Interview with Lisa Heller, March 25, 2023

Partial Transcript: Hi, my name is Amy Milne, and I am the executive director of the Quilt Alliance; and I'm here interviewing Lisa Heller in the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva, North Carolina.

Segment Synopsis: Heller introduces her touchstone quilt, "Safe and Legal". Heller began quilting after she retired in 2007 and started making art quilts soon after that. She enjoyed printing and dyeing her own fabric and has attended workshops to learn more about those techniques. Heller dyed some of the fabric used in the touchstone quilt during a workshop taught by Pat Pauly at the Quilt Surface Design Symposium in Columbus, Ohio. After returning from that workshop, Heller was inspired to make the quilt in the summer of 2019. She created the quilt intuitively while thinking about recent changes in politics and women's rights to obtaining safe abortions. The quilt has won several awards, and Heller has enjoyed listening to viewers' responses to seeing it during quilt shows. The quilt features imagery of coat hangers, which represent unsafe methods of abortion.

Keywords: Amy Milne; Fabric - Hand-dyed; Fabric dyeing; North Carolina; Pat Pauly; Politics; Quilt Purpose - Exhibition; Quilt Surface Design Symposium; Quilt purpose - Activism/Awareness; Safe and legal; Sylva

Subjects: Art quilts

Partial Transcript: The quilt has a label on it that says, "Criminalizing abortion does not stop abortions. It just makes abortion less safe. Unsafe abortions are the third leading cause of maternal deaths worldwide," and that's according to the World Health Organization.

Segment Synopsis: Heller discusses the current political attacks on abortion rights that are still relevant to her quilt, even though she made it in 2019. She also elaborates on her interpretation of symbols in the quilt, including bars that represent the threat of doctors being imprisoned for performing abortions, as well as nests and Xs. Heller describes her printing process, which used thickened dye, screens, fabric paint, and newspaper stencils. She borrowed wire coat hangers from a dry cleaner to create the stencils.

Keywords: Art quiltmaking; Fabric - Hand-printed; Fabric - Painted; Quilt labels; Stencils; Techniques

Subjects: Quilts--United States; Textile artists

Partial Transcript: Had you done any quilts that were activist-oriented, or meaning, you know had sort of a message to yourself or your audience, prior to this one?

Segment Synopsis: Heller discusses her previous work, including a small quilt that features hand-printed fabric with yellow crosses on it. She explains that yellow crosses were a symbol for using mustard gas in World War I. Heller did not intend for the quilt to have an activist message, but a country gassed its own citizens while she was making the quilt, which influenced her interpretation of its design. Her quilts usually focus more on attractive designs, nature, and what makes her happy, rather than having an activist message.

Keywords: Aesthetics; Fabric - Hand-dyed; Fabric - Hand-printed; Quilt purpose - Activism/Awareness; Quilt purpose - Art or personal expression

Partial Transcript: Do you think that people seeing this quilt, compared to a quilt that's more of an aesthetically-designed quilt with less of a message, do they say different things about you as a maker, and you know, how are you with that?

Segment Synopsis: Heller explains that she needed a lot of encouragement from friends in order to show the quilt. She says that she's been shy about showing it and has only shown it in a few quilt shows. Heller has mostly received positive comments about it, although she heard that the quilt received negative comments from two attendees at a quilt show. She acknowledges that abortion is an uncomfortable subject to discuss, but she is at a place in life where she felt like it was important to show the quilt.

Keywords: Politics; Quilt purpose - Activism/Awareness; Quilt purpose - Exhibition; Quilt shows/exhibitions

Partial Transcript: Are you working on anything with any type of controversial messaging now?

Segment Synopsis: Heller isn't currently making any quilts with activist messages. She is working with botanically-printed fabric and also making a quilt for her quilting group that is a "selfie," which features her face as a self portrait. Heller explains that she could see herself making other quilts with a message in the future.

Keywords: Fabric dyeing; Portraits on quilts; Quilt guilds; Quilt purpose - Challenge or contest entry

Partial Transcript: So this is what you've done recently and what you're doing now. What's your first, let's go back to your personal quilt history. What's your first quilt memory?

