Everything old is new again in Mary Kerr's world

Vintage to some are those musty stained remnants of another era. A reminder of grandma's handiwork that is relegated to a cedar chest. We stand clueless as to how to rejuvenate them or integrate them into our current art, quilts or lives.

But for Mary Kerr vintage is the vision for something new and exciting. She challenged several friends and colleagues to use vintage and this lead photo shows Cyndi Souder's interpretation. Old certainly never looked so new! You will be surprised and amazed at what Mary can make out of something old....

Please welcome Mary Kerr in her own words. -- Dawn

I love all things old…. rustic furniture, old friends, driftwood at the beach and antique textiles.

Lots of antique textiles!

I have collected vintage quilts for years and have a large collection that travels with me to teach and lecture. In addition, I hoard fragments of quilts, orphan blocks, linens and sewing “stuff” ---- buttons, lace, sewing cards, etc. I have never been picky about condition and often find myself bringing home the runt of the litter --- that tattered piece that no one else can imagine as useful. My passion is to incorporate these cast-off pieces into contemporary quilts.

My work ranges from traditional to art.

I am not bound by a single genre as long I am able to incorporate my vintage pieces into each design. Stars for Grandma Kay (See Photo 2) was included in the IQA Quilts in the American Tradition exhibit that traveled in 2007-2008. The central appliqué unit was found in my Grandmother’s home and is circa 1940. I pieced the stars and saw tooth border using vintage fabrics and incorporated a fragment of a damaged Flower Garden top from the 1930’s. Only the black fabric was purchased new. It was hand quilted by Didi Salvatierra.

The art piece, I Would Dance (See Photo 3) was created for my local guild challenge. Each participant was given a fortune cookie and challenged to create a quilt inspired by the fortune. Mine asked, “What would you do if you had no fear?”

I created this piece using fragments of lace, linens, jewelry and buttons that had belonged to my grandmothers. The foundation is a scrap of a cutter quilt and the pieces are layered beside the image of me dancing.

This was my first vintage collage quilt and began a series of quilts that all incorporate those nontraditional pieces we find in our sewing baskets, jewelry boxes and dresser drawers. I love teaching this technique and watching as my students get excited about incorporating these treasured pieces into their quilts.

I will frequently work with orphan blocks and finish them in a variety of ways. This set of four small quilts was created during a beach retreat when I was playing with techniques and design. Each of the 11 inch quilts incorporated a vintage pink and white star block, circa 1940. Edisto (See Photo 4) features marbled fabric by Linda Cooper and found objects from my morning beach walk.
 
 
 
 
 

Happy Hour (Photo 6) plays with folded fabrics and button embellishment.

Tropical Smoothie (See Photo 5) showcases a woven technique with thread painting.

Pretty in Pink (Photo 7) is a cascade of buttons over a simple pieced background.

As I played with various sets of vintage blocks, I began to wonder what would happen if we divided a set of blocks among a larger group of artists?

Would anyone else want to work with the vintage pieces? In 2006, I sent out letters to a group of friends asking them to play with me. My invitees were an eclectic mix of friends and quilting acquaintances. Within the group we have art quilters, quilt historians, judges, appraisers, hand quilters, a textile artist and new quilters. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into as Vintage Revisited was born.

Over the course of two years, I distributed six sets of vintage blocks to these adventurous artists. The block was theirs to play with! Each artist received an identical block. They could add to it, cut it up, embellish it, recreate it, improve upon it, and more. The only requirements were that the finished quilt be their original design, that it measure 24 x 24 inches, and that the original block be included in the final project.

The second block in the challenge, shown here (Photo 8), is an Odd Fellows block from 1880. The color combination appealed to some of my artists and others were appalled. Here are a sample of their interpretations:

A Pennsylvania Sampler by Barb Garrett

It's About Time by Cyndi Souder

Two Roads Diverged by Pam Weeks

Not Odd Anymore by Karen Dever

There was a wide range on interpretations and every quilt was unique and exciting. I loved that we were able to create a challenge that allowed each artist to create in her own style. It is a project that allows everyone to participate at their individual pace, level and comfort zone.

When I started this project, my initial expectation was that we would display the quilts at a couple of shows. Today this collection of 117 has been exhibited all over the country and is currently scheduled to be traveling through 2014.

 

The single magazine article has blossomed into a wonderful book that captures the voices and talents of each of my artists. A Quilt Block Challenge: Vintage Revisited was published in May and is now available at my web site, through Schiffer publishing and hopefully at local quilt shops around the country.

Working with this group of women has been a joy and I am so very blessed to be a part of our amazing quilt community!

Check out Mary Kerr's website.

Susan Shie's Insightful "Philadelphia Freedom"

On first glance the background looks like a machine quilter gone mad with stippling. But on first glance you should also know that this is a Susan Shie. Her distinctive style is easily recognized. Every inch of this quilt is covered with words. Meaningful words that may meander across the cloth like stippling. But they are powerful, couched in emotion -- thoughtful rhetoric and carefully placed. If ever there were griots -- they are Susan Shie's fabric art. 

