Interview with Crane Johnson

Karen Musgrave (KM): This is Karen Musgrave and I am doing a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Crane Johnson. Crane is in Eagle, Idaho and I'm in Naperville, Illinois, so we are conducting this interview by telephone, although I really wish we could do it in person. Today's date is August 4, 2008. It is 11:04 in the morning. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me.

Crane Johnson (CJ): It is my pleasure.

KM: Please tell me about your quilt "Bow River Aspens."

CJ: This quilt "Bow River Aspens" is based on a photo that my husband took on our dream trip to Banff and Jasper, Canada that we took last October to coincide with our thirtieth year wedding anniversary. When he took the picture we were standing in this aspen grove that was the biggest aspen grove I'd ever been in my life and as he took the picture, right then and there I thought this has got to be a quilt. So that is why I chose this quilt.

KM: Tell me about how you made it.

CJ: As I made this quilt, I used the photo to get the color and the light and the proportions. I just tried to translate mostly the feeling of the quality of light and also it was these aspens were tall, so tall that I was overwhelmed by it. It was like being inside a Beth Doolittle print. I don't know if you know that artist. [Karen hums that she does.] As we stood there, I said, 'Oh my gosh, we are in art.' That is what it was like. So that is what I wanted to translate and that was what was so exciting when the quilt was finished because when I look at it now I'm immediately transported right back to that place in Bans. It is just wonderful, I love that quilt.

KM: How do you use this quilt?

CJ: This quilt is hanging in our living room. It is going to stay there, this one is a keeper. I actually had two or three people ask if I wanted to sell it, but not this one. I have made lots and lots of quilts, but when I look at this quilt I'm immediately transported back to this place in Banff, which I find amazing. I would love to go back to Banff. That was the most beautiful place I had ever been. I have been to a lot of places, but it was gorgeous.

KM: Is this quilt typical of your style?

CJ: I wouldn't say it is typical of my style. I do two different kinds of quilting. I do a lot of bold bright quilts, a lot of bright, bright colors and I do a lot of intricate piecing and then I also do a lot of what I call 'freedom quilting.' Just putting fabrics together in a more improvisational manner. This quilt is kind of focused towards some more nature, nature-scape type quilts based on photos, because I live with a photographer so I always have a wonderful resource there.

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

CJ: In this quilt, for the background I took oh just thousands of just little pieces of fabric and I laid them all down on the background and stitched them down to, I wanted to create the feeling of light coming through the trees. So I first created the whole background, which was, that was new for me and that was fun. A lot of times I will just start with background fabric, but this time I built up my own background first and then I kind of made some curvy parts in the foreground so you would have that feeling of walking back into the trees like we did. Then I laid the other fabric on top, appliqud it down for the trees and I put the black on the bottoms because these trees, I don't know if it is because of the snow or what , these trees had great big sections of black way up their trunks, much higher than I had ever seen on aspen trees. I stitched the trunks and branches down and then I put more leaves. This is one of those quilts that it was almost hard to stop because, you know how you feel you could put three thousand more leaves on or I could stop. That is where [laughs.] I finally just had to say stand back from the quilt, 'Crane, let it go.' That is what I did. I usually hand quilt. I hand quilt a lot of stuff and I machine quilt, but I love to hand quilt, but this one is all machine quilted.

KM: Tell me about your interest in quilting.

CJ: Oh boy let's see. I made my first quilt in high school about thirty-eight years ago, just a twin size quilt made of squares on a Sears Kenmore machine my parents bought me. But after I had made that one quilt a couple of my younger brothers took the sewing machine apart one day, they were trying to find parts they said to build an amplifier, so it was probably three years before I borrowed somebody's machine and then made another quilt. [laughs.] They denied it of course, but it is true. They did take the sewing machine apart. [laughs.]

KM: How many hours a week do you quilt?

CJ: Lets see, I've been working more lately and so I probably would use to quilt and work between I say twenty, thirty, sometimes forty hours a week, and lately it is down to under twenty because I also have a part time job that I do, which actually helps me in my quilting because in my job, I work for a hospital and I work with OBs, baby doctors, and I do a lot of numbers and so the more I work with numbers, I don't know if it is that left brain right brain thing, but the more that I work with my left brain the more creativity I have at home. Sometimes I will be working away and I will think, oh this is a good idea, this is a good idea. [laughs.]

KM: Are there quiltmakers among our family?

CJ: Absolutely not. My mother can't even sew a button on. Nobody in my family. Of course I now have a lot of quilting friends, but no one in my family ever sewed.