Segment Synopsis: Heller learned how to sew from her grandmother when she was seven or eight years old. Both of her grandmothers sewed, but no one in her family quilted. Heller's grandmother gave her a Singer Featherweight sewing machine when she was ten. Heller still has the machine and sews with it. As a child, Heller tried making a doll quilt from fabric scraps, but the velvet shredded. She learned how to quilt after retiring. Heller made a traditional four patch pattern and then began making art quilts.

Keywords: Crazy quilts; Doll quilts; Fabric - Multiple scrap; Grandmothers; Singer Featherweight sewing machine; Velvet

Partial Transcript: What artwork had you done prior to discovering quilting?

Segment Synopsis: Heller has always been interested in creating art, including drawing, painting, making glass beads, and doing other textile arts. She identifies as an artist, but Heller has observed that some other quilters don't consider themselves artists. She believes that most quilters are artists, because they are making creative decisions when working on a quilt, like choosing which colors to use for a pattern.

Keywords: Color theory; Fiber artists; Glass beads; Grandmothers; Quilt purpose - Artistic expression

Subjects: Quiltmakers--United States

Partial Transcript: Do you sign your quilts or label your quilts?

Segment Synopsis: Heller always labels her quilts. She was encouraged to sign and label them by other quilters soon after Heller started making quilts, but some quilt artists have told her not to include the date. The artists have said that including a newer date on a quilt may cause it to have a lower value when compared to an older quilt. Heller says that she will probably include the date on the touchstone quilt, because it is relevant to the events happening when the quilt was made and her inspiration for making it.

Keywords: Quilt documentation; Quilt history; Quilt labels; Selling quilts

Partial Transcript: What will, will you always keep this quilt, do you know? Or do you, what are your plans for it?

Segment Synopsis: Heller would like the touchstone quilt to continue being seen, which is why she chose to show it for her QSOS interview. It was also featured in the social justice section of a book published by Jane Dunnewold, "Damsel, Hero, Artist, Judge: Meditations on Archetypes and Creativity." She plans to continue showing it and mentions the possibility of marching with it at a demonstration some day.

Keywords: Jane Dunnewold; Published work - Quilts; Quilt purpose - Activism/Awareness; Quilt purpose - Exhibition

Partial Transcript: Do you sell other work?

Segment Synopsis: Heller has sold quilts through quilt shows and finds it gratifying to know that other people enjoy her work and have them in their homes. Her family has also been supportive of her quilting, especially Heller's husband and mother. Each of her children have one quilt made by Heller, but she tries not to push her own artwork onto them.

Keywords: Family; Mothers; Quiltmaking for family; Selling quilts

Partial Transcript: How do you enjoy that? What's different about that? Do you enjoy it any less than when you're doing a piece that's going to be, that you consider art, or do you consider that art as well?

Segment Synopsis: Heller also makes more traditional quilts, including lap quilts, but she considers those to be more craft than art. She doesn't like putting the binding on the quilts. When Heller had a serious illness after making the touchstone quilt, she was given quilts by members of her quilting group, the Shady Ladies. Heller still finds comfort in those quilts and hopes that people feel the same way about the lap and baby quilts that she has given to others. She wasn't able to quilt during that time, but Heller did lots of knitting.

Keywords: Knitting; Lap quilts; Quilt purpose - Disease/illness; Quilt purpose - Gift or presentation; Quilts as gifts; The Shady Ladies; Traditional quilts

Partial Transcript: It's beautiful that your friends filled that void. It was amazing. That's what I was mentioning to you earlier, that the quilt community has just been amazing to me.

Segment Synopsis: Heller received an outpouring of support from the quilting community while she was seriously ill. She is a member of the Shady Ladies quilting group in Waynesville, North Carolina. Heller saw the Shady Ladies' quilt show before becoming a member and then asked to join the group. Being a member of the group has helped Heller improve her quiltmaking by working on the annual challenges, and she has made friends through the group. She is also a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), the Asheville Quilt Guild, and Local Cloth in Asheville.

Keywords: Asheville; Asheville Quilt Guild; Local Cloth; North Carolina; Quilt guilds; Quilt purpose - Challenge or contest entry; Quilt shows/exhibitions; Studio Art Quilt Associates; The Shady Ladies; Waynesville

Partial Transcript: Do you have any smaller crit groups, or do the Shady Ladies do critiques of each other's work?

