Interview with Stephanie Grissom

Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave and I'm conducting a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Stephanie Grissom. Stephanie is in Markleville, Indiana and I'm in Naperville, Illinois so we are conducting this interview over the telephone. Today's date is January 28, 2009. It is now 1:05 in the afternoon. Stephanie thank you so much for taking time out of your day to do this interview with me.

Stephanie Grissom (SG): Thank you.

KM: Please tell me about your quilt "American Renaissance."

SG: I was so inspired by this whole political thing that happened in our country this last election. I really had a lot of pent up emotion, much of which I didn't understand. One of my fellow quilt artists, Sherry Boram, called and said, 'You've got to do a quilt for this exhibit about Obama. Can you get one done?' My response of course was, 'Absolutely. When's the deadline?' [laughs.] I immediately formulated some ideas about what is it that I want to put into this quilt. Where do I start? I had a campaign poster hanging in my dining room that was the inspiration for the quilt. The image of [Barack.] Obama in the center of that poster, I just loved because his face is tilted up toward the light so that it is his facial features [in the profile.] that are highlighted. I just felt that was such a wonderful analogy of what was happening to the country; that we were being tilted up toward the light. I knew that I wanted that to be in the center of the quilt. I initially scanned it into the computer, digitally manipulated it until I could see light, medium and dark values and didn't really have any idea how it would go. I had never made a portrait quilt before so I just sat down and started putting one together. I did it in shades of gray and got it all sewn together and hung it on the design wall, which is my dining room wall and looked at it for several days. I decided this wasn't quite right. It didn't quite look like Obama so I started trimming it and before I knew it had morphed from Obama into Marvin Gay so back to the drawing board. I redid it and this time I did it in blue and I used iron-on fusible and that technique worked much better than the piecing technique with curved seams. I got the image done and it actually looked like the photo of Obama on the campaign poster. I knew I wanted it on a white background, that white was to be the center medallion and that white represented hope which was the whole theme of the campaign. I knew that I wanted it to be red white and blue. I knew that I wanted it to be simple but I had tons of beads and ribbons and this was going to be a fabulously embellished quilt. As it slowly came together my thinking about it changed completely. I began to feel like it really needed to be simple and it needed to be traditional. I auditioned many beads, metallic sheen Lumiere on samples, yarns, charms, etc., and found they just didn't work. Barack Obama is the real deal. There is no need to gild the lily. Any glitzy embellishment would detract from his fundamental and direct message. The background is just a collection of red fabrics pieced in the simplest Nine Patch construction of two inch squares. I thought it was important too to piece this quilt on a newly acquired 1894 Standard treadle sewing machine. This was honoring the quiltmakers that came before me that had quilted on these machines by lantern light or candlelight or by the light of a window. This just amazes me that women were able to put together quilts under those conditions. Using the treadle machine for the piecing was also important as it is 'going green.' Obama has declared his intention to support green initiatives, and energy independence through the use of alternative energy sources. The only fuel required to operate a treadle machine is the food I ate for dinner the day before. The blue border is Four Patch construction, same technique also pieced on the treadle sewing machine which is the first project that I had done on this treadle machine. I absolutely loved sewing on it. It has a wonderfully smooth action. I feel like I'm in complete control of the needle and where it is going. I like it much better than sewing on an electric machine but it is very limited, it only came with one foot and I can't find another one for it. The simple cotton Nine Patch and Four Patch construction was important to honor the American traditional quiltmakers in our past. Once I got the background pieced and the image appliqud I then moved to my electric machine which is a 1970 Kenmore. That is my 'new' machine. I did the appliqu on that machine because I can do a zigzag stitch on that. I had it put together and thought it needs some kind of little something to give it some oomph, so I cut out paper stars and had them pinned to the quilt top on the design wall. My grand nephew [Alexander.] came over with his older sister who just got her driver's license and looked at it. Chelsea is my sister Melanie's granddaughter and a talented quilter in her own right. Alexander is in fourth grade. He said, 'You know Aunt Steph I think you should put thirteen stars on there for the thirteen original colonies'. [Brilliant!] His turned out to be the most valuable input I got from anyone. So, the embellishment ended up being thirteen very simple appliqud stars. The binding is a candy cane red and white stripe so this is a very traditional, unsparkly, unembellished wall hanging. My original plan was 3 inches by 36 inches, the blue border turned out to visually be a little too wide so it went down to just a Four Patch size instead of a Nine Patch size. I was so full of emotion over the election that working on this quilt really helped me sort through all of that. I would have days where I would just be so full of intense emotions that I would just cry spontaneously. [In retrospect, I realize that I had, for several years, carried a lot of profound sadness and disillusionment about the policies of our federal government, our foreign policy, human rights abuse, greed run amok, religious intolerance and ignorance, the pillaging of our economy and our planet, the loss of our wilderness areas and so many other wrongs.] I really didn't understand at the time but working on this quilt helped sort all that nonsense out. By the time that the quilt was done and the sleeve was on it I was once again at peace with myself. It was a very cathartic process. I threw it together very quickly, less than two months. As soon as I got it done, off it went in the mail so none of my friends or family has even seen the quilt. I will be eager for them to actually see it and get their hands on it. What doesn't show until you get close to the quilt is on the red background of the Nine Patch. There is text appliqud all over it and it's just the words that inspired me about Obama. He became such an inspirational champion of freedom and human rights. I had just been so appalled that the United States ended up on the Amnesty International list of human rights abusers. I just couldn't believe that was happening in my lifetime. Here was a man who was saying, 'Yes, we have been guilty of human rights abuses and we are going to fix that,' so I really latched onto that. He advocated ecological responsibilities so that is on the quilt as well. Religious tolerance was important and I hadn't seen a lot of that in the communities. [As a practicing Buddhist and leader of a small group of fellow Buddhists here in the Bible Belt, I have been the target of some intolerant words and deeds.] Compassion, peace, diplomacy are more words appliqud on the quilt. He [Obama.] said he would open the lines of communication and talk to these people around the world who considered themselves [or we consider to be.] our enemies. Well if you don't start by talking to people, how will we ever find common ground? He appears to be a man of [solid.] integrity. He is ethical. He is altruistic. He advocates caring for others, sharing with others, working for others, working for a common good and above all else he was equanimous throughout all of the debates. In all of the interviews, he exhibied unshakable equanimity. That was something that I hadn't ever seen in a politician before. I was so inspired to honor him by making this quilt and honored also to be invited to participate in a group of quilters where many of the participants are professional quiltmakers and studio art quilt artists. I just sew art quilts on my dining room table occasionally so this was a real honor to be included.

