African American Quilt Guild of Oakland: Why I Quilt

hello everyone welcome my name is elena tinney and i'm senior art lab facilitator at vampire faye welcome to today's talk with loretta henry francis porter terry green and lakita tummings of the african-american quilt guild of oakland today we are honored to get the opportunity to host these quilters to hear about the process behind their work and their journey in quilting if you have any questions along the way feel free to just write them in the q a section below and they'll be read and answered at the end of the talk without further ado let me pass the mic to loretta henry of the aaq geo hello everyone how are you first of all i'd like to thank the museum for giving us this opportunity to share some information about our guild and could you go to next thank you uh this is our 25th anniversary of the guild and so we we're so excited to be able to share information about our guild and to highlight the work of three of our members next our guild was founded over 20 years ago by a wonderful lady named esther poncho she taught a quilting at a senior citizen organization and decided that she wanted to extend that craft beyond just teaching so she got together with seven other ladies and they formed a group uh they were afric african-american so they called it the african-american quilt group but they decided they didn't want to be like a sony circle so they put in the name ladies became a guild which was is a group that's dedicated to uh preserving the craft and keeping the high standards and educating its members uh next and so we have meetings to help to share our knowledge next please and we have lots of activities it's a wonderful group we have lots of com lots of friendship okay next the name oakland of course because we are located in oakland but it reflects the diverse population of the city itself our membership is open to anyone we have male members also so anybody you know fill out the the membership form and and that's you can become a member of our guild next the guild part of miss poncho's mission was not only to help the craft but to extend knowledge to share so we often go out to other groups like the senior citizen next we do programs at live public libraries we work with elementary schools next every february we have a major event which are called our family workshop where uh every families come in together uh they're each given a bag with different sewing items and then they can pick out a mini quilt that they're going to hand so next and they're actually and the members of the guild will sit with the families and show them how to uh make a nine patch quilt and even for the little ones as you can see in the upper right hand corner who can't sew they will be given a card and they can paste down make a place down their fabric to make their own little quilt next the other thing that miss pancho wanted to do beside outreach was we when we have exhibits our exhibits are not juried every quilt is our best quilt we have we've exhibit quite all around the bay area one of our exhibits for example called the neighborhoods coming together was featured at the national uh quilt museum in kentucky it included 100 quilts they were quilts made not only by members of the guild but we had quilts from elementary schools and different other groups next if you'd like some more information about the guild when this is over if you go to our website at aaaqo.org you can find any just about anything you'd like to know about the guild i would really i'm so happy that we are able to present three members of the guild and we're going they're going to introduce themselves and then tell something about their work so we're going to start with francis porter good morning i am african-american guild oakland francis porter i learned to sew my first dress as a child continuing to sew for many years using textures textures and color at the forefront there were no quilters in my family at age 82 my first introduction to quilting the guild's second president the late jar johnson brought her quilt show to our black history activity next joint offered to teach a beginning class in quilting well i wasn't interested because i wasn't old enough but two years later joy again was invited by our our black history coordinator gloria taylor who again joy invited us to be taught quilting well i guess i was old enough this time because i accepted and i learned to sew under this master quilting i have now quilted as gifts and donated for fundraisers over 100 quilts next i am indebted to joy not only for her teaching but her encouragement to expand my journey by entering a quote the underground railroad into the alameda county fair the fair quilt jurors critique made me feel like a pin cushion uh but the next year i wasn't deterred i entered another quilt with all the critiqued items noted called watermelons galore next this quilt was awarded first place in a local african-american newspaper arranged by my friend sandra williams and sandra has remained supportive of me on my journey encouraging me along the way i have continued to donate and to share my quotes at the fair having won several seconds and honorable mentions at the fair and this is why i quilt next i have used the underground railroad quilt to educate children in kindergarten fifth graders and the california cross point high school with 200 chinese students in assembly and they've been taught about quilting and its role in enabling slaves to escape sander arranged this visit to high school providing the necessary tools and pre-cut fabrics kindergartners and fifth graders are taught the art of quoting oops that's why i quilt i'm next next next i am a proud member for 77 years of alpha kappa alpha sorority and corporate founded in 1908. i mentioned this since it's important as to why i quilt our mission is service to all mankind i donate quotes for scholarships fundraisers and i volunteer for many activities my donation of the quilt irresistible was in a one in a silent auction for somewhere between 200 and 400 dollars for scholarships were college browns bound i'm sorry students the akas and the guild enabled me to socialize develop sisterhood and friendships remain alert active and involved that's why i quilt next my quilts range from sizes mug rug infant twin and queen techniques used include adapting free traditional patterns bought patterns paper piecing raw edge quilting stencils and computer generated images artist sculptor joe sam with his permission allowed me to use his computer generated images in public art off the wall which was exhibited in oakland's city hall and published in the guild's neighborhoods coming together quilts around oakland participation in exhibits is gratifying and that's why i quote as a docent for 20 years at the oakland museum of art next fews i have memories of some of the collections especially still life landscape and modern art and one such item is myrtle the turtle and of course i added a flower to myrtle and pearls to her necklace and that quilt included raw edge quilting next as mentioned the guild is multicultural multi ethnic and loaded with amazing talent as you will see in quilts by terry greene and laquita cummings my journey as to why i quote was enhanced by guild member my mentor the third president the late mariam coleman in 2018 marion was nominated by guild member or clay and awarded an nda national heritage fellowship the quilt at least the cover scene of the heritage program is a selfish quoted by marion marion's legacy to the quilt guild provides international exposure as indicated in the chapter entitled each one teach one it's an international publication by melanie fallock making a life working by hand being included and receiving this recognition is why next marion challenged guilt members to design a quote our quotes for the publication mentioned i draw only toothpick