Interview with Kimberlee Madsen

Karen Musgrave (KSM): This is Karen Musgrave and I am conducting a Quilters' S.O.S. - Save Our Stories interview with Kimberlee Madsen. Kimberlee is in Williston, North Dakota and I am in Naperville, Illinois, so we are conducting this interview over the telephone. Today's date is August 28, 2008. It is now 11:20 in the morning. Kimberlee thanks so much for agreeing to do this interview with me. Please tell me about the quilt that you selected.

Kimberlee Madsen (KM): The quilt that I have chosen has a great deal of meaning to me because it made by my maternal grandmother. Her name was Clara Matilda Oleson Anderson. She was born in 1880 and she said that she started this quilt when she was 14. It's a Hexagon Mosaic and she 'just had to get it done.' This quilt has about 1,756 hexagons that measure 1 1/4 inches across. They are made mostly out of dressmaker materials of the times, wool, silk and those kinds of things, so it's really a heavy quilt, but it really shows her dedication to quiltmaking, I think.

KSM: And how did you come to get the quilt?

KM: When my grandmother died, my mother took possession of the quilt and then when she died, I am the keeper of all things textile for my family [laughs.], so I inherited this quilt. And other quilts that my grandmother made.

KSM: So, how do you use this quilt?

KM: I don't use it. It stored in an acid free box wrapped and padded with acid free tissue. I pull it out when I'm curious and need some inspiration. I had done a small research project on this quilt while I was in grad school.

KSM: What did you find out about it when you did your research?

KM: I found out that my grandmother was really a product of her time and she was very with it. The Hexagon pattern was traditionally an English paper piecing pattern that came in from England as people immigrated. She may not have used the paper piecing method because I can't find any evidence of paper left in. Some quilters would leave the paper in the hexagons. When she was a young girl in Minnesota, I think that she was influenced by popular magazines that carried this pattern. I think that she was very "of her time" because everyone was making this pattern, she had a fabric/scrap collection to draw from and she wanted to be in that craze.

KSM: What are your plans for the quilt?

KM: That's a very good question. I think that it should be preserved. It's not in pristine condition; some of the silks have shattered due to the weighting of the silk. And it's got a tear in it that is about 6 inches long. But I just think that, at least if it stays within my family, hopefully my nieces are interested in keeping it or else it could be donated to a state historical society or maybe the International Quilt Study Center if they would want it. It's not, at all, gorgeous. It's very random. It's not pretty like the later versions like the Grandmother's Flower Garden. It's kind of homely, but it's a testament to her stick-to-it-tiveness and I guess that's why I like it. It took her a long time to complete this quilt.

KSM: Six years? Is that right?

KM: Yeah I think so. That's what I could find from an interview that she had given to a local newspaper, that it must have taken her about 6 years to get it finished. And that would take her from about the time she was 14 to age 20. She was married shortly after that.

KSM: Tell me about your interest in quiltmaking.

KM: I think I was engineered to be textile interested. My mother, of course, was a product of my grandmother and so my mother always sewed clothing and always did art type things, craft type things. She was always very interested in home decorating. My father's mother also did sewing, embroidery, quilting and that kind of thing, too, but, the tradition there, I don't think it was as strong. My father was a farmer and a carpenter, so anything that had geometry involved interested him. He also sewed, he helped make costumes for my older brother and sister when they were in school and my parents were 4-H leaders, so all that stuff was always around me all the time I was growing up. I played with paper dolls and I was so excited when I was child, because I got one of those Singer sewing machines, it was just chain stitch. It was great to make Barbie clothes and all that. And I played with button boxes. Every time you went to my grandmother's house you came home with something that she had made, be it embroidered pillow cases, a knitted something, a crocheted something or a doll quilt. That was always around me, so I think I was just naturally programmed to want to be involved with textiles. When I graduated from high school I went to college at NDSU [North Dakota State University.] at Fargo, I majored in textiles and clothing. There, I concentrated mainly on construction and business aspects and then when I came back to this area to get my first job--there was an active fiber arts guild. We experimented with batik, spinning, basketry and all kinds of fiber things, and I always came back to fabric. There's something about it, I don't know if the texture, the colors, the patterns, but it just seems natural for me and so I've concentrated on that. I took my first formal quilting class in 1981, from Judy Holt, who was living here at the time and it has just mushroomed since then.