KM: What are your plans for this quilt?

SG: I only had one plan for it and that was to submit to this "Celebration of Art Quilts" ["President Obama: A Celebration in Art Quilts" from February 9 to March 5, 2009 in the main gallery (King Street Gallery) of the Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center, Silver Spring, Maryland.] that is being held at the Cafritz Center at Montgomery College in Silver Spring, Maryland. Once that is over, I don't know. I look forward to showing it to all of the family members and friends who have seen pictures of it but never got to see the actual quilt. Beyond that I have no plans.

KM: Are you planning on going to the opening?

SG: Yes. Sherry Boram and I are driving. We are going to stop in Ohio and pick up Susan Shie and drive on to Maryland to attend the opening of the exhibit.

KM: I think it will be very exciting.

SG: I can't wait. I've seen pictures of the other quilts but I'm sure the photographs on the internet do not do them justice. I can't wait to get close to them and see the texture and the embellishments.

KM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking.

SG: I was dragged kicking and screaming reluctantly into the quiltmaking world by my sister [Melanie.]. She is a beautiful quiltmaker. She is a traditional quiltmaker. She dragged me to quilt shows for years before I ever showed any interest in making quilts. She gave me the 1970 Kenmore machine which had been her machine from, I think, the time she got married. It sat in my dining room for five years before I ever opened it up and learned how to thread it. Finally, I think in 2002, she took me to Paducah [Kentucky.] to the national quilt show [American Quilter's Society.] and that was the first place I saw quilts that I thought were truly inspiring. I might learn to see quilting as an art medium and not necessarily a tedious women's obligation. I suddenly thought about the possibilities of using the machine as a brush and the fabric [and thread.] as paint to create works of art.

KM: Where did you get your treadle?

SG: [laughs.] One of my neighbors [also a member of the local quilt guild.] had it sitting in her garage for a couple years. Actually she had three and my sister, the quilter, expressed interest in one of Nora's machines. We went over to Nora's and ended up taking all three of them. I took the least complicated of the machines. They all needed rehabilitation so I brought one home, tore it down, took all the parts out and cleaned and oiled them. I put it back together and sewed on it. I absolutely love that machine. It has a place of honor in my living room and that is where I quilt on it.

