Interview with Elizabeth Warner

Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave and I'm conducting a Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories interview with Elizabeth Warner. Elizabeth is in Simsbury, Connecticut and I'm in Naperville, Illinois, so we are conducting this interview over the telephone. Today's date is February 6, 2009. It is now 9:13 in the morning. Elizabeth, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to do this interview with me. Please tell me about your quilt "Together We Can Bridge the Divide."

Elizabeth Warner (EW): This quilt is very important to me. I wanted to do something to honor this historic event -- the election of President Obama. When the opportunity came to participate in the exhibit, Obama Celebration ["President Obama: A Celebration in Art Quilts," at the The Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation Arts Center (King Street Gallery) in Silver Spring, Maryland, February 9 through March 5, 2009. ] I found it to be a wonderful outlet for my joyful energy around the election and subsequent inauguration of President Obama. This quilt expresses much of what I was really feeling - that we had become a relatively mean spirited country and culture and group of people over the past few years. To me Obama represents reaching out to us to become better people, to recognize the qualities and the abilities we have to be a nurturing and hopeful and caring community. Of course, as so often happens, when I first envisioned this quilt, it was much bigger and much more complex. It had as many as twenty-four blocks that would show wonderful before and after possibilities. Then reality set in and I thought, 'Whoops, how am I going to get this done?' I pared it down to these four contrasting ideas where I wanted to show that what Obama's inauguration represented to me was that people who are in despair can have hope; that all of us together, not just President Obama and his administration, not just our congress people, but all of us working together can bring hope to those who are in despair. A lot of our society's problems are rooted in lack of access to healthcare, to adequate healthcare whether that be insurance or simply living where people aren't available to provide services, but again we all have to work together to overcome this failure and bring a more vital, energetic healthy world to people who are just swallowed up in illnesses and lack of access to care. We have a country in which many children and elderly do not eat well. There is no good reason for this. We have the means, we just need the will to overcome these issues. I think that President Obama will inspire us to have that will. There is such disparity in our country between those who have and those who don't have. We see the results of many root causes such as greed. There are many reasons why some people are poor and other people have plenty. Some of them, many of them, can be overcome. We can help one another to achieve a better standard of living, to achieve a better life.

KM: What techniques did you use to make the quilt?

EW: A number of techniques were involved. I designed the blocks. They were pieced and then appliqus were applied to each block. The appliqu is fused as opposed to being hand stitched needle turn appliqu. It is completely stitched by machine. In addition, the words on the quilt are done using machine embroidery and digitizing software that I have available. During the design process, I used Electric Quilt Version 6 software to design the block and the quilt. It is wonderful to be able to take a look at the impact of different color choices on the outcome of the quilt. It is pieced using a combination of commercially available cottons and some that are either hand painted by me or purchased from someone else who hand painted them. The designs started off in my sketchbook where I worked out the block design and the symbols used.

KM: Is this quilt typical of your style?

EW: I am struggling with zeroing in on a style that is recognizable as mine. This is probably different in some ways and in other ways representative. I tend to do things that are not representational, things that are not traditional. To that degree it is representative, but it has a different look than anything I've done.

KM: Now it is 28 inches by 28 inches, is that a typical size for you?

EW: I have done everything from a queen size bed quilt down to an 8 [inches.] by 11 inch journal quilts. This is somewhere on the low end, in between that. My current work tends to be less than 50". I rarely make bed quilts anymore, except when I'm finishing up some stuff I started a while ago. I think of myself as a social activist and am involved in some organizations as a result of some passion around this. Recently I had decided that I need to spend more time on expressing myself through my quilting and this is in point of fact my first attempt at marrying my passion for social justice with my love for quilting as an art medium. It's not representative. Iit is heading off in a new direction I guess is the real answer.

KM: That is wonderful. You made a second Obama quilt which is called "More Than Ever a Beacon of Hope." Tell me about that quilt.

EW: That quilt is a little bit smaller, it happens also to be square about 24 [inches.] by 24 [inches.] and again it grew out of my sense that our country has lost so much of its good reputation over the last several years. Obama's election shows the world that we are better than our current reputation. Even though we have lost some of our good reputation, people still want to have our good life. People want the advantages of being in this country and that desire has certainly sustained itself all through our history. If people didn't want to be here we wouldn't have the ugly questions around who can be here and who shouldn't be here. Now with the election of Obama and all that it represents such as the appeal to the better nature in all of us in this country and the recognition that we can do better, I believe that the rest of the world will, looks to us more than ever as that beacon of hope for what a democracy can bring to the people living under it and what strong participatory government can bring to the people. What it means is that though we always have been a beacon of hope, that people have always immigrated here, and that people have always looked at us for a chance for a better life for them and their families, now there are more possibilities and they will look to us more. I don't think I can say anything else.