Segment Synopsis: The Shady Ladies offer critiques of each other's work, and Heller has also continued participating with a group that she met while attending a workshop at the Quilt Surface Design Symposium in Columbus, Ohio. The group is led by Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer, and they continue to meet online through Zoom. Heller has learned techniques from that group, including incorporating some hand quilting in her quilts, instead of only using machine quilting.

Keywords: Columbus; Hand quilting; Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer; Machine quilting; Ohio; Quilt Surface Design Symposium

Partial Transcript: So you're quite experimental, you enjoy that part of the process.

Segment Synopsis: Heller discusses her personal quilt aesthetic and techniques that she has been using recently. She didn't think that she had her own quilt aesthetic, but then she looked at her work and divided it into a few categories. She enjoys improvisational quilting, hand printing, vibrant colors, botanic printing, and adding hand embellishments to her quilts. During the pandemic, Heller joined online quilt communities, including taking Jane Dunnewold's Creative Strength Training and participating in a group that's continued from that.

Keywords: Fabric - Print; Fabric dyeing; Hand printing; Hand quilting; Improvisational piecing; Jane Dunnewold; Online quilt communities; Quiltmaking style

Partial Transcript: Have you done any teaching or thought about doing any teaching?

Segment Synopsis: Heller started a surface design group at Local Cloth in Asheville, North Carolina and continued that for a few years, but she prefers to have a more flexible schedule than teaching allows. Heller finds inspiration from the natural beauty of where she lives, which overlooks Mount Sterling and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She also spends time in Florida and thinks that influences her work as well.

Keywords: Asheville; Florida; Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Local Cloth; Mount Sterling; North Carolina; Quiltmaking inspiration; Teaching quiltmaking

Partial Transcript: Let me ask too about what, so this is a fun a question, but it's kind of hard. What do you think makes a great quilt?

Segment Synopsis: Heller says that a great quilt is one that makes her stop and take a picture at a quilt show, and continue studying the photograph when she gets home, especially when she wants to understand how a quilt was made. She also says that other quilts are great because they've been around for a long time and are loved, even if they may not be as impressive. Heller notes that her idea of a great quilt could also be different from day to day.

Keywords: Quilt design; Quilt purpose - Exhibition; Quilt purpose - Heirloom

Partial Transcript: Are there other artists who you're really drawn to their work, contemporaries of yours who you are really drawn to?

Segment Synopsis: Heller has taken painting classes with Ursula Gullow in Asheville, North Carolina. She enjoys using mixed media and having fun with art, which may influence her quiltmaking. She also admires quilts by Sue Benner, Pat Pauly, and Carol Soderlund. Heller's idea of a good vacation is visiting a quilt show or taking a workshop. She thinks that seeing the texture and colors of quilts in person is a more enjoyable experience than seeing them in photos. Heller also likes seeing different quilts at shows that are all based on the same theme.

Keywords: Quilt shows/exhibitions; Quiltmaking inspiration; Quiltmaking style; Traveling for quilt shows

Partial Transcript: Last two questions: why is, or what do you think about, what do you think your quilts reflect about you and your generation, your time and this time in history?

Segment Synopsis: Heller says that the touchstone quilt shows her political beliefs and also her passion for surface design. She wants her voice to be heard and her opinion to be respected through her quilts. Heller appreciates that she has been able to exhibit the touchstone quilt, especially because she was originally hesitant to show it. She hopes that the quilt will make people think. She also wants to express her creativity through quilting and make quilts that are beautiful.

Keywords: Quilt purpose - Activism/Awareness; Quilt purpose - Art or personal expression; Quilt purpose - Artistic expression

Partial Transcript: I guess my last question is, what do you think the biggest challenge confronting quiltmakers is today?

Segment Synopsis: Heller jokes that the number of choices and the price of fabric are challenging for quilters. However, she likes the idea of upcycling and reusing old clothing for quilts. Heller thinks that there are too many options and directions to go in, so it can be difficult for quilters to find their own voices. Heller says that through persistence and by following her passion for quiltmaking, she hopes that her own voice will keep developing in her work.

Keywords: Challenges within the quilting community; Fabric - upcycling; Fabric choice; Quiltmaking style; Scrap quilts