The first quilt that I ever did make though, I made in 1976 and 1977 before I went off to college. It's the ubiquitous polyester quilt that everyone started out with at that time. It's just alternating patterned squares and solid squares. It's an ugly thing, but there is nothing warmer and it's pretty much indestructible and yes, I still have it. [laughs.]

KSM: How many hours a week do you work at quiltmaking?

KM: I go in spurts where I have quiet spells, where everything else takes up my time and interest and then, I burst forth, I feel a need to be playing with fabric and then I'm in my studio, oh, I don't know, maybe sometimes 5 hours, sometimes--that can go on for 3 or 4 weeks, or a couple of months, and then I'm not down here as much. Never clean your studio, because once it's clean, you'll never want to go back in it [laughs.] and mess it up again.

KSM: You're the kind of person that does one project at a time, or do you have multiple things going?

KM: I have multiple things going. I'm not so fond of the actual quilting of them. I usually have a couple of people do the machine quilting or hand quilting for me. For me the thrill is playing with the piecing of the tops and then once that is done, sending it off to be quilted and waiting for the surprise in the mail. I have maybe 7 or 8 quilts on a ladder device waiting to be bound. Then I have some sitting in pieces and piles that just need some corners done, because I've gotten a general idea of how it's working out, so the mystery is not there or the excitement isn't quite there to get it finished. Yeah, I have things in various stages of completeness.

KSM: What are your favorite techniques and materials?

KM: I really like working with 100% cottons and batiks, my all time favorites. I think I like batiks because the design isn't so obvious, it's more muted and you can use them in many different ways to get the motion and movement that you want. I just took a small art quilt class, that was offered here a couple of weekends ago, so I got to explore a lot of techniques that I had been collecting materials for, but I needed the kind of a kick in the butt to get me to use the materials. I did all kinds of fun things. I have this little small piece that is kind of a kind of a hydrangea, like a fantasy flower sitting here and I'm actually doing my own machine quilting on it. It's been a fun adventure andjump started me again to spend more time in my studio.

KSM: Since you keep talking about your studio, why don't you describe it for me.

KM: Oh, my studio is wild and crazy. It's about 12'x14' with grey carpet and the walls are--a friend texture painted so it kind of looks like gray and white concrete sponge painting. One wall is entirely book shelves and stuffed with books with overflow on the floor. I have a collection of Molas and Hmong embroidery on the wall for inspiration, because I just love the colors and the patterns. My studio is in the lower level of my house, so it's--we have a split level, so I have a large window at street level that looks out on a riot of coneflowers, delphiniums, bleeding hearts and weeds.. All the furniture is white and the kitty litter box is in here with me (ooh!). My father's mother's spinning wheel, a computer, music system and then a couple of sewing machines ready to go and lots of fabrics and books all around. It's a lot of eye candy! Anytime I wanted to research something or check on a pattern or see how somebody else has used color, I can grab a book and do that. I have a lot of books that vary from women's history of the west to quilting to fabrics to designers to wall paper samples, all kinds of inspirational things that I try to use as stimulation to get my creativity going.

KSM: In what way do you think your quilts reflect your community or region, or do they?

KM: I don't know if mine really do. Where I live is pretty traditional. At least with the older women and men, they seem to do more traditional dark colors, country type things, and mine aren't like that usually at all. Occasionally, I will do something that's pretty traditional, but I like to play with fusible appliqus, more than I like hand piecing and hand appliqu. I like a lot of color. I like a lot of pattern. Mine are probably more intense, I think, and I guess I'm not usually afraid to combine things that maybe other people will say, 'Oh, I'm not so sure.' And lately, I've become very fond of the color orange and I don't know why.

KSM: I love orange, too. I do and I go back to it often.

KM: I used to absolutely hate it. This one Kaffe Fassett print, I just fell in love with it and I just had to use it and now I just keep seeing orange and I keep buying it. I used to think I was a blue and green kind of person, but now this orange is really attractive to me. I think I go through various color stages, too. Because, I look at some of the work that I did when I was just learning and a lot of blues and whites, but in the early '80s you had a more limited pallette of fabric available, too because the quilting boom was restarting. I think now with all the fabric choices I can always find some fun fabric to get going. My fabric collection is on shelves in a closet where I can shut the doors (to keep the light from fading the fabric) and it's mostly organized by colors.