KM: How did you come up with the title "American Renaissance"?

SG: Because that is what it felt like. It felt like after a long period of darkness, hopelessness, despair, and shame that we finally were going to maybe come out of the darkness and move toward the light. It felt like a seismic shift, [as though the North American tectonic plate moved.]. It wasn't just me or my very few liberal friends. It seemed to be the whole country at once shifted towards something wonderful. It really is an American Renaissance. We are at the very beginning of it and I can't wait for it to unfold.

KM: I can't remember in my lifetime a President-Elect inspiring so much art.

SG: Nor have I.

KM: Why do you think that is?

SG: I honestly don't know. Obviously he touched something in me that hadn't been touched in a very long time. I don't have a studio. I have to drag my sewing machine out of the corner of the bedroom and set it up in my dining room so it really takes motivation to get me going to tear up the order of the home and take over the dining room for a studio. It certainly did that and I left it out for as long as it took to get the quilt done. I'm assuming that other people in the rest of the country felt the same way and are equally more inspired to do whatever it takes to get something out.

KM: You mentioned belonging to a quilt group. Tell me a little bit more about it. Do you belong to any other groups?

SG: I belong to two local quilt guilds. One in Pendleton, Indiana and one in Anderson, Indiana, but other than receiving the newsletter I haven't been active in either one of them for a couple of years. [I am a member of the online Art Quilt community. My husband and I are also very involved in gardening groups. I am president of one and active in another. I am a vendor at the local farmer's market May through October. I also facilitate and host a group of Buddhist meditators and dharma students that meets weekly and has done so for 12 years.] One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to actually attend the guild meetings and put a quilt in the quilt show. Both shows are in the fall, one in September and one in October. I have a couple of unfinished projects that I intend to get done and get entered into the local quilt shows.

KM: Did making the Obama quilt help you make that resolution?

SG: It did in that it got me sewing again and so yes it did.

KM: Is the Obama, is your Obama quilt typical of your style? If someone looked at that quilt would they know that you made it?

SG: Not necessarily. I don't know that I have a style. I tend to sew into whatever it is that inspires me at the moment and it always seems to be something different so I don't know if I have a style.

KM: Do you have any favorite techniques or materials that you like to use?

SG: I don't know a lot of techniques and I haven't worked with a variety of materials so my quilting tends to be traditional piecing. I may throw something in there, some kind of embellishment or something that is nontraditional. It is pretty simple. [I'd have to say that my favorite technique is whatever the next new one I decide to tackle is. I enjoy playing with paints and dyes. I like couching yarns and topstitching with metallic or variegated threads. I recently bought a set of Shiva paint sticks, but have yet to incorporate them into a finished piece. I love beads and baubles, including making original ones from polymer clay. I like to use something unexpected in art quilts. I just bought a roll of copper roof flashing with plans to incorporate it into an art quilt. I am eager to join the group making journal quilts this year. ]

KM: How did you apply the text to the quilt?

SG: Some of it I silk screened. I silk screen [Tibetan-like.] Prayer Flags and sell them at the farmer's market in the summer time along with my perennials. I cut up one of the red prayer flags and took some of the text off of it and raw edge appliqud it to the quilt. I then took the piecework that I had cut out from behind the center medallion and ran that through my printer and printed another prayer flag template onto that fabric. I then cut it apart and raw edge machine appliqud it on.

KM: What is your first quilt memory?

SG: I grew up with quilts. Every other year my grandmother, who I think had seventeen grandchildren, would make us a flannel nightgown and the following year we would get a quilt. [She didn't have money to buy us gifts but we never went without a Christmas present.] Grandma's quilts were made from our outgrown clothing. These quilts had a pieced front and a flannel back but who knows what was in the middle. One year it might be a worn out blanket, the next year it might be worn out draperies or patched together with someone's old coat. The wonderful thing about those quilts and we all had them on our beds was that you could sit in bed and think, 'That block was my Easter dress two years ago,' and 'That was my cousin Connie's dress,' and 'This was my dad's flannel shirt.' So those quilts, even though they were really, really simple, were very, very meanigful. There are a few of them still floating around the family including one on my mother's bed.

KM: Do you have any left?

SG: I do not. I wore mine out.

KM: Which is probably what she wanted, don't you think?