KM: What made you make your first quilt?

CJ: [laughs.] I had failed a home ec class and I had never failed a class before, in fact I was one of those straight A type of gals. Anyway I failed this home ec class so I was determined to try and do it up by myself. Because I grew up in New Hampshire and because of the Colonial aspects of living in New Hampshire, I said, 'You know, I'm going to make a patchwork quilt.' It was really hard to convince my parents to buy me the Sears sewing machine since the aforementioned failure in home ec, but they did and that is how I did it.

KM: How did you end up in Idaho?

CJ: I met my husband in California. He is from Idaho, so of course a girl from New Hampshire and a guy from Idaho can't meet anywhere but California. We lived in California for a while and then we moved to Idaho. I love Idaho.

KM: How long have you lived in Idaho?

CJ: We first lived in Idaho for about twelve years and then with my husband's job we moved to Chicago and we lived in, hey right near you. In fact we were there building the deep tunnel project in downtown Chicago. We were there for almost three years and then we moved to Syracuse, New York and we were there for almost three years, and then we came back to Idaho and we have been back here just under thirteen years.

KM: Do you think that your work reflects Idaho at all?

CJ: Absolutely yes. I do, I think the bright sunlight here, the heat in the summer, the cold in the winter, I think I really see that in my work. I see it in my bright colors. I used to say when we lived in Syracuse; all my quilts seemed a little foggy because of all the humidity in the air. We are very active outdoor people, so a lot of the work I do seems to reflect the beauty of the outdoors.

KM: Tell me about the quilt groups you belong to and why they are important to you.

CJ: Let's see, I belong to a lot of groups. I am in a small group, ten of us. We call ourselves the Nimble Thimbles. I have a local quilt guild called Boise Basin Quilters. I belong to a regional group called The Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters, and then nationally I belong to International Quilt Association based in Houston, and American Quilter's Society based in Paducah, and then I've been online with quilting groups. I started online with the Genie Online Quilters back in '93 and that is what morphed into QuiltArt, which I'm still in today. That is very important to me, what we get from QuiltArt, very, very important to me.

KM: How is it important to you?

CJ: I think it is important in what it has done is that it made the word smaller and at the same time you are amazed at how big the world is. I don't know if that makes sense, but you could be talking to somebody from Israel or somebody from Brazil and then a minute later you are reading something from somebody in Boise, six miles from me and you realize that men and women, both men and women are quilters, you realize that people in our world, we all have the same hopes and dreams and interests and concerns and we can all share that through quilting. It is a wonderful resource for life as well as our actual art and craft of making a quilt.

KM: What about your local group?

CJ: My local group is Boise Basin Quilters, we just celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary and I joined twenty-three years ago. I think it is very important to have a local group and to appreciate your local group. We do a lot of community outreach, we make quilts for the local hospitals, bereavement quilts, and there is a gal in our group who is very involved in Project Linus that we will make quilts for that are given to police so they have them in their possession, so if they, if they pick up a young child that is maybe in a domestic violence situation or whatever, they can comfort them with a quilt. The bereavement quilts are another very important part of this process. We give those to the hospitals and they are used in the nurseries which, I work for OB/GYN doctors so that is very important to me. Then on my own I have worked with a lot of local groups to make quilts. I've worked with third and fourth graders in my local Eagle schools and make quilts for Ronald McDonald House and Habitat for Humanity. I worked with a group at the local alternative high school and we made a couple of quilts for a local Christian children's ranch and for Habitat for Humanity. I love passing on that idea of doing absolutely your best work for something that is given away. I really love to do that. I think it is important for people to see and I find most kids today totally absorb that idea and they push it forward. Sometimes when I read that kids today are selfish or whatever, I find completely the opposite. I love teaching kids, and I love teaching boys. Something I've observed that may sound silly but it is true. Because boys play so much Nintendo and video games, they have incredible hand eye coordination. I can tell a nine year old boy, 'Okay, this is what a quarter inch is.' And they go "okay. And then I say, 'I want you to put these two pieces of fabric together and I want you to sew all the way down this long seam that distance.' They are like, 'alright,' and off they go. It is shocking. I have adults that have quilted for years and they can't do consistent quarter inch seams like nine and ten year old boys can. I'm always amazed at that. I get them on my side by telling them, 'I want all the video game players in here to raise your hands first because you are going to be the best quilters.' It is fun, I love to do that.

KM: Have you ever used quilting to get through difficult times?