features and i thought i can't do this but then i remembered that i am both intrigued but i absorb the graffiti that i have seen not only locally nationally but internationally but i wonder why is it that the alphabet figures that i see in the graffiti seem to be all done by one person and so i googled graffiti alphabets and i found many images and so in my quote is graffiti art i used some of these images to make stencils which i use newspapers to draw and cut out i bought stencils and each letter seen in this graffiti art was cut three times the original in fabric the fusing and of course the ones that i had cut and i then ironed on and stitched each letter individually to form this quilt the question is graffiti art is best viewed in the in the art as art in the eye of the beholder my next please my journey was expanded nationally with inclusion of its graffiti art with other quotes of other members of the guild and the exhibit previously mentioned at the national quilt museum in paducah kentucky marion had communicated in advance that i would be visiting the museum and so you see what you see is the director of the museum the curio and one other member because they wanted to see who was this person who was 92 years old but didn't look it and so i ended up giving a tour not only to staff members but to other visitors at the museum this quilt is graffiti art along with marion coleman's oops i've got the name this little cowboy picture by marianne coleman i can't recall the name but that's okay if i don't remember you upperclear anyway those two quilts were requested and entered into an exhibit at the texas quilt museum in lagrange texas that again is why i quilt next my journey was expanded next oh i'm sorry our current president marie de force taylor challenges members annually to make a quilt to be exhibited in various venues around oakland and prior to covet 19 and decluttering clauses i designed my quote no mo shields drawing from shoe designer chimichu jerry chew i lined my five inch heels in red marie's challenges stimulate my creative juices at our monthly meetings her agenda allows time for show and tell which i've never outgrown and this is why i quote and finally the gratification felt in sharing projects for making quilts for family and friends and for continuing to provide fundraising services and other donations of my quilts i am grateful to the latest mention who assisted me on my journey of why i quilt and to my daughter lisa porter thompson who made my visits to the museums in kentucky and texas hospital and terry green it's your turn thank you francis so why do i quilt um it's interesting francis said this before no one in my family quilted and the only quote that i ever saw was one that was in my grandmother's closet and it was all folded up and used and it was something that had been hand quilted and it just surprised me it was like oh my gosh um why is it why is it on the floor so when i started doing quilting now on purpose and for purpose usually i'm inspired by something either something that i want to learn a new technique or it's a gift for a family member or a friend or i just quote just for fun next i started quote i started sewing actually eight years old i made the barbie doll clothes by pattern some of us are old enough to remember when barbie dolls had patterns that you could buy and they were just like regular clothes and all the little pieces and we couldn't afford to buy fabric so i went dumpster diving at a place near my aunt's house for fabric i sewed for most of my life up until college i even worked in new york fabrics but i still didn't quilt next the first quote that i ever made was when my daughter was born in 19 years ago and i said okay i'll make a baby quilt and i went to our local quilting store and took a class and it was probably the hardest thing that i've ever done in my life you know when you look at this quilt some of the points don't match up the lines are not straight but i love this quilt and it's one that i still have today i my daughter doesn't even have it i keep it next the second quilt i made was an underground railroad and my mom and i went to a local quilt store and they had a class and there were several of us from our my church um a few other people we all took this class together and i made the underground railroad quilt interesting enough my mom liked this quote so much that she's probably made about 10 of them and she's given them to her her kids and grandkids this um we have continued quilting for probably the last 15 years my mom and i and one of the pieces that was commissioned or we were requested to make was for a church in sacramento and they wanted a cross and so ended up doing this cross and it was so um i would say fulfilling because i got a chance to visit the church and they had actually framed the quilt put it behind glass and put it in their prayer room next one of the other things i like to do or love to do are photo quilts and so um the first one that well the first one i did is actually the one that's blue and yellow and i did it for my mom it was for her 80th birthday and it has my mother her parents her sisters and brothers her kids and some of the grandkids and then later i did one for my husband and he wanted again to have his family members so it's him it's us it's our kids his sis his sisters and brothers and his parents i think doing photo quilts um certainly for you to leave a legacy kind of a family history um usually we have the photographs and a photo album when we don't look at them but here you have a quote and now you have pictures of your family to pass on but elite does leave a legacy for the people we love next i joined the african-american quilt guild of oakland probably about 11 years ago it may have been longer than that and here's where the fun comes in this is a great bunch of quilters we have retreats there are challenges there's community service but they're such an incredible talent of quilters who are so willing to share their expertise and this was um one of the first times doing an art quilt under the direction of marion coleman for the neighborhoods coming together um exhibit and i created a bay bridge quilt um for this exhibit and what was interesting is that the original one was sold it was hanging up in a gallery in oakland and it was sold and then mary and everybody know that hey um go to the national quilt museum in paducah and so probably within a couple of weeks i reproduced the quilt i made another one so that it could get uh it could go as part of the exhibit and it also hung at i think it was pacific international quilt festival but that was so much fun so much talent i mean marion guided us and it just was an incredible opportunity i really wish that this entire collection of quilts as part of the neighborhoods coming together could exhibit um somewhere in oakland or berkeley or or somewhere because it's such a phenomenal piece of work from the guild that it really should be seen again and you know one in particular that i always love is the uh one a piece done by jackie houston of the guild hands up don't shoot and then also my mom did a replica of el capinell building at mills college but if you just see the body of work from this collection of neighborhoods coming together you'd just be amazed as well and again most of us that worked on some of the quilts were traditional quilters not art quilters and so that just led us on a different journey next slide please in 2019 i participated in a year-long monthly workshop with sue fox where you would make one piece of art work each month for 12 months uh several uh guild members participated in prior years and i saw their finished work and i really got interested and so this workshop uh coordinated by soup fox included artists from all over the bay area most of them were not quilters some of them were did painting they did ceramics photography