A true member of the hippy era, a step away from the Kent State shootings, and always, always, always, marching to her own drummer, Susan makes her voice heard, and loves fiercely. She's a true Subversive Stitchers armed with not only needles but courage and determination. And most of all she is the sweetest most generous woman I've ever had the opportunity to work with. Just know that she has a core of steel and will not stand down when it comes to defending what she believes in. We are so lucky that she has taken time to guest blog about her latest project: Philadelphia Freedom.

I believe the photos are self explanatory. The final two are of 1. Susan Shie and her Granddaughter Eva Miller and 2. Eva's depiction of her lemonade stand, etc. Another generation of the Shie talent growing before our eyes! -- Dawn

Susan Shie in Her Own Words

Lots of Baby Boom artists have designed their own Tarot decks. Mine is the Kitchen Tarot, which I decided to make, because it would allow me to work with many symbols of women, family, and nurturing. I believe that cooking for those we love is an exercise in the gift of healing, a supreme act of love. And it is my feminist choice to celebrate the strength that women pass from one generation to another, of providing for our families. Extend that out from the stove and table, to the community, the country, and the world. As the Communist Chinese used to like to say, “Women hold up half the sky.” (I think it was them!)

In making my Kitchen Tarot series of quilted paintings (art quilts), which I began in 1998, I’ve finished the 22 major cards, and am 5 art quilts into making the 56 minor cards. For the Major card quilts, I proceeded in chronological order, but for choosing which Minor card to work with next, I randomly draw a card from a traditional Tarot deck. This is because I think it would be boring to do all of one of the four suits all the way through, or one of the card numbers all the way through, etc. I like variety and surprises!

In the 13 years I’ve been making these pieces, their sizes and shapes have varied considerably, and they’ve shifted from being intensely hand stitched, mixed media, and beaded, to being very simply painted, written all over with tiny airpen writing with paint, and mostly machine, simple grid sewn. My art’s topics have shifted from being mostly personal diary imagery with a small amount of actual writing, to a mixture of personal, community, and world-events diary and imagery, with a stronger and stronger political lean since 2003.

Through the magic of Photoshop, all the actual Kitchen Tarot “cards” come out the same size, in spite of their physical disparity. The deck of my major cards coming out in August is a tidy packet of 3.5 x 5” cards, even though the actual art quilts vary from 32” to 93” high and are of varied proportions. (You can pre-order them now through Amazon)

In this blog I want to show you some aspects of the piece I began painting on April 10 and finished on June 4. “Philadelphia Freedom” is also my Kitchen Tarot card “the Two of Paring Knives.” Paring knives are my more kitchen-tooly version of standard Tarot’s Swords suit. Swords sound military and violent, but paring knives seem useful and practical. I love my paring knives in my kitchen! (My four Kitchen Tarot suits, compared to the traditional Tarot suits are: Pyrex Cups for Cups; Wooden Spoons for Wands; Potholders for Coins; and Paring Knives for Swords.)

Early on in making this Kitchen Tarot series, I would concentrate on the meaning of the traditional Tarot card and interpret it in terms of kitchen symbolism, throwing in a little personal diary, whose writing I would hand embroider over. Now I work more with current events or situations from history, lacing them with my own diary thoughts and commentary.

Often now the Kitchen Tarot aspect is very secondary to the current events / history stories. The political side of me, suppressed after the Kent State killings in May, 1970, started coming back to activism in the early 2000s, and my KT deck has had to accommodate that shift. (We artists get to be the boss of at least our own work!)

In 2007 I began putting Barack Obama into my Kitchen Tarot and all of my pieces, my work became much more polticial, and Obama and politics remain as strong elements in my work. So let’s use President Obama as the way to shift from taking about the whole Kitchen Tarot deck to the specific piece that I just finished, “Philadelphia Freedom.”I knew I wanted to put Obama into my next Kitchen Tarot piece. But then I was asked to participate in Michelle Flamer’s exhibition project “The President’s House: Their Untold Stories in Quilts,” which is about President George Washington keeping nine slaves illegally in the President’s House mansion in Philadelphia, the temporary US Capitol during his and John Adams’ presidencies.  

I did a LOT of sketches to figure out how I would illustrate this historical fact, and one of my first ideas was to have Obama sit down with Washington and have something similar to one of those “beer summits,” to try to work out the problems. But that seemed not nearly serious enough, even though I meant it seriously. No matter how I wiggled it around, it was going to come off as humorous, which was not at all what I wanted.

In a March 27 drawing, I showed Washington with the slaves as birds in a cage, under the Liberty Bell, then turned Martha’s skirt into a cage with the birds in it. Many sketches later, on April 10, I decided to jump in and make my final decision about how to portray the Washington slaves issue, so I could demonstrate drawing on a large piece with an airbrush, for my students at my home Turtle Art Camp. 

That morning the students and I had met a woman in downtown Wooster, who was walking her Cockatoo, in a sort of baby-carriage/birdcage combination thing. And that threw me back to my earlier idea of Martha’s skirt being a birdcage. But as I got ready to paint, I made one more sketch: of a larger Barack Obama reaching down and opening the door of the cage, so that the slaves could fly out. These slaves were people with wings, and the woman with her Cockatoo was walking past. But the slaves looked like dead people, angels, since I’d given them wings. So I went back to the earlier idea of them actually being birds, but now they were escaping, thanks to Obama.