CJ: I would say that, oh yeah, I always have had at least one or two or three, or four hundred projects going so quilts have always been part of my life. Good times or bad. I can zone out with quilting and let the world go by. I hand quilt and I've always joked that I think a group of hand quilters sitting around could solve all the problems in the world, because you can't quilt fast, you can't quilt slow. When you hand quilt you get into what I call quilting speed and it settles you down and you can just really think and relax. Yah, I would say I have used quilting to get through difficult times.

KM: Describe your studio.

CJ: Oh, I have a really fun studio. My family calls my studio Crane's World. It is a very long room, I image regular people might actually have called it a family room instead of Crane's World, but it is very long. I have a fireplace, a TV, a DVD, I can play music, I have a computer, a couch, and a dog. [laughs.] That is what is in my studio. At least two sewing machines. All quilters have at least two machines, right?

KM: What kind of machine do you use?

CJ: I use a Janome. I have used many Berninas in the past, right now I use a Janome and I use an old Pfaff. My Pfaff is an old 1471 Workhorse that I can take with me, like if I'm going to teach young people. I think I could swim across the ocean dragging that Pfaff along with me and when I got to the other coast, dry it off and start sewing. It is my old friend, but I love the Janome.

KM: Which one do you have?

CJ: I have the 6600. I did have the 6500 but I upgraded.

KM: Good for you.

CJ: It is true I love the Janome, even though I have had Berninas in the past and loved them. Right now this is a good machine for me.

KM: Whose works are you drawn to and why?

CJ: Who do I like. I really, really like Caryl Bryer Fallert. I have always like Caryl Fallert and I think it started when I was in Chicago, the quilt guild [Salt Creek Quiot Guild.] that I belonged to met in Hinsdale, which is a little bit west of the city, and she would, this was in 1990 and she would come by and give workshops because she lived right nearby. Right from the beginning, I, of course I loved her sense of design and color, but her dedication to people and empowering other people is something that so impressed me and that I have taken that forward on my own and when I teach people now I've always thought of her and her generosity in quilting that I really appreciate. Another person I really like is Joan Colvin. I know she has passed on now, but I always liked her work and I taught at the Sisters Quilt Show and the first time I taught I was, you know I taught a lot locally, but I had never taught there and she was teaching that same year and I will never forget how kind she was. She just came up and talked to me and gave me some ideas. I've always appreciated her.

KM: What advice would you offer someone starting out?

CJ: That is a great question. I just taught a local class the other day and I gave them this advice. We have so many demands on our life with work and home and family and all that, so I said why have you decided to take time out to make a quilt. I said because it is important to you that you do something with your own hands and you watch yourself create something. So I tell people it is not about perfection, it is about creating something and being totally immersed in the process. I said, you know I will teach you stuff about color but if you don't want to use a particular color, you don't have to. I always tell people, it is called color theory, not color law. I want people to enjoy the process, not think that they have to be perfect. I want people to enjoy it. I always tell people--you always get the standard line, 'I'm not patient enough to quilt.' I tell people that's completely opposite, because quilting doesn't take patience, quilting creates patience. I firmly believe that. Some people are harder to convince than others, but I really think that is true.

KM: Interesting. I have to think on that one.

CJ: Really think on that, because you know most people just think it is the opposite, but it isn't. It really does create patience and the thing is after you put two pieces of fabric together, those two pieces encourage you to add a third and a fourth and then the next thing you know you have become part of the process. I think inside all of us we all want to create and by the way I also think everybody is creative, because I think it is a learned skill. I think some people have more natural talent than others, but I think creativity is a totally learned skill that anyone can learn. So I'm always trying to convince people of that. That is the secret.

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

CJ: I would say that people are not letting the joy be part of it. They are saying, 'How fast can I do this?' Sometimes I want to say, 'This quilt is going to take you forever.' [laughs.] And somebody will laugh and go 'haw, haw,' but it is like 'no,' I go, 'Look at it in the long haul. Just have the joy and the process of creation, not can I make this in eight hours or less? Or what is the quickest way I can get it quilted? I think, 'Oh my gosh, everything else in your life is telling you hurry, hurry, hurry.' I don't want people to hurry when they quilt. I would rather you made one quilt a year that you totally loved and became absorbed in than put out ten obligation quilts. That is why I ask people when they come to a class if they are there for themselves or because it is an obligation quilt. Because if so, I can teach them differently than if they want to learn something for themselves. Because an obligation quilt is like, 'Oh dear, I have to make a quilt for my aunt, her sister, her dog, my you know.'

KM: Do you think that this is kind of a reflection on Americans being product driven?