KM: What are your plans for the quilts?

EW: I don't know. That is a very good question. As part of the exhibit, we were asked if they were for sale or not and I said, 'They were for sale,' but I put a high price on them so you can see I'm ambivalent about letting them go. I will, I may, if someone is really touched by them and wants to buy them and has a good home to take them to I would sell them. But if that doesn't happen I may contribute them to a local social justice organization I am committed to that would hang them.

KM: How did you find out about the exhibit?

EW: I'm a member of SAQA, the Studio Art Quilters Associates, and I'm on their Yahoo group so I monitor things that come through. I'm also part of a quilt email list called QuiltArt and a call from Susan Walen came over one of those lists. I think it was SAQA but I'm not one hundred percent sure. The time was right. I just shared her enthusiasm, was so excited to put the energy into something and just right away wrote back to her and said, 'I'm in.'

KM: Do you plan to go to the opening?

EW: Yes I do.

KM: Are there specific quilts that you are looking forward to seeing up close and personal?

EW: I would like to see what Susan Shie is exhibiting. Well I would like to see them all. There are some names that are recognizable and there are some names, like mine, that aren't and so I'm eager to see them all. I think that there are some that have been done with very intricate techniques showing the face of Obama. I'm eager to see those. I'm especially eager to see Susan Shies work. I've seen her work in Houston and I've certainly seen it in a lot f magazines but it will be nice to have all the time I want to look at it up close and personal. Susan does a lot of writing on her quilts. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well sometimes a thousand words just doesn't do it. How do you express what you are trying to express? She clearly has found a way to say a lots to say. I'm looking forward to seeing that.

KM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking.

EW: Okay, just a moment. [EW speaking to her husband walking by.] There have been no quilters in my family. In the early to mid 1980's my mother-in-law became interested to the extent that she took a class and she had a few quilt tops that I'm quite sure she didn't do. I think she rescued them. They were very important to her. She loved these quilt tops. When she died, I thought, in honor of her, I will rescue these quilt tops, then find out something that I can do with them. There are plenty of them and I thought there would be one each for the grandchildren. This is one of those fantasy things. [KM laughs.] [they still remain in the same state that I found them.] What happened is, I finally did try to take a little bit of action it was 1988. During that time I was in the data communication industry. If you remember the eighties, you will recall that, particularly those of us who provided services to the financial industry, we all wore our gray suits, our black suits, and our navy blue suits. It was very dull. I went to a quilt store and there was just this beautiful array of fabrics, very tactile, very colorful. I should back up and say I grew up sewing because that is what you did. I sewed clothing for myself as a young person but quilting was not part of my sewing activity. Anyway, it was just nice to be around this stuff so I took a class and made an Irish Chain quilt. I now think in horrible colors because it was after all the eighties and even though the fabrics were beautiful and colorful, you were still fairly limited compared today. Over time I did a few more quilts. I didn't do much during the nineties. Over the last five or six years I did a little bit more and I've become very interested in quilting, not so much bedcovers, but, as I discovered, as an art. I'm winding down here, ask me another question. [laughs.]

KM: How many hours a week do you quilt?

EW: I'm working on that. [laughs.] I try to get in my studio, otherwise known by my husband as that mess in the corner of the basement. I try to get there each day at least for a little while. I struggle with time management issues even though I'm now retired from the work world. I still have issues managing myself and organizing myself in a way that is productive. I need to have a bunch of projects going and move things along and then I'm distracted by other things that I find interesting and start five or six things and take forever to get something done. You must hear a lot of this.

KM: I'm the same way. You mentioned your studio, so tell me about your studio. Describe your studio to me.

EW: It's a corner of the basement and it is where I keep my fabrics and my sewing machines and my books and I have a cutting table in there. It's not fancy. It's not beautiful. It's practical. It is a constant struggle to organize your fabric in a way that is useful. You are just one book or one magazine article away from having everything under control. What else can I say about it? It's colorful because the fabrics are there. It has lots of art supplies. It's conducive to work. It is good to have it becoming more efficient. I continue to struggle with how to organize my fabric. Everything right now is organized according to the color wheel but then of course you buy fabrics that are multi-colored and where do they belong. Then finally I read something that said just look at it and decide what ever color you think it is when you first see it and put it there. Well, of course, when you second see it a second time you think maybe it should be somewhere else. I like having a place to work. I like not having to have my stuff all over the house. I like that I can take my laptop down there and use it. I have a TV that I don't use very much but--[pause.]