KSM: Do you belong to any art or quilt groups?

KM: I'm a regional representative for the Studio Art Quilt Associates. And then, I belong to a lot- the Quilter's Guild of North Dakota, North Dakota State Quilt Council, the International Quilt Study Center, The Alliance for American Quilts, American Quilt Study Group, Costume Society of America, plus a few art galleries.

KSM: Why are belonging to these groups important to you?

KM: I think it's a way to network with people that love the same thing that you do. When you get together with them, you are with people that speak the same language and t a lot of times non-textile people don't understand or appreciate why you're so crazy, wild in love with all things textile. And these people appreciate it so it's kind of like a mutual admiration society. Then, also I think it's a great way to learn. The American Quilt Study Group does a lot of research and the information that they find out about old quilts or contemporary quilts is just amazing. Their presentations are great. I think it helps us appreciate and understand why people feel the need to make quilts or make hand crafted items and it just raises your awareness so much.

KSM: What advice would you offer someone starting out?

KM: Don't be afraid of anything, jump in with all your enthusiasm and do what feels right to you. Because, if you stay true to what you feel is right, it'll be a success and you'll be pleased with it. Don't be intimidated by people that have had huge success. They can help you get to their level because they are so well invested in their knowledge and are interested in helping others succeed.

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

KM: I think, maybe, possibly being taken seriously. 'Oh, my grandma did that,' is what a lot a people say, 'Oh, people still do that?' I think they don't realize how you can get so wrapped up in it. A friend of mine had a daughter who was about 8 or 9 when she wanted to learn how to quilt, so her mother took her to the quilt shop and signed her up for a class. Her teacher was very nervous, because she had never taught anyone that age to quilt and so, this daughter just loves it and the mother said to me later, 'Now I can see why you have a passion for quilting and for fabric.' So, I think, just making people understand the importance of it and that it's not just something women do to keep their hands busy. There are so many men and women quilting now. It's not just a craft, it truly is an art. And I think it needs to be realized as that, even the simple Nine Patch or strippy quilt is art. A quilt is not just something to keep you warm at night in bed.

KSM: Do you sleep under a quilt?

KM: I sleep under a comforter. I really don't want to have my quilts on our bed. The main reason is that we have a 105 pound Weimaraner dog named Moose that sleeps with us at night. I just don't want to have to launder it so often. If I do have a quilt on our bed, it is usually - dare I say this - an inexpensively mass-produced quilt because if it gets damaged or stained or torn, it's not going to kill me to let it go into the gentle good night. Where if it is something that I made or a family member has made, I will be a little--no, seriously upset if it were to be damaged. I am always honored when I visit other people, to be allowed to sleep under their hand-made quilts.

KSM: Whose works are you drawn to and why?

KM: I really like Nancy Crow's use of color, line and the movement. I have a friend in Billings, Montana, Cheryl Wittmayer, with a pattern company called Sew-Be-It. She does a lot of fabulous work with batiks and colors and her quilts usually create a response of 'Oh Wow' in me. Who else do I really like? Anything by Kaffe Fasset, Amy Butler Michael James, Judy James, Robert Hillestad, Joan Morris, Velda Newman. I'm influenced by a bunch of people. I can't say, who the most or who would I like to be most like when I grow up, I'm not quite sure or who I would like to totally emulate. It would kind of be a combination of many people.

KSM: That's a good thing.

KM: Yeah.

KSM: It's a very good thing.

KM: I don't want my work to be derivative, so I try not to dissect what other people do too much, because then any originality I might have would be gone. I question whether anything is truly original anymore. It's such a fast paced world with internet access, all the magazines, books, pictures, other quilts all available to you. You can't help taking your inspiration from somewhere. It passes out of you in your art and you don't even know, maybe, where it came from, or maybe it was something that you saw 10 years ago that has just percolated to the top of your possibilities.

KSM: What do you think makes a great quilt?

KM: I think, for me, color. [laughs.] Color and something that creates movement and that makes me go 'Oh, I want to do that, or I wish I had that.' And also, I think, attention to detail that you can see in the quilt and that somebody else felt joy and pleasure in the making of it.