CJ: Absolutely, yes, I one hundred percent agree with that I really try and counsel people to completely take the opposite path in their process. In other words, just enjoy the process. It is like somebody goes, I don't like binding a quilt and I'm like well why not, can't you find the joy in every little stitch, and the oh my gosh you're almost at the end of this quilt journey. We are way too production oriented and I think that sometimes people pump out one hundred quilt tops and say I don't know what I'm going to do with all of them. I want to say: start and finish each one. [laughs.] One at a time. I can't convince everybody of that, that is for sure.

KM: Do you think of yourself more as an artist or a quiltmaker or do you even make the distinctions?

CJ: I consider myself an artist yes and I would further that by saying I think every quilter is an artist. The same way when I look at somebody that can make a perfect pie crust or a perfect pie. My husband is an incredible musician and photographer and I think that when we take the time to create we are creating art, so yah I have no problems saying that I'm an artist. That is the hardest thing to convince people of. 'I don't know if I'm a quilt artist or I'm a quilter.' It is like well whatever you feel comfortable with.

KM: Is there any aspects of quiltmaking that you do not enjoy? You talked about joy. Is there anything that you kind of dread when you do or not?

CJ: No actually no I don't. I just, I like to take each part when I'm in that part and I like to have that whole part absorbed, like if I'm cutting I like to cut and if I'm designing I like to design so I made it, I think I made a decision years ago that if I was going to do this and I was going to take the time to do this I was going to love every bit of it and so far that has turned out to be true.

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

CJ: That is a really good question. I think, well, I think if you are, if you are drawn into the design like maybe it is by how you react to how a quiltmaker uses color or the use of light or their theme. I think that Nancy Halpern, for example, her "Archipelago" from years ago. I still look at that quilt, I can look at that quilt and go 'Oh I love how she improvised on those little light extended triangles she used in that quilt.' If you looked at it, taking all the pieces apart, it is a very simple quilt, but that was a very artistically powerful quilt to me. Do you know the one I mean? [KM hums agreement.] Yes, yes, I love that quilt. I haven't thought about that in a long time, that is nice, yes. Thanks for a nice memory.

KM: Oh you are welcome. What do you think makes a great quilter?

CJ: What makes a great quilter? I think it would be someone that has a passion for the craft and that bubbles over into the ability to, what am I trying to say, you know to be able to translate that passion into their work. Again I think of Caryl Fallert and her work. You see somebody that really has a passion and has put enough time into it that she has translated that into her vision. I think that is what makes a great quiltmaker.

KM: Besides Carol, who else has influenced you?

CJ: I like, I like other artists, like I love the pointillist artists, Seurat and since you are in Chicago you will love this. I remember when we first went down to the Chicago Art Museum and I always loved, my whole life I loved George Seurat and I loved his "Sunday Afternoon" and I still remember the day I walked around the corner and actually saw that real picture there in Chicago. It was, 'That is amazing.'

KM: That would make you stop in your tracks.

CJ: It stopped me in my tracks. I love him and I think he is so relates to quilters because you just take, just like you take little pieces of fabric and you make something big, he took all his little dots and made something big. I also love, because I'm from New England, I love Charles Wysocki. That kind of sense of simple life and the ocean and that feeling. I like that.

KM: What advances in technology have influenced your work? You said you hand quilt, but you also machine quilt. You changed sewing machines.

CJ: I think, I mean, I love technology. I love the fact that, for example, I can tell people hand quilting, is great and machine quilting is great. I love that I have this technically wonderful sewing machine that I really appreciate. It is funny because just a couple weeks ago we had a Boise Basin Quilters show and I entered this, I don't know about fifty inch photo transfer of a deer that I had done. I had been doing photo transfers since, oh my gosh, like the late eighties. I remember I was living in Syracuse and I had to send a photo transfer out to the Great American Quilt factory in Denver, Colorado, the only place in the country that you could actually have this photo mysteriously entered into fabric. Then I went through the By Jupiter phase when you put the gel on the pictures to transfer them, and then I went to my Bubble Jet Set phase where you made your own photo transfers and now you look at technology where my newest lust are the EQ printable sheets. To me, they are just nothing short of magic that I can, and again I can take my digital camera, I can enter a photo into my computer, I can go to Photo Shop, I can play with it, I can edit it and then I can print them out on fabric. To me that is technology. I was talking with somebody at our quilt show, and they asked how I did that picture of that deer, and I was like, you know it is just amazing. That is a photo transfer. Yeah, definitely I think technology has really, really helped us in quilting to what we are able to do now versus what was impossible, what only fifteen years ago. I'm all for technology.