KM: It's there.

EW: It's there, yeah. I guess it's Virginia Wolff's room of my own.

KM: Very good. What are your favorite techniques and materials?

EW: I like to paint. I like working with hand painted fabrics and I like playing at painting them myself. I like free motion quilting very much and I like free motion embroidery. I like doing my own thing and not what somebody else has designed. That could be anything. But then every once in a while it's nice to not have to make all of the decisions. In some parts of the country, there are a lot of people who quilt. I don't think the number of quilters is as high in New England as it is in some places. Sometimes you make a simple little traditional baby quilt for a special baby that is about to be born. People just fuss over them so. On the one hand it is very embarrassing and on the other hand it is nice to get that kind of feedback even though you were not using your favorite techniques or materials.

KM: What does your family think of your quiltmaking?

EW: My husband is beginning to get it, that it is an expression of things. That happened for a couple of reasons. I dragged him off to see some quilts. When we were vacationing we went up to the Folk Arts Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was interesting to talk about which ones he liked, which ones he didn't like and to find out that his tastes were very similar to mine. I have done some things using photographs that I simply reproduced on fabric. My daughter is enamored of that. I did one starting with a picture she took in Tanzania of a boat and people working there on the shore and it really makes a beautiful wall hanging that people to respond to so positively. The family is positive. That is a hard question because what I've discovered is that I haven't always shared the importance of quilting to me. I haven't always talked about it and now I am sharing more. I'm rambling again.

KM: You are doing fine. You mentioned Susan Shie. Whose works are you drawn to and why?

EW: I love Katie Pasquini Masopust's work because it's always so original. Her use of color, of bright sure colors is so remarkable. She has evolved as an artist over the years. I admire her as a quiltmaker, as an artist who has created a very large body of work and that body of work has grown and changed over time. I admire her as a business person who has shared her techniques and her knowledge very generously with other quilters. I admire that she is all those things and a wonderful teacher. I'm very drawn to Katie. I like Paula Nadelstern's work. She does a lot of things with symmetry. I'm not drawn to emulate it, but I like what she has done. I like her use of color. I've always been fascinated by kaleidoscopes and effects. I like the couple from Europe, Inge Mardal and Steen Hougs. They do whole cloth quilts which may be digitally painted. She does a ton of machine quilting on them. Also Hollis Chatelaine who does whole cloth quilts based on her drawings. Her wonderful, wonderful quilting brings them to life. Ruth McDowell - who could not admire Ruth McDowell's wonderful work and the intricate piecing she does. There are a zillion others.

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

EW: That it evokes a response in the viewer. That it is good art. In the sense of, art is art. Whether the medium is fabric and quilting, or paint, or sculpture, the same principals of line, composition, texture, balance, unity all matter and are part of what makes a quilt artistically a good quilt. I admire the old traditional quilts. It is not that I don't like them it's just I'm not learning as much about art from them. I'm not as drawn to them right now but they do meet those criteria of good art. The composition will be a grid and the effective use of color is what often will draw you to a quilt. It's those artistic elements that make you enjoy quilts whether they are in the world of art quilts that only hang on a wall and never go on a bed or whether they are an old traditional quilt that was made in the 1700's, it's appeal is based on the same principals that all of art is.

KM: What advice would you offer someone starting out?

EW: Just do it. Go to a local quilt shop where you are comfortable with the people who are there and they will help you. Take some classes there. Take some learn to quilt classes and just do it. Don't agonize over it being perfect. Just work at developing skills and you will find your way. Don't be a lone ranger either. There are a lot of people out there that share your interest. Find them. They will help you and you will help them. Just try a bunch of different things. Quilting has something for everyone, whether you want to do traditional work or more contemporary work, whatever colors you like, whatever techniques you like. You are not going to like everything and you're not going to be good at everything but you are going to find something that will satisfy your soul.

KM: Is there any aspects of quilting that you don't like?

EW: I don't like the things I'm not good at [laughs.] so that would be hand quilting. I don't like to do hand quilting. I don't like to do things that other people have done. I like things to be my own. No you know what, what's there not to like about anything in quilting? [laughs.]

