to get together a couple of times a year; we also are in regular communication by e-mail. Being able to share my work in progress with these people who know me well and have the common grounding of Design Camp has been a tremendous help.

Also, on several occasions Bill has been able to come to one of our gatherings, providing an opportunity for individuals who want some guidance on their work to engage him for a consultation. His comments on and suggestions for my work have been crucial to my development as an artist. I am profoundly grateful to both Bill and Weeks for the shaping role they have had in my life. They are extraordinarily gifted and generous teachers.

Next up: Part 2 with Penny Gold where we learn about the process of designing and constructing the quilt, Self Portrait, Year Two (Beneath the Surface) – coming in June, 2015.

More about Penny

Penny Gold received a Ph.D. in History from Stanford University, and taught history at Knox College for 36 years, until her retirement in 2012. She lives in Galesburg, Illinois, with her husband David Amor. Their son, Jeremy Gold Amor, died on July 17, 2004. Penny’s blog may be found at Studio Notes.

Photos are courtesy of Penny Gold.

Mary Fons

During our recent visit to Austin, Texas, for QuiltCon 2015, we met up with high-energy, whirling dervish Mary Fons! While influenced by her quilting luminary mother, Marianne Fons, it is important to know Mary is an accomplished professional in her own right. Before she had her self titled “quilt epiphany” in 2008 and began to make quilts and get into “the family business,” Mary worked as a fulltime freelance writer and stage performer in Chicago. A woman of many talents, interests and abilities, we jumped at the chance to talk quilts with the woman who has written, produced and published all things Quilty!

What do the quilts you own have to say about you?

This question threw me off a little because I don’t own any quilts that I didn’t make myself! I have a few of Mom’s that are “earmarked” for me, but those are all at Mom’s house. Of course, I can still answer the question because I do “own” a lot of quilts – they’re just ones that came from my own sewing machine.

My quilts are all based in the traditional style. I like symmetry. I love — love — a good quilt block. Improvisational piecing isn’t for me; I’m too obsessive-compulsive for that. I like order, probably because the world itself is so chaotic and bizarre. A quilt block is an oasis of control, you might say. But I’m not a traditional quilter. I suppose I’m a contemporary quilter because I use traditional methods and designs with new fabrics and interpretations. To answer specifically what this “says” about me, I’d say it shows I have a respect and regard for traditional American patchwork but am compelled to make my own mark within it.

My quilts are quilts my mom would never make. Our palates are totally different; our choices for any given fabric are different. For example, she’ll choose a brick red and while I can’t stand brick red, crimson red is in fact my favorite color of all time. There are times when my mom’s eyebrows shoot up her forehead when I show her the plan for my “latest/greatest.” But she always ends up loving what I make and I feel the same about her choices and her quilts. Mom’s quilts look like Mom – and that looks pretty good. My quilts look like me, they look like my life. (And I guess that means my life is pretty colorful and intense! And that’s true!)

Why do you quilt?

I am convinced that quilts — and I’m talking specifically about utilitarian, bed-sized, American patchwork quilts — are perfect objects.

Quilts are works of art, objects made with care and love that we use every day of our lives in innumerable ways. We cry on them, marvel at them; pour creativity and artistry into them. We decorate our homes with them, have picnics on top of them, and make love underneath them. For a long time in this country, a quilt welcomed you at birth and when you died, you were put in the ground in a quilt. Not many objects have such power — do any have as much soul? We use quilts in all of these varied applications, they become almost like family members…and then we have the glorious ability to stick the things in the washing machine when they need it. I’m telling you: perfect objects. Functional art. Brilliant.

If I didn’t grow up in the family I did, I might not be a quilter. My mother’s work clearly has had a huge impact on my life, my own quilt journey, and me. But I didn’t grow up making quilts. My sisters and I were always encouraged to pursue our creative ambitions, and we did, but none of us ran to the sewing machine when we were growing up. Part of this was because quilting was mother’s work. She was a professional quiltmaker and teacher — it wasn’t something fun she did in her spare time. Of course we loved quilts. We grew up under them. But we were forging our own identities and it would be many years before I came around to the passion of quilt making and “the family business.” (My younger sister dabbles in quilting; my older sister is more interested in garment design and embellishment.)