but what sue did was to challenge us to create and be creative and each month she would give us the challenge and so i ended up um trying my hand at making portrait quilt blocks and at the end of the day at the end of the year we we had a show at bay quilts in richmond and it was so much fun and so what you see um are some of the quilt blocks that i did for this particular show next so um getting back to being on and for a purpose uh in 2019 in particular i was really troubled and inspired by some of the events that were going on um in the world and i did a series of blocks um called reality check and in this one i was particularly bothered by all the gun violence that was going on um some of the black lives matters issues that were being raised there was the whole karen syndrome that was going on and also a little the lies that were being told by the former president but this block in particular is titled guns don't kill people do and so now i guess i need to update it to include you know going grocery shopping and going to spas but um right now you know sometimes my quilting just involves getting out feelings that i have about historic events and current events that are going on that i just have to do something and say something and then i can put it away but this particular quilt there were four blocks um i was this one got a chance to be exhibited at the d young museum so i was really happy and surprised about that next so going back to the quilting guild um when we received the 20 by 20 challenge so it was the 20th anniversary of the guild and we needed to make a block that was 20 by 20 and i started thinking about what is it about the guild that i really love and besides all the people and it made me think about just the diverse of the quilters the diversity of the women and of course we have men and i probably should update this to include men but i started designing this quilt and i found um a piece of clip art on etsy actually i bought it and got permission to use it but i found this piece and modified it and created my blog celebrating the 20th anniversary of the guild and so next um slide initially when i shared it to a facebook group called black girls quilt by the way that has over 6 000 members to get some feedback about the background color based on the responses i changed it to the green sherbert and so the rest is history so here was my contribution to the guild's 20th anniversary and it's one that i quilted myself and embellished as well so i was really happy about that next so another reason i quilt again gifts for people in one of i call her my knees but my niece was having a baby her first baby and asked my mom and i to make her a quote so after we sat down and talked with her at my mom's house we just sat down and we kind of drew out what we thought the quilt would should look like and what i remember about it and i'm always trying to tie a quilt that i make for somebody to that person is that this baby was going to be surrounded by so much love so i just wanted to have these heart shapes on the quilt and just to remember and so this was the beginning of the quilt this part of the end of the quilt and on each um quilt that i make especially ones that i give to try to put a label on it um let's see next oh go back once so can you go back to yeah so this this particular quilt and the story ended up being i was able to share the story in quote folk magazine um i think it was back in october and so it was just something that i was really happy about but just showing the process you know a lot of times we make quilts by pattern i do sometimes use a pattern but a lot of times i'm just designing what's in my head or what i'm led to believe is is should be done for this particular quilt next so just recently back in may with a pandemic and everything going on i started my journey of machine embroidery and i've made three quilts thus far but this particular one is one that i did for my auntie it was her 95th birthday and she is the of the church lady the church hats the church dressing and so i really wanted to do something special for her next so here's here's the um entire quote um it has all the hats because she she's definitely a hat lady but it also has um scripture verses bible verses i'm included and what's interesting about this particular cooler at least my auntie is that my auntie is 95 years old she her mother quilted and made quilts for her entire family but on emma never learned how to quilt and there's only one quilt that she has that was from her mother and she gave it to me and that quilt is all hand hand-pieced and hand-stitched it is just absolutely beautiful and so i needed to make something really special for emma in exchange for the quilt me so this is what i gave her next so another reason why quilt is for purpose and i'm currently working with sarah trail at the social justice sewing academy and sarah and her team work in the school system the prison system community centers to make blocks that focus on social justice issues and one of her latest projects is the remembrance project where they folks are making quotes of people who were victims of violence whether it was gun violence or or some other kind of violence and she looks for volunteers she has a group of volunteers that make blocks they embroider the blocks they long arm the blocks and like me i help to finish them by completing the binding so that the banners can be hung in various places next so this is just an example of one of the ways that you can give back or quote on purpose and while i'm not making these blocks it certainly is um cause to help finish these blocks next so she has a database unfortunately of over 4 000 people who have been victims of violence so if you're looking for a worthy cause project and you either want to make a block or in border or help finish look up the social justice sewing academy on instagram or their website next while i have ventured into making art quilts i still do like make making traditional quilts and my latest was um a double wedding ring from a class that i took and started with jeanette walton who was also a guild member and an incredible paper piecing talented person i started this quote in february of 2017 um got really frustrated making it put it down started it back up during the pandemic i finally finished it in march of this year um after and i sent it out and had it um custom quilted and and finally finished it but this particular quilt has 36 rings four blocks each and a total of three thousand 3 456 individual pieces um it was definitely a challenge next and so it was the i've had a lot of quilts um quilted but this was the first time i had one that was custom quilted and if you ever get a chance to do it one time it's it's a wonderful thing but i mailed it to a long armor in tennessee and um she worked with me through zoom um and we just walked through how she should um custom quilt it so i was really happy about that but it's also one of the only three quilts that i've ever hand stitched the binding on and because i only do by machine um next but yeah this one is a keeper i i love it i'm going to keep it i think i'm going to gift it to anyone but um i finally did finish it i'm really happy next slide so again why i quilt i usually quote on purpose with a purpose and to have fun and something that i think francis said earlier was each one teach one and so we i think it's a great idea and also i'm so thankful to so many people who have reached out to help you either through facebook groups um bonnay helped me and mary wright helped me with him i can think of countless people ann robinson jackie houston dolores in the guild who have helped me with just but at the end of the day it's all about having fun and i love it and so with that i'd like to turn it over to lukita tummings and um she could talk about why she quotes okay so i'm up my name is laquita tummings