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

EW: I think different quilters have different challenges. The challenge for the new quilter, the younger woman, is how to find time for something that she likes. The same old challenge, how to find time for something that she likes to do amidst the demands of family and work and community. Some people have the image that quilting is a thrifty hobby. They think of the pioneer women sewing their scraps as they went across the country in their wagons. It is not cheap if you want to have the finest and best of things. So for some people the availability of resources is a problem but there are those who use what they have and continue the tradition of quilting very inexpensively too. It all depends on what people like to do. The time challenges are an issue for most. The general incorrect view that people have of quilting is an issue for many. For example, the daughter of a friend came home from school and was sewing in her room working on a quilt. Her father told her that was something that old ladies do. That attitude creates challenges. I have the good fortune to be living in an area where we have quilt shops that seem to be growing and are successful. Even while I'm saying this is true in my immediate area, not that far away a few have closed. Quilters having access to other quilters, having access to their supplies, and having a chance to develop a community, if that is what they want, are issues. In terms of having access to supplies, the internet gives us all a chance to get whatever we want wherever it is in the world. Sometimes what you want is going to cost as much to ship as what it costs for the product, but that's the price we pay to do what we love. The biggest problems for quilters? Some of the problems are that it wouldn't matter if we are quilters or anything else, valuing what you do. I think women, and certainly women of a certain age, tend to be way to humble about their efforts. On the one hand, why is that a problem?

KM: You mentioned belonging to SAQA.

EW: Yes.

KM: Do you belong to any other art or quilt groups?

EW: I do. I belong to our local quilt guild, the Farmington Valley Quilters, which is primarily a group of people who are wonderful traditional quilters who do beautiful hand appliqu, beautiful hand quilting. It is a wonderful group. We meet once a month, have a quilt show every couple of years. We are actually about 150 people strong now so that is all good. I belong to a small art quilt group that meets once a month for supporting, encouraging, and challenging one another. I belong, as an independent member, to another quilt organization in the Greater Hartford area -- the Greater Hartford Quilt Guild. It is an umbrella organization for a number of small quilt guilds. What else do I belong to? That's all I think.

KM: Why is belonging to these groups important to you?

EW: It is a place to find like-minded people. It sometimes provides you with a little external pressure to get things done that some of us need. If it weren't for deadlines, some of us would never get anything done. That's it in terms of the local quilt groups. SAQA is an organization that is trying to elevate the status of art quilting and provide opportunities for art quilters to display their work, to sell their work, to have their work published. I think they are doing a great job. They also provide lots of information about art as a business. How do you write your artist statement, what do you need to do to prepare for this. It is a wonderful resource for me.

KM: Do you find writing artist statements an easy task?

EW: No. This whole world is, I should clarify, is new. This idea of looking at my quilt art as a business or as me, myself as a serious artists is relatively new so I get lots of advice from SAQA. I've only done an artist statement once and it was, I'm not crazy about it. I'm not crazy about the result of it. I think over time I can get a better one.

KM: Were you required to write an artist statement for your two Obama pieces?

EW: Yes. It seems to be, there is an artist statement that speaks to the body of work and what you do and then there are artist statements where people are talking about the specific piece and so there seems to be confusion around an inconsistency in what is expected in an artist statement from one venue to another. They are something you have to do and I will get them done.

KM: How do you want to be remembered?

EW: As a person who cared about and demonstrated the care that she had for the family, her community and the world I guess. Somebody who on occasion made a difference. Somebody who respected other people, learned from other people, had something to say about the world. Nobody ever asked me that before.

KM: I'm privileged to be the first. We have been talking for more than forty minutes. Is there anything that you would like to share that we haven't touched upon before we conclude?

EW: Not that I can think of now, perhaps [laughs.] later I will think of something, but no this has been a gentle process.

KM: That is good. Let's go back to the exhibit, kind of go full circle. In my lifetime I don't ever remember a president or president-elect inspiring so much art. Why do you think Barack Obama inspired so many art quilts?

EW: I think because he reaches our souls. He inspires us to be better, do more, show more of ourselves. I think it has been a long time since we have had a leader who does that. I think he just engages people. I don't know what else to say.

KM: I think that is good, that is fine. I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to talk to me.

EW: You are a patient person to listen to all of this. [laughs.]

KM: I don't know about that, but thank you. We are going to conclude our Quilters' S.O.S. -- Save Our Stories interview at 9:55.