When I actually drew the images on my big blank cloth, using my airbrush, I wasn’t looking at the sketches, as I don’t like to get inhibited by trying to copy from my planning drawings. I like for the sketches to just help me develop my ideas, and then I like to just sail off into making the big drawing in free sweeping motions with my airbrush. I drew Martha, then George, and realized I didn’t have room for a much bigger Obama above them. So he became another bird, facing the ones flying up and out of the cage. I decided that he was the beacon of hope for the slaves.

After I made the airbrushed painting on the 82” x 72” fabric, I made a drawing of how the painting came out, since it didn’t follow any of the sketches much. It was after making that drawing, during a “library time” in our art camp class, that I got the name “Philadelphia Freedom” for the piece.

It is, of course, the name of an Elton John song, but it seemed perfect, to me, to serve as title for the piece, since slaves in Philadelphia were, at least in MY VERSION of the story, being freed.

Then I switched to taking weeks and weeks to write on the painting with my airpen and fabric paint. Washington’s slaves were the main story, and the secondary one was the murders at Kent State, for which this year’s May 4th was the 40th anniversary.

I never know what will end up as my writing topics, when I begin one of these Time Capsule pieces, essays of life as we move through it. But I try to include anything I feel to be significant, and it’s even better when there’s a connection to the work’s basic theme. I think Kent State and the President’s House have a common thread of the injustice of authority’s hold over common people. There are lots and lots of other current events stories here, including the start of the Gulf Coast oil spill and the new immigration law in Arizona.

It was after I showed my big painting on fabric to Michelle Flamer, that she mailed me a rubber stamp she had created years ago, for making a Juneteenth card. It said “Fly away,” and my piece reminded her of the stamp and the song “I’ll Fly Away.” I told Michelle that I would use the stamp on my piece somehow, but during the long time when I was writing all over the piece with my airpen, I didn’t add the stamp. 

When the painting was finished and I’d machine quilted it, I felt I still really needed to use that stamp. It would mean a lot to me, to collaborate with Michelle in this way, plus it would be fun to take the risk of using it, when the piece was done! I had never stamped on a padded quilt before, so let’s go!!!!

It worked, only the first time I stamped upside down by accident - right on President Obama’s face! After a short freak-out, I hit on the idea that this would be code for the slaves: Fly Away (upside down!) I flipped the stamp right side up, to stamp onto George and Martha’s faces, Martha’s ankle, and the hem of her skirt. I used red paint, so it would be very visual and look kind of cautionary.

To read my full statement about this piece, visit my 2010 Gallery on my Turtle Moon Studios site. When you read this statement, you’ll go through a list of some of the current events topics I wrote about, besides giving long explanations of the main event of this piece. You’ll see reference links to my airbrush painting development of the composition and to Edward Lawler, Jr’s articles about The President’s House. Please note that, though here I’ve referred to the nine people as slaves, the better term, as chosen by descendants of slavery, is “enslaved Africans,” because this shows them as who they were, before the condition of slavery, which was thrust upon them.

My writing used to be all off the top of my head, just like you’d write in a letter or email or diary. Since Obama’s campaigns, I’ve gotten used to adding long copied articles and speeches, sometimes verbatum, sometimes paraphrased. What I want is for people to really learn something, if they take the time to read my stories on my work. But at the same time, I have to anticipate that some, maybe most people won’t read any of my writing. So it has to work visually, as a design element in my composition. I try to make the writing flow with the shapes and lead your eye around the painting nicely.

I think the small words now take the place of the massive amounts of small embroidery stitches I’d gotten myself into, before I got my airpen in late 2002. By 2006 my fingertips were numb from hand sewing, and I had to back off. I started switching to machine free gridwork sewing in 2004, and after the hand numbness, have almost completely stopped hand sewing. To me, it’s the messages in my work that count.

If you’d like to see the photo essay of me airbrushing the painting for “Philadelphia Freedom,” (with photos taken by my students at my July, 2010 Turtle Art Camp here in Wooster, Ohio, most pix taken by Marsha Boasso, but also by Kathy Zieben and Bonnie Zieben), please visit here.  

Susan Shie

Wooster, OH 

Turtle Art Camps for Summer, Fall 2010 now listed

www.turtlemoon.com

www.susanshie.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/susanshie

www.facebook.com/susanshieturtlemoon

Divorce Quilts: Share your stories and your 'therapy' projects....

Fabric artists and quilters stitch up alot more than fabric with their needles and thread. In the article featuring Judy Coates Perez, Kathy York, and Katharine Brainard that I wrote for HandEye Magazine, these women made quilts as a form of therapy to get them through one of the most traumatic of times -- divorce.

I know these three women are members of an army of women and men who have used quilts and fabric to get them through to the other side of a life crisis, health crisis, loss or passage. I do hope you will share your stories with us and the quilts and projects you made to get through a rough time. It is important in this quilting and art network to be able to share the tough times as well as the good. You all know about my tough times. And I know I am not alone.