SG: Absolutely and still that is how I feel about quilts [laughs.] I'm very reluctant to go pay $9.00 a yard for cotton fabric to cut up and use in quilts. I'm more inclined to use leftover bits from other projects or dig through my stash. I rarely go buy any new fabric. I have more than I can store now. I have to climb into the attic to get into my fabric tubs. I would rather use my stash, recycled clothing or something similar in my quilts.

KM: Tell me about your prayer flags.

SG: They are solid colors and they are five colors, red, white, green, blue, and yellow and each color representing an element of earth, air, heat, water, and the all pervading space of oneness. [The text on the flags is words of aspiration; such as compassion, love, tolerance, justice, etc. There is a simple graphic in the center of a dove of peace.] They are one hundred percent cotton. I use soy based inks. I string them on one hundred percent sisal hay-baling twine so they are completely bio-degradable. They are not hemmed. I sew them onto the baling twine but they are meant to deteriorate, unravel and fade just like everything in life does. They are important reminders of the impermanence of life and the preciousness of each moment. Whatever cotton I can come by is what I use. I scrounge clearance bins and I raid my sister's stash. I cut up old clothing, whatever I can get as long as it is one hundred percent cotton. [I learned to silk screen from library books and YouTube videos.]

KM: How long have you been doing this?

SG: I started it two years ago. I always had Tibetan Prayer Flags that I brought back from a trip I made in 2005, to Thailand, India, and Nepal. I loved those Prayer flags. The fabric that they were printed on was even more impermanent than American cotton so they were getting quickly getting ragged and the text is in Tibetan so I thought it was important that we have something with an English text on it and a little bit sturdier than the Tibetan flags so that is what got me started.

KM: What advice would you offer someone starting out in quiltmaking?

SG: To just do it. Join a guild, work on group quilts and just be observant of the ladies who have been carrying on this tradition. I have some real precious memories of guild quilts that we have worked on together in traditional ways sitting around the quilting frame learning how to do hand stitches and knowing that my teacher Jean would probably take my stitches out and redo them. Eventually I got to where my stitches were acceptable to the guild standards and made it into the final quilt. Of course, my sister Melanie was and still is my primary "go-to" guide. I'm really grateful to all of the women who taught me how to sew. I was fifty years old and I had never even threaded a sewing machine. I had a very, very long learning curve and fortunately had a lot of patient teachers.

KM: How did you quilt "American Renaissance"?

SG: I borrowed one of my sister's Berninas with a stitch regulator on it. I had never used one before. It made all the difference in the world. I really struggled with free motion quilting on my Kenmore machine. When I borrowed this Bernina, boy did it ever make light work of the task. I probably will borrow it again for my next quilt if I do machine quilting. I also really enjoy hand stitching. I haven't hand stitched a whole quilt in several years. One of my grandbabies has a hand stitched quilt that hangs on the wall above her baby's sister's quilt. It has been through three babies now and has little rubber ducks quilted into it and I really enjoyed finishing that quilt. I took it on a meditation retreat with me. I find the hand stitching to be a wonderful meditative, repetitive [clears throat.] meditation movement.

KM: Is there any aspects of quiltmaking that you don't enjoy?

SG: I have a tendency to get impatient with them. I've learned that if I try to rush something I will end up having to tear it out learned that when I get to that point of impatience and it is not going as quickly as I planned or it is not turning out to be as easy as I thought that I just get up and walk away from it and do something else for a while. Sometimes it may take me a week to get back to the quilt and sometimes it may take me an hour to get back to the quilt and sometimes it gets packed away for a month or a year.

KM: What do you think makes an artistically powerful quilt?

SG: So many things. A strong design, a strong contrast and sometimes what it is that I find compelling in a quilt I won't notice until I get very close to the quilt and maybe it is the stitching in the background or some other tiny embellishment that you don't see when you are standing back and looking at it on the wall but when you walk up close you say 'oh look what they did'. It can be anything. Sometimes it's the story behind the quilt. It could be like my grandmother's quilts, visually they are not that compelling when you begin to hear the stories of, 'Oh yes that was my father's flannel shirt and I remember that he wore that the day before he died,' or something. Sometimes it's the quilt itself and sometimes it's the story behind the quilt and sometimes it is the quilt artist and their story.

KM: You mentioned quilt artists. Whose works are you drawn to and why?