Make + Love Quilts by Mary Katherine Fons Book Cover

I credit my mom with never pressuring me to take up quilting and never, ever being disappointed that I didn’t start sooner. She is a wise woman: she knew full well that no one ever fell in love with something they felt guilted into doing. When I had my “quilt epiphany,” around age 28, it was powerful because it was my revelation, my choice. And because of that, making quilts felt like coming home. Of course, I had to make them in my own style, strike out from the Fons & Porter style I grew up around. I had to immerse myself in quilt history, pour books about antique quilts and contemporary quilts to find my own voice. It was a joy to discover and I’m still discovering that personal aesthetic with every quilt I make. I know for sure I’m an intensely scrappy quilter and that I don’t use turquoise (seriously, I never, ever use turquoise) and I like big quilts – no table toppers around my house. I make quilts that look like me. They look nothing like my mother’s quilts. We love the difference.

I make quilts because I love to design them, I love to write about them, I love to have them photographed, and I love to give them away. Shame on me if I have an enormous stack of quilts at any given time. They should be used. Yes, even the really, really special ones. I make bed-sized quilts, for the most part. Quilts are for people, not closets! There’s a Jewish saying that one should “give till it hurts.” I think about that when I’m really having a hard time parting with a quilt. I think, “Give till it hurts,” and I give the quilt to someone I love to use and enjoy. I never regret it because I know it has a good home.

What is next for you?

My newest book, Dear Quilty has just been published! It is available on my website. I’m also doing a lot of speaking and teaching in relation to my other book, Make + Love Quilts: Scrap Quilts for the 21st Century.

I have a webinar series called Color Me Quilter. It’s very cool – webinars are actually a neat way to learn things, right there at your computer. You can join me each month as I examine in detail one color as it pertains to patchwork and quilting. I recently did a webinar on red, discussing red’s history in quiltmaking in America (the Log Cabin’s red center, the Turkey red dye process, the mighty red and white quilt, etc.) then looked at ways to use red more effectively in your quilts.

My blog is something I would so love for folks to check out, too – that’s a daily project. I post 5-6 times a week, daily observations and insights from my life. It’s not so much about quilting, but of course quilts and the quilt world find their way in quite a bit. The blog is a place for me to record my life and readers seem to enjoy taking a peek, too.

More About Mary Fons

Read Mary’s blog, PaperGirl, and visit her website to subscribe to updates, sign up for webinars, she where she will be appearing and learn more about quilting.

Photos are courtesy of Mary Fons.

Come by and say hello – we’ve got all kinds of things for you to watch and see and do. Need help with guild programing? We have you covered. Brochures for a meeting or cruise? Postcards? Pins? (Hurry, they go FAST!)

We will also have copies of the Why Quilts Matter: History, Art & Politics DVD available at a SPECIAL QuiltCon price. ​Come check out the discussion guides designed to start conversations, instruct and enlighten your fellow quilters and even your family members.

Stop by and tell us Why Quilts Matter to you! See you in Austin!

In the following years, Marianne became (and still is) a sought-after quilt and fabric designer, teacher, lecturer and author. Her enthusiasm, energy and intense vitality continue to inspire and instruct the next generation of quilters. Rarely has Why Quilts Matter been able to sit down and speak to someone with so substantial a repository of quilting history and wisdom!

Did you sleep under quilts growing up? What got you started in quilting?

I grew up in a household that appreciated all art forms but did not have quilts. My intro to quilting as an art form was with the renewed interest in quilts that was part of the American Bicentennial in 1976. I was around 26 years old.

Is it important for quiltmakers to document and label their quilts properly?

I always advocate putting an informational label on a quilt. Daily, we wish we knew more about the quilters of the past, even just their names.

What are some of the greatest changes you have seen in the quilt movement in the past five years?

I’ve been totally pumped by the “modern movement.” Many of the quilters attracted to the “modern” aesthetic are youngish, and I have enjoyed the infusion of energy brought by younger quilters, especially in the industry side. The past five years includes the entry into quilt making by my own daughter, Mary Fons. Working with her on Love of Quilting on public television and just sharing the fun of both of us designing and making quilts has been a true joy.

What do you envision for quilting’s future?