and i've been quilting for a really really long time i've been creative all my life all of my siblings are creative my grandmother quilted my mother taught me how to sew when i was probably like 10 and and i have what is commonly known as a craft addiction anything that's colorful catches my eye and and that's that's what i do so i like the satisfaction of creating the things that i see in my mind and so what i'm going to do is i'm not going to talk as much as those other ladies i'm really going to show you what the things that the quilts that i've created so we're going to look at some of my quasi-traditional quilts some of the stuff that i've done most of my quilts are my own design i hand piece i hand applique and i hand quilt i don't have any machine rendered quilts at all so everything you see i've done by hand and along the way i'm going to talk about you'll see the colorful stuff that i've done and how i've kind of transitioned to my creativity how i was thinking of things two-dimensional and then how do i i think about things so i took a to digress i took a class with a woman named susan ellis and she was using fabric as a medium of sculpture and that has kind of tweaked what i do when i quilt so i'm going to show you my first couple of quilts there kind of traditional and i'm not again i'm not going to spend as much time chatting about them so you'll get to see them and then we can move from there so next first quilt i ever made you can see how the black cotton fabric has disintegrated that quilt was made in 1976 and again it's all piece by hand the polyester salomon pieces have held up really well over the years the rest of it not so much next this quilt is called my heritage i did a lot of fussy cutting it's based on a quilt that i saw when i was 17 and my grandmother had made it but we didn't i didn't bring the quilt home but this is kind of the result of that and that's the reason why i quilt i saw the quilt she made and i was very excited about it but this is kind of my take on it next gold thread you can't really see it here but again i was doing kind of my own thing there are faces all around and there are actual images that i took from a book about african fabric that are kind of embedded in that next so this is just another view and again it's based on a traditional broken star pattern for the quilters you kind of get the idea that that's what that is next this is uh the information on the back of the quilt next this one is applique i really i'm not a linear person i don't think linear i like curved lines so i prefer applique because it allows me to create those curved lines so this is a really big quilt it's the largest quilt that i have ever made it's 109 by 90 inches it's really big next and again this is embroidery again as a as a person who has a craft addiction anything that's colorful will grab my attention and it's it's from matthew 6. next this is again a kind of traditional aspect it is based on the baltimore album quilts i didn't i wasn't really a fan of the white background i prefer the black because the colors pop most of these blocks are my own invention um i want to say like maybe four of them or not next so again the details that are in there i like flowers too because flowers are colorful next and again back to that metallic thread it's really a pain to sew with but it just gives a detail next so then i started thinking about how because of how i process i always look at things as being interconnected and when i was doing very traditional quilts i had a tendency to do all over designs because everything is related so you can kind of see all the different elements and again more applique and to my mind it's kind of traditional but it's really kind of not next this is a close-up next so again back to applique still in that kind of looking at what i'm creating looking at my own creativity how you kind of move through this process from me so this is called the spirit of a woman next and this is just a detail and i'm beginning to incorporate kind of 3d elements you can kind of see the beating around some of it next and this is the information on the back next so the other thing that i have a problem with is shoes i stopped counting at 99 pair i have a lot of shoes so this is fetish footwear because again it can't go big go home so there's a bag you can see all the shoes and they are basically based on shoe designs of that time next my niece saw it saw that quilt and she wanted a shoe quilt as well so this is called nikki's closet because this is that's the name of my niece and so these are again shoes that are based on real shoes that we we don't own because couldn't afford them but in the top left corner you see the converse those converse have her actual shoelaces in them so i took her shoe laces i bleached them and then i put them on there so this is called nikki's closet next so the next couple of quilts i'm going to show you are taking one idea and taking that idea and putting it using it a little differently this was a commission i did for my former boss so we talked about it these are images again that i drew that are on this it's called our legacy so you can kind of see at the bottom and as they go up through there the people become more modern so it starts with um sojourner truth harriet tubman and it kind of goes through the history of that on the back of that quilt which there is an image of it has the names and it has their date of birth and their date of death so next so because i have made quilts in the past and and people have gotten them and then i felt bad because then i didn't have a quill anymore so as i created her images i created images for me so this is again an interpretation of the same kind of idea so i have a few more faces than she has and one day i will actually get the names and the dates on there but i got lazy go figure but the names and the dates are on the back next so this is this is a same idea this image i drew the image and then i interpreted it two different ways so this is called black beauty next and this is the exact same drawing rendered a little differently so again they look different but they're based on the exact same pattern this one is called looking forward and again taking the same idea next and you can you can see some of the detail next and this is actually a picture of my son so the images kind of face each other in the cameo so i have hers looking one way i have him looking the other way and this is called so the first one was looking forward and this is the future so my daughter's actually two years older than her brother so she was a first he was the second and the quilts are actually 10 years apart next so this is the same idea i had a drawing i rendered it and then i interpreted it one way this one is called goddess and um and i didn't mention i have i had some quilts stolen this quilt was stolen along with spirit of the woman and the mystical journey they they they're out in the universe somewhere somebody has them i would really like to get them back so if you see them please let me know so this is an image that i rendered next and this is a close-up in the detail how i created her face is one way next and so this is the exact same drawing and again how i use it as a pattern to render it a little differently so the ideas for this one was a little different the previous one don't go back was called goddess and this one is called madonna and the idea at the time was it's the same image the same idea of woman and how it's portrayed or that divinity is portrayed differently in our society so the next one so this is a close-up and again incorporating beating looking at kind of adding a different element to a two-dimensional surface next and it's called human pieces it was for an actual um call for an entry and i never i never submitted it because i couldn't make up my mind which image which one of those three pieces i wanted