Please send your stories and photos to subversivestitchers@gmail.com or send a suggestion of someone you know and I'll contact them. I will post them all here. I'll be glad to link to your blogs and websites or relevant urls.

The photo here is Judy Coates Perez's "Take These Broken Wings" which didn't start out as a divorce quilt, but the message that evolved proved cathartic. It is one of two of her quilts featured in the article at HandEye Magazine.

Disappearing Nine Patch for ALS Challenge

I've been lax lately and apologize for not getting you fun and frivolous or exquisite and breathtaking or informative and awe inspiring blogs lately. My brain has been in a fog and as you all know I've become a caretaker.

My husband, a longsuffering patient man is heading for saint hood. No, he isn't dying!  At the moment he has regained most of his strength and has returned to work so now I'm more of a chauffer than caretaker. Hasn't quite got the strength back to do his own driving. Which is really difficult for both of us since 1. He doesn't have his hands on the wheel and is in control. 2. He sits in the back and mumbles directions or says things like 'there's a car mumble mumble'.... I freak out and yell, "What! Where?" And he replies, "There's one of those crazy cars that look like a box on wheels and is painted that glow in the dark green...."  And did I mention 3. He's not driving, I am.

Okay, maybe watchdog is a good term for what I do these days. Poor man. I am always watching for signs of problems. Remember that first day when you were totally responsible for your newborn baby and you would watch to see if it was breathing or poke him to make him move while he was sleeping? Yep, it is kind of like that. Keeping this man healthy is like herding baby chicks. They run in all directions darting out of control at a whim and sometimes the whole group switches direction like a little military unit and takes off for parts unknown. That's my husband's health. One day he's strong, standing and taking a few steps. Another day he doesn't even want to eat. His legs swell no matter what we do and his breathing always scares pulmonologists. This weekend we realize how quickly his health can turn. Just an hour or two watching a friend repair our water heater exhausted and dehydrated him. Of course he was sitting in the Florida heat in a stuffy garage without a bottle of water and too much pride or too little sense to ask for one. So he's recovering. More than you wanted to know.

Well, to keep my mind off of health issues (while I watch him every second) I began making a little quilt for Kathy Thompson's ALS Quilt Challenge: Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge. I'm running out of time. I think she's ending it in July. None of the terms I use for other people's quilts apply to this one. Not exquisite, awe inspiring, but definitely utilitarian and cheerful.

Most of all cheerful was what I was going for. I see first hand every day what a struggle it is to make his fingers move to button a button. I see the way he gracefully accepts that he needs help pulling up his pants and getting his shoes on. He's given up cooking, slicing and dicing. He doesn't have the strength to control the knife. He sits in a wheelchair or a lift chair and it is a rare time when he is standing and looking down on me when I am not beside him propping him up. He knows it will only get worse. There are simple things he can no longer do and breathe -- he cannot lean back or lay down without a breathing machine. Things we just take for granted. There is no cure. There is nothing to ease the muscle cramps and  random flashes of pain. There is a terrible future. He knows there is 100 percent mortality from this disease. And so does everyone who gets this diagnosis. So, I wanted a workhorse quilt that would deliver comfort and cheer. The hope aspect of this quilt is included in the prayers said over it while it was being constructed.

Anyway, now I need to figure out how to quilt it -- suggestions are welcome. And then bind it and ship it off to Kathy to give to someone who is quickly dying from this disease.

An elaborate quilt that would take months or a year to make would never do because most people die within a year to six years of diagnosis. That would be a lifetime! They go from a weakened grip or stumble in February to totally immobile, unable to speak or swallow by November and dead by December. Some last longer. But the decline for most is so rapid that Medicare has an expedited service for ALS patients. By the time normal red tape is cut through, they no longer need that service but have moved on to the next plateau. And our military, our fighting men and women have such a higher rate of developing this disease. No one knows why. But it is a fact.

My husband has a rare slow progressing form of ALS and it is inherited. He's lost several cousins, aunts, uncles and yes even a brother to this disease. We were assured at the time of his brother's death and our marriage that it wasn't a problem. Have kids, live your life.... We did. Now our two sons have a 50-50 chance of getting this disease. So we have a really strong reason to want a cure NOW!

If anyone is so moved to make a quilt for the challenge. Thank you. And if you want to donate funds to aid research, I beg of you. Please contact the ALS Association in your region and give so that we can find a cure. Since this is a neuromuscular disease, a cure for ALS could open the doors to cures for Parkinsons Disease, Muscular Dystrophy, and Alzheimers Disease just to name a few. By the way Ami's auction is going on right now -- until the 10th. She has some lovely quilts to auction to benefit Alzheimer Disease research. I've written a blog about my own brush with Alzheimer's as a remembrance to my father. It seems to have been well received. If you haven't read it, click on this link.

Well, I didn't mean to end this as a plea for funds for the ALS Association or Alzheimer's. It was just meant to introduce you to my lowly little quilt. And I wanted to promise that I will do better at posting to the blog. Thanks for all of your support and kind words and prayers and friendship.... If the disease continues unabated, it is only going to get worse. But that's a place I don't want to visit right now.