“Cubbyholes” by Marianne Fons

I think it’s important to recognize that only from around 1940 to the American Bicentennial of 1976 did quilt making activity in America lag significantly, and even then lots of people were still making quilts. Still, many women at that time went to work in factories because of WWII, polyester became popular, and because of an upturned economy, buying textiles readymade was on-trend. Five to ten years ago people in the quilting industry were worried because the avid quilters of my generation, the Baby Boomers, were aging. “Where will the next generation of quilters come from,” many asked, and with good reason since we now have an actual “Quilting Industry” employing many people. This question has also been answered in the wonderful new fabric styles and as the “joy of making” attracts new quilters who have grown up with computer keyboards under their fingers. The idea of making something oneself has huge appeal, and why wouldn’t it? The best thing about applying the joy of making to quilt making specifically is that what you have at the end of the process is… A QUILT!

What is next for you?

After the 2006 sale of the Fons & Porter Company and brand to New Track Media, now owned by FW Media, Liz Porter’s and my longtime business partnership ended. After three years of Liz and me continuing to host TV, I agreed to continue for three additional years because my daughter Mary Fons had dipped her toe into quilting. Now, both Liz and I appear with Mary on episodes that feature quilts we have personally made.

I still design and make six quilts a year for Love of Quilting magazine and TV, which I love doing. I sometimes represent Fons & Porter at national events for FW Media. I’m having great fun for developing lectures with my daughter, Mary Fons. My favorite project is work on my novel, “My Life with Shelley,” a novel about Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

More about Marianne

As Liaison to the Quilting Industry, Marianne proudly serves on the Board of Directors of Quilts of Valor Foundation. She is usually out and about on her busy teaching schedule or filming episodes, but you can keep up with her on her Facebook page; the blog Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting, and enjoy one of the many episodes of the Love of Quilting TV series.

Photo credits:

Marianne Fons photo (courtesy of IQSC at the University of Nebraska); quilt images are courtesy of Marianne Fons.

Back in October we visited with Tim Latimer and explored his prolific skills as a hand quilter. Guess what Tim does when his quilting hand needs a break? He creates the most beautiful snowflakes, mostly in paper but recently a spectacular snowflake in a cotton wholecloth quilt.

Tim noticed visits to his blog increased substantially whenever he posted one of his snowflake creations. He decided to take one of the designs, enlarge it to make a stencil, and embarked on making a 41-inch square snowflake quilt. Those who follow Tim’s quilting on his blog have been fortunate to see the quilt’s progress in greater detail, but we include a few illustrations here:

It starts with a stencil

Blue markup for the quilt

Work in progress

Tim used a 40-weight Precencia brand thread in an icy royal blue to add to the frosty tone of the quilt. The finished creation has resulted in Tim’s decision to create a pattern and make it available to fellow quilting and snowflake aficionados.

Semi-finished Snowflake quilt

He hopes to have it finished soon, but until then, try making this free snowflake from Tim. Better yet, for the price of a fancy cup of coffee, visit his Etsy shop and download his booklet of 9 snowflake patterns, along with step-by-step paper folding instructions and helpful guidance on how to create these masterful snowflakes.

Maybe next year we’ll have a wholecloth snowflake quilt show, but until then send us a picture of your finished paper snowflakes to us and we’ll share them on our Facebook page!

Photos courtesy Tim Latimer.

PREMIERS on KET: Monday, December 15 at 9:00 pm EST

Followed by airings on:

• KET: Wednesday, December 17 at 4:00 am EST
• KET2: Sunday, December 21 at 8:00 pm EST
• KETKY: Tuesday, December 23 at midnight EST
• KETKY: Sunday, December 28 at 1:00 pm EST
• KETKY: Sunday, December 28 at 7:00 pm EST
• KETKY: Monday, December 29 at midnight EST
• KETKY: Wednesday, December 31 at 7:00 am EST
• KETKY: Wednesday, December 31 at 8:00 pm EST
• KETKY: Thursday, January 1 at 4:00 am EST
• KETKY: Friday, January 2 at 6:00 pm EST
• KETKY: Saturday, January 3 at 1:00 am EST
• KETKY: Saturday, January 3 at 11:00 am EST
• KETKY: Saturday, January 3 at 9:00 pm EST
• KETKY: Thursday, January 8 at 2:00 am EST

Why Quilts Matter: History, Art & Politics episodes are also aired on KET/KETKY – click here to see the schedule of upcoming airings.