SG: Caryl Bryer Fallert, Ricky Tims, Jane Sassman, Esterita Austin. Did I pronounce her name right?

KM: Close enough.

SG: Bonnie McCaffrey. [I admire the work of Hollis Chatelaine too. Her Blue Men quilt was on display at my first Paducah show and it blew me away. When I saw these quilts, I was hooked. I knew that I would become a maker of art quilts too.] I'm inspired by Sherry Boram's quilts. I get to see those up close and touch them if I like so I have a little added incentive to explore her work.

KM: Tell me more about why you are drawn to their work.

SG: I think that each has found a definite style and you can look at a quilt, 'Oh yes, that is a Ricky Tims quilt,' or 'Oh yes, that is a Caryl Bryer Fallert quilt,' before you even get up to it and read the card that is hanging next to it with the artist's name on it. They have found their style and they continue to delve into it [digging a little deeper into the creativity well.] and come up with some new element. I find that exciting and stimulating and I think of it as a good model for my own work. If I can aspire in that direction I would be very pleased.

KM: Do you get to play often together with Sherry?

SG: No. We email back and forth a lot. I actually only met Sherry last summer at the Farmer's Market when she came over to inquire about the prayer flags that were on display. We got talking about silk screen and working with fabric and next thing she invited me to her house to see her studio and look at her quilts. I knew who she was because she has shown quilts in this area for a long time so when she said, 'I'm Sherry Boram.' I was so excited to be invited to her studio to look at some of her quilts. She is very inspirational.

KM: How do you want to be remembered?

SG: I don't know that I care about [laughs.] whether I'm remembered or not. I guess I do when it comes to my family and my children and so forth. If they remember me as someone who loved them and cared and tried to do my best then I will be very happy.

KM: What do you think is the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers today?

SG: I read this question on some of the interviews on the internet and I have no idea. I don't really think of myself as a part of the dedicated quilting community, I just kind of dabble in it here and there so I couldn't even begin to speak for what they might find challenging.

KM: What is your biggest challenge?

SG: Dragging out the sewing machine and taking over my dining room which is kind of the heart of the house. I have a group that meets here every week so it has to be cleared off the table every Thursday no matter what. Just committing to having a mess in the middle of the house is my biggest challenge.

KM: Do you ever see yourself having a dedicated space?

SG: Not in this lifetime no. [laughs.] My house is very small. It is a little bungalow under a 1000 [square.] feet. I don't know where I would put a studio.

KM: Why is quiltmaking important to you?

SG: It is important to honor the tradition of my grandmother. I hope my grandchildren will have fond memories of them opening their Christmas present and saying 'oh it's another quilt, gee I don't need it but look at this one, isn't that fun' it has monsters on it or it is in vibrant neon colors. When they have grandchildren look back and say, 'You know my grandma made me quilts and that was special and maybe I will make quilts too.'

KM: What do they think of your quiltmaking?

SG: Oh they are really small. I don't think they are old enough to have such opinions.

KM: What about your family?

SG: I think they have pride in all of us in whatever it is that inspires us and whatever accomplishments we have made. My sister is the quiltmaker in the family and I can't take that away from her. She does beautiful work and she has a beautiful dedicated studio. She turns out many, many quilts every year. I'm lucky to make one or two so I doubt that I will be remembered as the family quilter.

KM: Is there anything that you would like to share that we haven't touched upon?

SG: No, Karen, I don't think there is.

KM: I want to ask you one more question. In what ways do you think quilts have special meanings for women's history in America? You've talked a lot about quiltmaking in the past, so I just.

SG: I don't know that it is unique to America. My guess is that women all over the world have made quilts too, out of necessity to sleep on and to sleep under. I was really fascinated with quilts I saw in India that were more like futons but they called them quilts. They were tied but they were what we would call a mattress only they are more like a thin futon. That is what they sleep on so I know it is kind of a worldwide thing. I sew on this treadle machine and imagine what these women, what their experience was that they had to cut up last year's outgrown clothing in order to make blankets to keep their family warm and they did it under conditions that were less than optimal with a treadle machine if they were lucky enough to have one and by hand if they didn't. I think that is important to acknowledge and honor those women by continuing the tradition.

KM: I think that is a wonderful way to conclude our interview. I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to share with me.

SG: Thank you so much Karen for the work that you are doing in preserving this heritage.

KM: Thank you. We are going to conclude our interview at 1:37.