News Around the Quilting Frame: Judith Baker Montano's book wins award; AAQI gets new supporters

Raise those needles high in tribute to a fine woman whose work resulted in an award winning book. Congratulations Judith Baker Montano and Dragon Threads for winning this prestigious award. Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles recently reviewed Judith's book and featured Judith's guest blog. Below I've posted most of the press release from Dragon Threads publisher Linda Teufel. -- Dawn

Dragon Threads, publisher of textile arts books, has received the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Award™ for Best Craft Book for the book Fibreart Montage: Combining Quilting, Embroidery & Photography with Embellishments by internationally-renowned quilt artist Judith Baker Montano.

The book features full-color photographs of the newest mixed media techniques perfected by Judith Baker Montano, a leading expert on crazy quilting and embellishment.

Named in honor of America’s most cherished publisher/printer, the Benjamin Franklin Awards™ recognizes excellence by independent publishers. Publications, grouped by genre, are judged on editorial and design merit by top practitioners in each field. The Benjamin Franklin Awards™ are highly competitive and are regarded as one of the highest national honors in small and independent book publishing.


More than 4,000 publishers submitted books to be considered for the Benjamin Franklin Awards™ this year. All three finalists in the Craft category were quilting/needlework books.

Linda Teufel, owner of Dragon Threads, was on hand to accept the award at the Benjamin Franklin 2010 Awards™ presentation ceremony held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, on May 24, 2010. “I am thrilled about winning this award,” said Teufel. “It is an amazing honor for me, Dragon Threads, and author Judith Baker Montano!”

Dragon Threads has been publishing sewing and quilting books since 1994. This has been an especially exciting year for the company as Fibreart Montage also won the 2010 International Book Award in the Crafts/Hobbies/How-To category, given by JPX Media.

Fibreart Montage: Combining Quilting, Embroidery & Photography with Embellishments by Judith Baker Montano is available at http://www.dragonthreads.com/.

Other news happening around the quilting community:

The Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative Gains Allies


Through the "Rose of Sharon" Project conceived by quilter Sharon Pederson and her Nine Patch Media business partner Elizabeth Phillips, the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative will receive support. Companies partnering with Pederson in the Rose of Sharon project are supporting the AAQI. These Rose of Sharon partners include Martingale & Company who will publish Sharon Pederson's Rose of Sharon book due out this fall, Island Batik who is coordinating a "Roses of Remembrance" BOM (block-of-the-month) for quilt shops with fabrics used in original quilt, and Aurifil who is offering two Rose of Sharon thread collections.



Pederson's project premiered at the recent International Quilt Market in Minneapolis. More than 850 different blocks were digitally submitted by designers in 11 countries last year in an EQ6 online contest hosted by The Electric Quilt Company. Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims selected the final top 12 designs for Pederson's "Roses of Remembrance" quilt. Designers were asked to share their connection with Alzheimer's (if any).
The AAQI is very pleased to have these generous allies in the fight against Alzheimer's. The Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative is a national, grassroots effort to raise awareness and fund research. It auctions and sells donated quilts through the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt project and sponsors a nationally touring exhibit of quilts about Alzheimer's. The AAQI has raised more than $407,000 since January 2006. Ami Simms of Flint, Michigan is the founder and executive director of the AAQI, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation operated entirely by volunteers. She is a quilter. Her mother had Alzheimer's.

For more information on the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative or to make a donation, contact Ami Simms at AmiSimms@aol.com www.alzquilts.org.

In addition, AccuQuilt is offering licensed Rose of Sharon Go! and Studio Dies for all the Rose of Sharon appliqués, and Oklahoma Embroidery Supply & Design (OESD) has digitized Rose of Sharon blocks for machine embroidery and/or appliqué. Nine Patch Media has created a Rose of Sharon instructional DVD.

Wrapping the war wounded in a big quilt hug: Quilts of Valor Tink Linhart's story

When her son was deployed to Iraq, Tink and other parents of her son's United States Marine Corp group got together and made quilts -- 74 of them! Amazing dedication! And that's BEFORE she got involved in Quilts of Valor. Shown here is one of the 74 quilts the parents pieced and quilted. Note the second photo shows the grid key for quilt square placement. The third photo features a Marine Star pattern Tink made for Lt. Col. AJ Kostic, USMC.

Below is Tink's own story of her journey to quilting and beyond. And don't forget the contributions from her husband, Dick. -- Dawn

In her own words: Tink Linhart

I love quilts. I have always loved quilts. My first quilt memory was as a child visiting my parents’ friends at their Stowe, VT home. I was snuggled under several quilts in a tiny bedroom under the eves - feeling much like Laura & Mary in their Little House on the Prairie.


Like so many of my generation, I learned to sew clothing in home economics (sewing took, cooking didn’t). I started making most of my clothes -- still have that wrap skirt pattern (which might fit around one thigh today). I college I learned to crochet and do counted cross stitch, and continued to sew clothing, including a bathing suit that my parents wouldn’t let me wear until I added at least an inch of lace to the top of the bra.