to use and i ended up incorporating them all into simply one piece so they're all puzzle pieces and again i think the idea that we are all different things we all have different pieces that create the whole the the same idea taking one idea or image and looking at it differently next this is a detail next and so thinking about how i got from my very first quilt to pieces i've created recently again the idea of exploring two dimensions and then taking it and expanding it into a different dimension or bringing that image off of the surface what does that look like and i've done more and more and more of that recently this quilt was completed in 2015 and it follows the same idea um this is called natural and later on you'll see some more details but there's also beading in the design i wanted the idea again of a portrait but how do you bring the portrait off of the two-dimensional surface so i have ants on there years and years and years ago i picked black-eyed susans off the side of the road and put them in a base and then two days later i had ants everywhere so the ants really really like the flowers next and again this is a detail and the ants are embroidered next and every time i see this image i want to pull that piece of thread off of it next so natural is the first in a series next this is the second one it's called fly so i have natural and i have fly these are if you came up in the 70s you would know what these terms are and how they kind of apply to things so you remember everybody who remembers platform shoes you remember what was fly and of course there was always superfly there are every butterflies three-dimensional um and there's over a hundred of those puppies so and on the back which i don't have a picture of is pieces of butterfly fabric next so again all of the butterflies are three-dimensional again exploring the idea of pulling that off of the the two-dimensional surface what does that look like next yeah it's a lot and the border is beaded and the border is heavily beaded next next this is roots and this is the last one in that particular series so again if you think about natural natural we had naturals and if you went to sleep without bringing it up you'd be mad then there's fly and now there's roots and again it's three-dimensional the border of this particular quilt is heavily beaded and you can see and actually there are different things in here and you probably won't be able to see them because i don't think i have pictures of them there's a butterfly there's a ladybug there's a spider there's a spider web and there's actually a door and i don't have a picture of the door next and you can again see how the leaves come off of the surface and their branches this piece is actually incredibly heavy next and you can kind of see the spider web next so again um all of the leaves and then you can see the butterfly okay well i guess we're up to q a now all right i'm gonna open up the q a and if any questions occur to anyone feel free to add your question to the q a and it'll be addressed so first question i have for francis porter and the question is are the letters hand sewn or machine sewn on your quilt the letters are all machine sewn thank you so next i have a question that was directed for terry and the question was was your aunt surprised um and if you need any reminder of what that could be in reference to i could ask the we could ask the person who asked the question to elaborate as well i'm sure it was they were talking about the church lady the church lady quilt she was very surprised i mean she had no idea that i was making it and all of the images reminded her of herself and we gave it to her at her little birthday celebration um at a i think it was that we went to and that quilt sits in her living room right now not that she's having any visitors but if someone ever comes over they'll be able to see it but she loved great thank you terry the next question from the same person was directed for liquida have you always done calligraphy yes i have always done calligraphy um but i've always drawn too and another question for you um what's the next series you're working on oh i actually i was a part of the 12 by 12 and i didn't show those pieces um i have a series of anatomical hearts um and there are right now i think they're 20 of them that would technically be the next series they are they're relatively small 12x12 is actually not that big in the quilting world um and then how to kind of get them all together great thank you um and this is a question for everybody if you want to kind of take it one by one how many of the presenters long arm themselves to someone else long arm for you i everything i do is my hand i do my own stuff i don't send my quilts out i i hand piece hand applique hand so all of my stuff is hand so i don't have anything that's machine quilted everything you saw i created by hand so that that's i don't do that we have these we have the incredible ladies in the guild and my first quilt was long arm was by theresa whalen and i have learned how to do long arm however i don't own a long arm so that i quilt on machine or i have my quilts professionally done by again guild member pat bailey and i've also used another long arm quilted melissa quilter happens to be her name but i don't do wrong on quilting myself i do machine quilting but not long and and for me when i first started out i was sending everything out to the local quilt store and they were doing the long arm for me and the the very last quilt that i showed which was the wedding quilt i had that one professionally done custom quilted but it but in between that i i learned how to do my own machine quilting and so i either do it on my sewing machine or i have a sweet 16 that i do it on and so the um the 20 by 20 the quote guilts 20 by 20 the quilting he was i did that one myself so i'm i'm not great at doing it i think it's one of the things that i'm going to focus on you know the next couple of quilts is getting better at free motion quilting myself great thank you everyone next question all of your work is beautiful do you copyright it or make pictures to sell do you keep a notebook for inspiration and spur of the moment thoughts well i'll start i just recently started to keep pictures or put them all together of all the quotes that i've made and at the encouragement of one of my friends who said oh no you should you should have a biography and so i started doing that i i haven't copyrighted anything um just just haven't done that at all but i but i am starting to put them together pictures but also what's interesting is i like to do when i quilt i take pro progress photos so how i started in the beginning you know maybe some photos in the middle it just just to show the journey that i'm on and for now it's just for me personally i just keep it on my computer but um that's how i do it and so it's funny because you don't realize all the quilts that you've made until you start looking for the pictures and then you wish there were some if you had taken pictures of because they're gone you remember doing it but it's been given away i use my cell phone and my tablet to photograph some of my quilts but the one thing i have found is that they're all over the place and i really someday i'm going to learn how to put them in an album although apple has put some in an album but not all in an album and i've got to learn how to do that i'm not technology competent let me see it that way i um i don't i i have designs things that i've designed images ideas some of them i've gotten as far as drafting them out but i have way too many ideas and so i don't i don't really i don't keep track of them in that that particular manner i have a lot of pictures i the one thing i can say about cell phones is i do like having the ability to take the process pictures that's great not having to wait to have them developed because that's how