KM: Tell me about your Forest Service quilt.

CJ: My Forest Service quilt? Oh yeah, it is a wonderful quilt. In 2003 Idaho had the privilege of providing the tree for the United States Capitol for their Christmas celebration. As part of that I was asked to make a quilt for the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service. He had started his career in Idaho. In making this quilt, I found out all these different places he had been in his career in Idaho and I made photo transfers of about twenty different places in Idaho from pictures that my husband had taken and I transferred those onto fabric and put them inside Sawtooth blocks. In the center I appliqud a picture of Stanley Lake, which is a wonderful lake in the middle of Idaho's Sawtooth mountains and I hand quilted it. We went back to the gala at Washington, D.C. and we were there for the lighting of the Capital tree and the gala at the National Botanic Garden and it was like being in a fairy tale. It was wonderful, it was just like being in a fairy tale and we presented the quilt to the Chief and he just loved it. He kept it in his office at the Forest Service in Washington D.C. until he just retired I think like a year and a half ago. He said he was going to take it with him when he left office, so I thought that was really nice. A very nice person too by the way. It is nice to give a quilt to a nice person.

KM: Was it difficult to give the quilt away?

CJ: No. I never, I never have a problem giving a quilt away, because when I make a quilt I like the fact that I'm stitching this for someone else. But I do have a funny story about giving a quil away.

KM: Oh excellent.

CJ: It is a great story. My son was about six, he is twenty-four now, and when I tell the story now he always goes oh mom. But I had made a quilt for this really good friend of ours that was getting married. This man was a confirmed bachelor and he was finally getting married. I had made this kaleidoscope quilt and I dyed all the fabric for the border and my son helped me stir the dye, so he was a very important part of this quilt. I hand quilted the whole thing. As we are on our way to FedEx to ship it, my son looked at me and said, 'I want this quilt.' And I was so shocked and I said, 'Well it is not your quilt. It's Steve's quilt and we are going to mail it to him in like two minutes.' So he didn't say anything else until we get to FedEx and he says again, ' I want the quilt.' And I say, No honey you can't have the quilt.' I FedExed the quilt overnight to Ojai,California. That night my son said, 'You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pray that the quilt comes back.' I said, 'Well you can't do that Brian.' And he said, 'Absolutely that is what I'm going to do.' I said, 'No, no that is not what you pray for.' He said, 'Nope, you said I could talk to God about whatever I wanted, I'm going to pray that the quilt comes back.' I just said, 'Fine go ahead.' And he says, 'Fine I will.' A couple days went by and I didn't hear from anyone in Ojai and I was like, 'Wow I kind of wish I had a call saying they had gotten the quilt. ' I thought, 'Oh maybe they are busy with wedding. Whatever.' Then I get a call two days later from FedEx in Chicago and they say, 'You have a package here.' Now my mother used to send me packages all the time so I never thought anything of it. I picked my son up from school and we went to FedEx and there is the quilt package sitting there. I ask FedEx what happened. They said I don't know. It went all the way there and we must have gone to the wrong house or something and because you had signature required and we couldn't find somebody by that name and we brought it back. My son who is standing in FedEx with me looks at me and I went, "Fine it is your quilt. [laughs.] I made this couple another quilt and gave it to them for their first wedding anniversary. I still have that first quilt. I renamed it the "Boomerang Quilt" and I'm going to give it to Brian on his wedding.

KM: How nice.

CJ: Isn't that a great story. I love that story. Like I said even though he is twenty-four and I tell it now, he goes oh mom. [laughs.]

KM: What does your family think of your quiltmaking?

CJ: I think because I have, we have always lead as a family a very artistic life that they take it for granted that I'm an artist and I'm a quiltmaker and I have always had a dedicated space. We have always treated art as, like I said as a natural part of life. I think my son grew up thinking everybody had parents that played music, and took pictures, went to museums, went to quilt shows, and you know, I think as he got older he was shocked when he found out that other people's mom's didn't have sewing machines and fabrics everywhere and design walls. He grew up with big huge design walls and thinking nothing of it. I think that is good. They have always taken me seriously. Like I said, I have my own space called Crane's World. [laughs.]

KM: We are getting near the end so I always like to ask people if there is anything else that you would like to share.

CJ: No I think I'm good. This has been really delightful, I really appreciate this.

KM: Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to share and you were great.

CJ: Thank you.

KM: We are going to conclude our interview. It is now 11:44.