I met my husband, Dick, in college (don’t recall if he ever saw that bathing suit). I even made a wild shirt or two for him -- reflective of the style of the early 70’s (am I a catch or what?) Being the ever practical and not particularly romantic guy that he was/is, in lieu of an engagement ring, he presented me with a used Pfaff 130 sewing machine that pre-dates me by at least a decade! (It’s a work horse and still my favorite machine all these years later).

Our first quilt creation was foisted upon us by my mother. When we announced our engagement my mother purchased yards and yards of calico fabrics. She graphed out a quilt design and for our first anniversary presented us with the box and the graph. All through graduate school Dick worked to re-design the flip side of the quilt, cut out the blocks, sewed three sides of the blocks together, turned them, and then neatly layered batting in that little pillow. Assembling this king size quilt got me a new Kenmore with cams so that I could piece the blocks together using a decorative stitch (after blind stitching all those fourth sides closed by hand). Dick finished the master piece by hand tying each square in five places. That quilt has travelled thousands of miles and survived years of wear, and one day will rest inside a duvet cover.

Flash forward 20+ years and we are waving goodbye to our son as the Marines drive him off into the July 2003 sunset, just weeks after his high school graduation. During those intervening years I’d added English smocking to my repertoire of hand crafts and created a handful of quilts - mostly “cheater cloth” baby quilts. I did managed to piece a Christmas quilt for us and quilt it with stitch-in-the-ditch quilting.

I took a leap and adapted the eagle quilt in Eleanor Burns Star Spangled Favorites and made it a two sided signature quilt for Jon’s graduation/farewell party. October 2004 found Dick semi-retired and loving his new job, Jon hanging around Kuwait awaiting the airlift into Iraq for the re-taking of Fallujah, and me gainfully Unemployed (and loving it), and having just been diagnosed with breast cancer. We were fortunate to make connections on MarineParents.com with other parents in USMC 1 / 3 and, ultimately, became part of the “unofficial” 1 / 3 parent group.

By February 2005, when our guys are finally heading home, we parents started talking about meeting them when they returned to their home base in Hawaii. Being in a radiation haze, I suggest that we make quilts for the families of our fallen (48 Marines and 5 sailors did not return from that deployment). The handful of us thinking about this had just about no quilting experience, but who cared? I started thinking wall hangings….

Pretty soon we’re just talking “whatever” and the quilts will include a large memorial square with the name, rank, company, and dates of the fallen Marine or sailor, as well as the EGA embroidered on it (EGA in this case is Eagle, Globe, & Anchor - the Marine emblem - not Embroiderer’s Guild of America).

Over the course of the next 11 ½ months, 3,317 10.5” quilt blocks came through the door of our little house and were squared on my cutting table. Using the floor between our living & dining rooms, Dick laid out 74 quilts. Another Marine mom tracked down a P&B white star on navy ground that we used for sashing in the 72 Memorial Quilts and the quilt for our most severely wounded Marine (the 74th quilt was a “thank you” to the wife of our sons’ executive officer for holding us all together throughout an exceptionally difficult and deadly deployment). The quilt rows were numbered, the quilts kitted, and they were assembled and then quilted by people from all over the United States and Okinawa.

During this time, I was introduced via email to Marcia Stevens (who came to our rescue and found long arm quilters for the remaining 20 quilts) and to Catherine Roberts, the founder and energy behind Quilts of Valor.

It took a year for me to emotionally heal from our USMC 1 / 3 Memorial Quilts Project; it took Dick a little longer. After creating some fun pieces, and having a blast with art bras, I was ready to jump in to Quilts of Valor.

Catherine Roberts founded Quilts of Valor in 2003. One quilt was presented that year. Her intent was to unite quilters in creating and presenting Quilts of Valor to any and all service members who have served in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, whether or not their wounds are visible, including TBI (traumatic brain injury) and PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). By August of 2009 over 24,000 Quilts of Valor had been delivered. In August our mission statement changed to include all those “touched” by any war. I haven’t seen official numbers yet, but I think I can confidentially say that 30,000 Quilts of Valor have been delivered as of the end of 2009.

Quilts of Valor is an all volunteer non-profit organization. We are about people, not politics. Our standards are high: all 100% cotton quilt shop quality fabrics, 80/20 cotton/poly batting (no 100% polyester). Patriotic colors are preferred. All quilts must be machine quilted - not tied - and have to include quilting beyond stitch-in-the-ditch. All QOVs must be nicely labeled (not iron-on stuff that peels off with little handling) and include “Quilt of Valor” and the names of those involved in creating the quilt. Sizes preferred are 54” x 67” up to 72” x 87” with 50” x 60” being the absolute minimum (remember, our servicemembers and veterans deserve our best work).

Each Quilt of Valor needs to include a presentation case -- simply a pillow case for transit and presentation. We ask that everyone involved in creating a QOV also include either a letter to the recipient or a journal (I know it can be a challenge to write a letter to someone you don’t know). Photos of the quilters and/or the quilt in progress are fun for the recipient to view. Recipients have told us that they really appreciate reading about the people involved in creating their quilt and the process. They are also very touched that a stranger would care enough about them to create a quilt.