it used to be in the old days so i have a lot of pictures um that are actual physical pictures and then i have the digital images and like you francis i got them everywhere and to get them together for this it was a challenge what i but but i don't i don't take good pictures um some of the pictures that you saw were professional photographs i will pay to have some of my stuff professionally photographed because i'm simply not good at it and i was really excited to find out that some of the quilts that i had that were stolen i actually have professional pictures of them and it's nice to be able to say oh i've forgotten about that and i have a lot of i have a lot of quilts and i have a lot of images of my quilts um but there's a lot of stuff that i just never took pictures of and it's just gone so i it's nice to have it it's nice to have i wasn't so that i could share that with you so but i did have the newspaper and so i simply took my cell phone and made a copy from the newspaper so it's not really very colorful but the actual quilt itself looks like a slice of watermelon in many of the blocks thank you next question could the quilters tell us their favorite work done by someone else that that is tough um i have so many favorites and so you're gonna you're gonna get us in trouble if we have to just choose one um but there but um there happens to be one and she knows that i love this quote but jackie houston did one called hands up don't shoot and it was part of the neighborhoods coming together and i love that quilt i wish you would give it to me or let me buy it but that's that's one i'm sure i'll think of a whole lot more um but that's that's one that just resonates with me and i i love it i love a lot a lot of quilts but you you ask for one i fully agree and i have to say i don't recall the name but marion coleman did one of the big firestorm i think was about 1989 or so or whatever year and it was also in uh the quilts around oakland and i love that quilt and when you see it there is no question in your mind as to what you're looking at it really is that fire storm that is actually my favorite oh recently i've seen visa butler she has some very interesting quilts i like hers and faith ringo um you know she has some wonderful pieces as well there are a lot of there are a lot of i don't have a favorite quilt or favorite quilter if it's colorful and bright um there's an excellent chance i'm going to be drawn to it great thank you laquita we have a question for you how long did roots take you and this is from diane she says i'm fascinated by your handiwork ruth there's actually a kind of they're they're all kind of overlapping um i am not a monogamous project kind of person um as something hits me i'll start working at it work will happen or something will happen and it will stop um approximately two years but really maybe if i work straight through it's one thing but but i'm always juggling pro projects i'm always in the middle of something actually my real thing right now is knitting so i got like four dating projects and that's just that that's that's just the one thing my niece who wanted the shoe quilt she's pregnant so she's got baby quilts coming down the pike knitting blanket i mean so approximately i would guess and say approximately two years um technically from beginning to end it might be more it might be less but um working on it on and off it was about two years thank you i have another question for you um do your leaves have interfacing to give them structure so it's funny a couple of years ago i did a class at the guild on how to construct it so to a two a two dimensions a two dimensional element is flat when you're trying to create something that's three-dimensional then you kind of have to take different things into account some of the leaves actually have wire in them so it's the wire is placed on like a tim text or a pellon a stiff pellon and then you cut the leaves out there are actually several you can like with anything else there's a lot of different ways you can do it so for the leaves that have wire in them you wire them up and then you you put the fabric on the top you depending on the shape the leaf you kind of sew around it um but there is indeed for almost all of them there are leaves that are actually appliqued onto the face and so those are flat the other leaves that are dimensional they do have um like a temtex or repellent a stiff cracked uh interfacing in between some of them have wires don't so it really just depends um but most of them yes most of them do and then the leaves are attached to branches they're actually branches on there and the branches are heavier than the leaves but the branches also have wire in them that allowed me to shape them so again all that that makes it heavier it makes it heavy and on the entire back of roots it's a whole i have a whole piece of reinforcement because if it were just the fabric it would actually lean forward so i've had to put there's a big piece of palin or text 10 text on the back to to hold kind of hold it stiff because it it really is happy [Music] thank you um terry i have a question for you what is a sweet 16 oh it is it is a mid arm they call it a mid arm so a long arm quilting machine you're standing up and you're you know you're quilting your your quilts a mid-arm you sit down and it's like a sewing machine but it's a little bit larger and it has a larger throat space and moving the fabric with moving the quilt with your hand to um free motion quilted but it sits but you sit down great thank you i have a question for everyone as you've moved from traditional to more dimensional works and crafts over the years what do you see yourself exploring next in terms of your pieces so i'll start i i have so many ideas in my head of things that i want to do um just like laquita said you know you stop thinking about them because there's just so many things floating around but i i would like to try my hand at using more african fabric in my quilts and i also am interested in in doing a little bit more free motion quilting by machine i i just don't do a lot of work by hand you know but i explore free motion quilting a little bit more i still like doing the art quilts as well and i just think there's so many things out there to explore that tomorrow i might feel different and i'll just try it you just you just try everything all right you terry just mentioned african fabrics and you may note that with me there's african fabrics in the quilt that's behind me now and that is fabric by julie khan i love making quilts with african fabrics because i love the colors and i have found that the quilts that i donate for fundraisers have actually had more people who at a silent function are at a raffle will be more competitive when they see the colorful african fabrics however i'm now using a lot of panels because now a lot of the young people whom i know are having babies and so i like to make a quilt with someone in mind and who am i going to welcome into the world with this quilt so i use a lot of panels that i but then i do all of the machine quilting myself and i do a lot of borders that has other patterns that i use in the border around them so that's where i am for the most part but who knows i'm actually awaiting a class to be given by laquita i would love to learn the technique of three-dimensional you can't see it in the photographs but they are awesome that is all i can say and i'm awaiting the end of covet 19 shelter in place so we can meet again in person to person i have asked her this before and i'm throwing it out there for her to hear the queen oh thank you miss porter for throwing me under the bus um yeah we'll certainly see what's coming up um i um i'm gonna retire this year yay yay to me um so that will certainly free up some of my time and and not totally adverse to the idea of of showing people what i do um i'm not the most