What’s really cool is that if you’re a piecer - like me - you don’t have to struggle with attempting to quilt your creation -- we have long arm quilters who volunteer their time and talents to do what they like to do! You just go to the QOV website (www.qovf.org) and request a long armer! If you know of veterans or service members in your area who should receive a Quilt of Valor, but you don’t have one available, you can request one from the website. Should you have a completed quilt but don’t know who to give it to, you can visit the website and request a destination.

You can also use the website to find other QOV groups in your area. I do have to note that the website was hacked last fall and is still being re-worked. If you do not find what you are looking for, and cannot get a response to a question, please feel free to email me directly (tinklinhart@gmail.com) and I’ll get the information for you or find the person who can.

Dick and I are partners in our Quilts of Valor endeavors. He is actually the design eye behind this. Dick is also the one the quilt shop owners love to see coming -- not just because a man in a quilt shop who is not pouting is rare, but because HE is the one who starts pulling bolts of fabric and telling me what I need to purchase! (Eat your hearts out ladies!) The only down side to this aspect of our QOV partnership is that he is light years ahead of me in designs; it would take several of us sewing 40+ hours per week to keep up with him (interested in trying??? See my email address above!) After tiptoeing around all those quilts laid out on the floor, I finally gave Dick his own portable design wall. Now he’s talking about taking over one end of the basement (“Magic Sewing Cave”) and hanging a permanent design wall as well as having the portable design wall (help!!!)

We have had the opportunity to travel for Quilts of Valor. We made a quick overnight trip to St. Louis in June 2009 when Catherine & Gail (and her parents) were driving a van from California to Camp LeJeune, NC, picking up quilts along the way (videos of that adventure can be found on the blog: http://quiltsofvalor.wordpress.com/ ) We handed over 17 quilts that joined the 1,204 that were presented to the Marines of 1 / 8 upon their return from Afghanistan.

In August we joined a group of QOVers in Washington, DC. It was a wonderful opportunity to finally put names and faces together. During our personal behind-the-scenes tour of Arlington National Cemetery, Dick and I were thrilled to meet Cindy & Dave from Connecticut whose son had served with our son! We also found three of “our” Marines in Section 60 at ANC.

Thanks to Pauline’s efforts, several of us were able to have a short guided tour of the Pentagon to see the quilt Gail had created that was hanging in the 9-11 display case (the “sister” to that quilt had been presented that morning at the Women’s Memorial at Arlington). As Marine parents, I guess we would have to say that the culminating event was the reception at the Marine Commandant’s home, followed by the last Evening Parade of the summer.

Dick and I talk about Quilts of Valor at every opportunity, and that includes farmers’ markets and quilt guild meetings and shows. I am blessed in so many ways, and that includes a very creative printer who graciously keeps me stocked with my QOV business cards. I leave cards and information flyers everywhere - and have had calls/emails from folks who picked up my flyer in Duluth (never been there) or Ohio (haven’t been there recently) or Eastern Pennsylvania (ditto Ohio).

I post on the QOV blog and then post links to those posts on Facebook and Connecting Threads. I love what I do and I want to share this passion with anyone who will listen. What is more joyful than to get to play with fabrics, colors, layouts (okay, so Dick gets to do most of that), sing while I sew, and then present a quilted hug of gratitude to a service member or veteran?

Wrapping each of our wounded in one of these quilted hugs of gratitude sounds impossible, but it is simple. There are over 25 MILLION quilters in this country. If each of us creates one patriotic quilt we can hug lots and lots of veterans and active duty service members returning from the war zones (we’ve got over 3,200 recently home right here in Wisconsin!) Individually and together, we truly can make a difference.

Judy Niemeyer's signature design: Paper Pieced Points

One look and you know who designed this quilt. And anyone familiar with the designer knows this is a challenge for the paper piecer. Traditional in origin, but using today's techniques, technology and equipment to create a project in perfection, Judy Niemeyer brings us yet another year of her luscious, intricate and oh so beautiful paper piecing designs. And now she's joined us at Subversive Stitchers: Women Armed with Needles.

It was on the Subversive Stitchers facebook page that we had a friendly discussion of paper piecing that immediately pointed to Judy. Thanks everyone who contributed to that discussion which led to this guest blog.

The photograph is a quilt made using Judy's paper piecing pattern: Golden Harvest.

Welcome Judy!

by Judy Niemeyer

My family and I embarked on publishing paper pieced patterns in the late 1990s as a family project driven by my desire to see traditional patterns re-thought…brought into the modern world.

Photo: Cattails in the Meadow pattern, new for 2010.

My family, including my husband and three children, is much different from me. They are engineering and technology addicts. They believe in what I do, which I am grateful for, both as a business owner and as their mother! My daughter, Judel, has recently taken a role with the company as Business Manager. Bradley, my oldest son, is crucial to the pattern design process as he completes the drafting required to produce the foundation units. My youngest son, Billy, does graphic design and website maintenance and development for the company. My husband, Del, keeps the day to day computer systems running and helps out wherever necessary to keep the company moving. His most recent endeavor was the extensive remodel of a building that I am excited to announce is the new home of Judy Niemeyer Quilting!

Photo: Bed runner in the Bali Wedding Star, new for 2010

I, on the other hand, spend most days working with my hands, perfecting details, and focusing my attention on what I can see, what I can mold, and what I can visually influence. What I learned by watching them function in their world while I functioned in mine, was that there is a place where these two worlds can come together…and in the quilting world, that place is paper piecing.


When someone asks me what inspires me, I often don’t know how to answer the question. I’ve even felt awkward in the past as it seems the world expects a “designer” to create by being “inspired.” In fact, I am almost never inspired by an idea, or a moment, a passion, a thought, etc. More often, I design by what I see in front of me at the time, and what I intuitively understand about the details necessary to successfully complete a project.
Photo: Celtic Wave pattern, new for 2010.

It’s true that I begin with something in mind, which is not usually a creative thought of my own, but rather something I’ve grown to love over time…something traditional and complicated that I think I can bring to everyone in a new way, and with techniques I’ve developed to make it possible for anyone to make.

Techniques I feel are critical to successful paper piecing include floating points, strip-piecing and speed-sewing, pre-cutting techniques that always keep your fabric cut on the grain and keep a quilter organized while saving time, and stepwise processes that take complicated ideas and break them down to keep quilters on track.

Photo: Barbed Rail Fence design for 2010.

Paper piecing helps to make sure that a design I create is not only beautiful, but is functional as well. Knowing that I can pass along techniques and tools to help organize quilters in a manner that leads to beautiful quilts over and over again is why I design and teach paper piecing. I feel so strongly about it, in fact, I doubt that in my life, I will ever create another design without paper piecing.

In 2010, I have a number of patterns that will be published that continue to build on ideas I’ve already had, along with some new ones as well.

We’ve redesigned color layouts, expanded the size of existing patterns, used units from other patterns in new layouts, and cut them up and combined more than one block together to present new ideas.

We’ve also expanded our list of table runners and are beginning publication of a line of bed runners to provide smaller projects to our customers without time to take on a full-size quilt or wall hanging.

We are even working with new instructors and a few select shops to roll out a technique of the month quilt, we are sure that paper-piecers will love!

Photo: Meandering Star Sampler new for 2010.

Many of our early 2010 publications will focus on quilts that lend themselves wonderfully to using up a stash of fabrics, focusing on color, value, and texture rather than a central fabric theme to communicate an idea to an audience.

The Coxcomb is my newest endeavor, bringing a traditional design pattern into the world of paper piecing. This project has been on my mind for over a year and I’ve had to change some of the paper piecing rules a bit to pull it off.

I’m excited to reveal this project in the coming months! I hope that it becomes a staple for quilters, pulling together paper piecing, traditional piecing, and appliqué. It is a true example of what technology has given to the world of quilters, with thoughtful consideration for helping even the newest of quilters to develop the skills necessary to complete it.

I continue to be proud of my part in bringing these designs to quilters in both the patterns that I publish and the workshops that I teach. I’m pleased when someone sends me a picture of a completed project or I hear that one of my patterns has helped them to win an award for their efforts. It’s a wonderful accomplishment to be recognized for being artistic and creating something that is a visual draw, particularly as it compares to others.
 
Photo: Weeping Willow quilt design, new for 2010.
 
I cannot wait to see where this endeavor continues to take us and look forward to many more years of designing paper pieced patterns in the quilting industry.  -- Judy Niemeyer
 
For a peek at more of Judy's designs and patterns, visit her website: Quiltworx.

Judy's daughter, Judel Buls wrote in answer to my question about Judy's involvement in sewing the quilts. She started out in her capacity as public relations representative and ended up as a daughter talking about her Mom. So here's Judel in her own words:

Judy has been making quilts since she was a child. She's been selling them since she graduated from highschool. She made quilts for others and handquilted them when we were in grade school. She is an unbelievably talented hand quilter, but doesn't have much time to do it anymore because she is working on her business. But, as part of the business, she does tons of sewing. She makes part or all of at least one of every quilt she designs.

Every once in awhile, she pulls a project aside for her own. She did that with the Hawaiian Star, the Amazon Star, now she's doing it with a new patterns she's working on based on the Coxcomb. The quilt will have a new paper piecing technique (at least for Judy's patterns) in it involving curved sewing lines in the units. It's something she hasn't put into her patterns before. She does all of the applique on the quilts she makes.

She is by far most satisfied with the finished product. She's usually up late into the night sewing and designing and she finishes almost everything she works on. Probably the one challenge she has been most happy in finding a solution for is when she started floating the points in all of her patterns.

Putting her older designs together can still be complicated because matching the points up is the most complicated part of many of her patterns. She spent a lot of time herself pulling seams and also helping her students learn to get the points in the right place. When she started floating them in the background, she not only cut hours of time out of her own sewing, but did the same for students. She spends quite a bit of time making sure that when people sew her units together in all her newer designs, that the process does not require careful piecing to accomplish success.

As far as I am concerned, I'm OK admitting I don't sew or quilt. I have done it a few times, but only for a really good reason. Everything I've ever done has been a gift and Judy usually finished it. I'm an engineer, a business manager, and a mom. -- Judel Buls