structured quilter um sharp points and i have i actually didn't show them but i have pieces um that literally have thousands and thousands of little tiny pieces sewn together um and and for some insane reason i do do that um but i'm not i'm not the most technical quilter i'm like does that does that look like it could work i can do that um in terms of where my work is going i i'm not sure i promised my children before i left the earth i would try and use up the 20 containers of fabric i currently have in storage that's not what's in my house but then i still have like beads and then i have several containers of yarn um i actually have polymer clay that i haven't explored yet um if if there is a colorful craft item i probably own it i have a lot of stuff so my plan is to use up my stuff as much as i can um and and and is whatever that looks like then that's what that looks like between the beads the fabric the yarn the floss the all of that i i got i got i got a lot of stuff so my plan my creative plan is to use as much of it as i can for as long as i can that's that's my own my own creative drive i don't have any anything in particular because i'm gonna go squirrel you know i'm knitting one minute in the course of a day during the pandemic when i was home i'm quilted needlepointed um knit um ended beating all in one day so i'm squirrel like that thanks everyone um next question how do you manage your creativity how do you manage feeling overwhelmed how do you handle feeling like you'll have enough time for all of your ideas there isn't enough time for all of my ideas um there's just simply isn't because i'm always getting new ones i see something else and i'm again i go squirrel i was like oh um i actually wish i had learned i learned how to crochet when i was 10. so that that's over that's a long time ago we won't say happy that's that's older than alana she's not older i've been crocheting longer than that so but the point is um there just isn't i think people have said to me and on the back of my heritage there are these words people say oh well you must have a lot of patience and i really really don't um raising children requires patience working for the government for 27 years requires patience when you are doing what you love when you're doing what excites you when you're creating your passion it doesn't require patience now it does require time but it doesn't require patience so when you when you determine for yourself what is important to you then those are the things that you seek those are the things that you run behind those are the things that you make a priority for you so for me i want i'm going to always have too many ideas like i said my goal is to use up my materials and hopefully not not by more um i want i want to spend my time doing what's important to me which is why i think in light of the pandemic in light of um the fact that once you close your eyes for the final time you don't get a do-over so how do you how do you make most of the time that you have what are the things that are important and this is my commercial my psa i'm gonna get on my soapbox and then i'll get off we have a lot of things that are distracting pinterest is distracting facebook is distracting instagram is instructs from the time that i have i don't own a tv and i don't watch tv because it's a distraction there are so many things that that our modern life feeds us that we don't always step back and take the time to determine for ourselves a what is important and b am i going to really make that a priority so it isn't it isn't a matter of having enough time it's a matter of prioritizing the time that i have and making sure that i make the best use of my time yay retirement i'm off my soapbox i would have listened to repeater look i'm sorry laquita uh i think all of us could open up a fabric store or a craft store because i don't know of a quilter who doesn't have more fabric than they'll ever use in this lifetime uh i have tried to use my stash in all of my quilts recently because i'm simply deciding that i'm not going to purchase another piece of fabric and yet i find myself using amazon and google and one more piece of fabric because i need that color but what my goal now uh is as i have done over the years is to make a quilt for members of my family which is not too large however i make a quilt and give it to them something to remember me by and so i'm still trying to get to many friends and a few relatives that i haven't gotten to yet something to remember francis spot and after all you have to think about how old i am by now is you know if you saw and you registered you know how old i am okay i don't i don't think that um most culture shortage of creative ideas i mean every time you open up a magazine and and i do happen to go on facebook or you know there's a couple of great facebook groups um black girls quilt quilts i think is one but i see so many things and i make a mental note to myself oh i want to do that one day oh i want to try that another day and i probably have different types of projects going on at one time usually three and there's probably three more that are that i'm thinking about um i agree with laquita it's there really isn't enough time in the day but it's how you use that time um and you know whether it's in it 15 minutes a day or an hour a day just to do something creative that makes me happy um and if i'm not creating something if i'm not making something or touching fabric or thinking about a quilt then i'm not a happy person i i like to be even though i don't create every day great thank you for mrs porter do you have a piece you're working on now and what is it about i have just completed a quilt in black and white and yellow for a grand a great grand niece because her quilt that she owns now was made when she was a little girl in dance classes and so i made this memory quilt for her then but now that she's a young adult she needs a new one and some of her favorite colors happens to be black and white and her mom said a bit of yellow and so i have just completed that one but i'm about to start on another that will go to a friend in southern california that will include a logo from the university of southern california fight on and their colors but these are things in the future but like all others we usually work on more than one project at a time and so it's kind of difficult for me to say great and i see um one question that was part of the chat someone wrote great words of wisdom on using our time in the pandemic as well as tv and social media as a distraction thank you how about listening to music while quilting yes i listen to music while i quote um i sometimes have the tv in the background just because noise music helps me in my creative process but i love music especially marie franklin james brown and then some jazz or opera but love it i usually have the tv on laquita doesn't own one i own four so i don't watch them i use them for the sound and mostly game shows but also the political channels cnn and msnbc i've been listening to what was going on but i'm really not listening it's just that the sound is there to keep me company i music is almost as bad as issues on my laptop right now i have approximately 65 days of music so i like almost all genres with the exception of country um so i i got i have i have a lot of music and that music is my background noise you know people like i don't i i prefer the music but that is that's my background noise is music thank you so much everyone i don't have any more q a questions in that section if anyone else has any last questions that they'd like to ask while we have these wonderful talented women here be great um or if any of our panelists would like to share any additional thoughts they've had or inspirations that have come up since some of the questions that were asked that would be great as well just just a thought when i first started quilting i was so intimidated by the quilt police let's just put it that way police and i would just encourage anyone especially if they're on a journey and whether it's a new journey into traditional quilting or a new journey and beginning and into art quilting or or for me it was you know embroidery machine embroidery or even free motion quilting get the quote police out of your head don't think about perfection just think about enjoying the process getting it done and there are so many people out there that will help you whether it's part of the oakland guild i mean there there are ladies that i could just call or email or text and they'll help there's you know my friends on facebook they'll help you just get over being intimidated and just do it and if it doesn't work out just toss it aside and maybe you know down the road you can you know reuse that particular piece or you do something and you you look at it and you say i don't like that i'll never do it again it might be a technique you don't like you tried it you don't like it but just just do it and don't be intimidated and enjoy the process i i agree with terry i think um because again i there was a time it was a brief time but it was at the time when i really wanted to looking at all of the books that people do the kinds of quilts that people got awards for and i was like i can do that but if it sucks all the joy out to make it technically correct if it's if if you don't enjoy that process then then what what is the point of that i have a job the job pays my bills i don't i don't have to when i'm being creative i can do whatever i want and i think that is the thing that's kept me creative for as long as it has been when i make something i don't have to follow the rules i don't have to make it the way that they did it i don't have to do it the way that they said it is a place of absolute freedom for me because if it's ugly if they don't like it it's okay because it's mine and whatever i make is mine and um i think sometimes in in as social human beings we we look at other people's stuff and we kind of oh that's so nice but i'm at an age not quite as old as miss porter but one day you're my goal you talk about me you're my goal but when you get to be a certain point you can say you know what that is amazing that is fabulous i want to do that and and that that's that's another stage in in the development of a human i i have seen amazing quilts i don't want to make them i have seen people do stuff that's like i'm like wow but i don't want to make that because that's not my creativity that's not why i can admire it it's not it's not something that i want to do i want to explore all of those stuff that's stuck in my head how can i pull my images out how can i look at what you did and say that's cool that's fabulous but i don't want to make that quilt now i like your technique or how did you do that how did they do that i want to know how they did that but i don't want to make i don't want to make that i want to make what's in my head what's a part of me and um i think if you if people can look at things admire them and then say i'm gonna i'm gonna make my thing for me then that that to me is like kind of like the gold and being creative i'm gonna make my thing i'm gonna express myself i'm gonna use applique i'm gonna use quilting i'm gonna use beading i'm gonna use embroidery i'm going to use a long arm whatever it is when you can take that and say i'm going to take that technique that thing that color that fabric and express myself i think that's the goal in being creative right right laquita mentioned uh making mistakes my first instructor as i mentioned was the late joy johnson who was the guild's second president and joy would say to me when i made a mistake and trust me i made many it's your quilt you can do whatever you want and it doesn't matter what somebody else thinks or she would say well the little pixie did that not you and i'd go right on quilting and i also mentioned that my first quilt at the underground railroad that was juried by the affairs jurors really did make me feel like they had stuck me with pens but i decided no nobody's gonna do that to me i'm going to enter another and they may criticize me whatever critique they make but it'll not be the same mistakes again and so i've used that as a basis for whatever i do and now at this stage when my points are clipped off or when my square is not quite square hey you're getting a free quilt okay nobody no bother doesn't bother me anymore i think when you get over worrying about what people think about your quilts or whether or not it's good enough that that gives you the freedom to be very creative because any i don't even like to say mistake but anything you do is part of it's part of the process so don't worry just be free wow that's such good advice for any creative practice probably any life practice but um i do have another question to ask you all where do you get your fabric locally i have a t-shirt that when i visited the texas quilt museum that was given to me after i lived the tours and it says i will not buy fabric because any place from walmart joanne on amazon any place if i see a piece of fabric unlike that's why my stash is so big because i thought i'll use that someday so i'll get a yard of that but i don't have any particular place uh there's one store and uh in berkeley i'm trying to remember the name of it that i took classes new pieces new pieces i went to new pieces for a long time new pieces i bought a lot of them and then there's one on shattered avenue yeah i buy i buy fabric well actually now since kobus i don't buy anything except through amazon because i don't get out yeah i'm here in fairfield and we have a couple of a couple of local quilt stores um in town and and i do encourage you to support the quilt stores because if we don't they're going to close up and the only places you're going to have the shop or amazon and not i don't i don't even shop with amazon there's a lot of online stores that are out there but i think most of the quilters have stashes and stashes and yes more fabric than you need and but it's always that one piece that is missing and you need to run to the store to get you know that just that one but i don't i don't want to shop anymore i don't need anymore i haven't shopped for fabric in over 10 years and i still um i buy yarn now and i buy beads now but i don't i don't shop for fabric um not the way that i used to i haven't done that in it over a good 10 or 12 years i don't i don't buy fabric the way that i used to i i'm trying so very hard to use up what i own that that's what i'm trying to do um so i the the stores that um francis mentioned new pieces stone mountain daughter bay quilts um there's also a place called recrafters and it's in alameda and she has an amazing mix of stuff yarn beads fabric all kinds of craft stuff so she's in alameda and it's discounted so she has she has a lot of stuff so but yeah no i don't i don't i don't buy fabric the way that i used to someone in the chat group mentioned a facebook group online store called quilting with gold and and they have fabulous fabrics great prices great quality and excellent customer service so there are a lot of local places and online stores everywhere well great i i just want to take this opportunity to thank loretta francis laquita terry all of you again for being here today and sharing all of your insight and wisdom um [Music] you're quite welcome thanks for having me thank you i appreciate i think thank you it was interesting and with that i think that we have reached the end of our talk um thank you everyone for joining us today it's been a pleasure

Channel: BAMPFA

Views: 780

Rating: 4.8518519 out of 5

Keywords: UC, Berkeley, Art, Museum, Pacific, Film, Archive, BAMPFA

Id: dZ0vVNR5BbA

Length: 92min 21sec (5541 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021