KSM: Why is quiltmaking important to you?

KM: I think I'm carrying on a tradition. In my maternal grandmother's family there were four sisters and all of them did handwork, whether it be quilting or painting on velvet, embroidery, knitting, crocheting, hardanger. I kind of feel a responsibility to carry this forth because I am the fabric keeper of some of those pieces. And I just think it's a lineage that you can't ignore. My sister, also, quilts and embroiders and those things, but she's not as crazy about it as I am. And one of her daughters has discovered knitting, now and has been goig crazy with felted purses. I'm hoping that will be the hook that will draw her into more textile projects and continue the family tradition. Another niece sews and does beadwork. I mean, I don't think we are Picasso people or everything that we've made is beautiful art, but it's an expression of who we are and what was inspiring to us at the time that we created it. I don't know, it's just something that has always grown on me. And granted, I will probably never make a million dollars or win huge prizes doing it, but that's okay, I don't need that.

KSM: Tell me if you've ever used quiltmaking to get through a difficult time.

KM: Oh yeah, quiltmaking is a good thing. In the early 1990s, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer, and I was in my studio, pretty much all of the time, and I was very, very busy making quilts because I couldn't deal with the ramifications of losing him. So, I made a lot of quilts, at that time, and they were all out of the same fabric, this wonderful, not quite Christmas red, but maybe a cherry red, and then a green and a cream. I kind of did a Christmas themed collection, I was working and working and working and I have runners and I have quilts and I have pillows and it just got me through some of that pain and let me try to make some happiness happen. That was a really difficult time and I think that focusing on making this kind of suite of Christmas decoration type quilts helped me get through it and kept me busy so maybe some of focus that I would have been getting more depressed about, kind of got work out so that I could continue going to my 8-5 job and dealing with his deteriorating heath and how my mother reacted to that and also how I reacted to losing my father.

KSM: What have you done with those quilts?

KM: I have them and I bring them out at Christmas. Shortly before he was diagnosed with lung cancer, my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. My dad bought my mom a new Bernina sewing machine. And she being a Singer girl didn't like it, so then he decided he was going to learn how to quilt. My father was also making quilts during his illness, and he made a special quilt for me. He was very fond of Eleanor Burns because he enjoyed reading her books and her geometric ways of cutting made sense to his carpenter mind. He would cut his own templates, and have fun. He made me a queen size triple Irish chain out of the same fabric that I was using to get through his deteriorating health. When I bring these things out, it's like a great remembrance of him and how much inspiration he was for me.

KSM: It's wonderful.

KM: Yes but kind of bittersweet because he's not with us.

KSM: I know it is sad but also wonderful.

KM: I was sewing like a wild woman because that was the only thing that I think I could do to kind of assuage how I was feeling.

KSM: What did you dad think of your quiltmaking?

KM: I think he was very proud it. My interest in quilting was the impetus for his trying quilting. And I just think it was funny; here was this seventy something year old man cranking out these quilts. My mother said that she would never quilt because of course her mother quilted and she didn't like it. But then I sort got her hooked on it. She and I took a couple of classes together and a couple of my aunts on my father's side took these classes with us. It was really fun. Then I think he saw how fun it was and he didn't want this Bernina to sit and go to waste so he decided, 'I think I'm going start doing quilting.' He was having fun. And I think he was proud that all of us were quilting. He was always the sewing machine fix it man. If anything went wrong he could always get them up and running again. He just liked to tinker with things and he wasn't afraid to create. I think my mom was a little jealous when he was quilting because it came easy for him. And she got stuck doing the bindings and such because he wasn't going to sit and do that. He just wanted to get the tops done. [laughs.]

KSM: How do you want to be remembered?

KM: As a wild and crazy quilt lady [laughs.] who wasn't afraid to use color and pattern. I think that would probably be the best way to put it. And I think, hopefully that someone would say, 'She had an eye for design.' Maybe not always doing it herself all the time but recognizing it in other things. And that I was an interesting person. An interesting quilter. Quirky maybe but that's okay.

KSM: Quirky is okay.

KM: Quirky is good. [laughs.]

KSM: Quirky is very good.

KM: Not afraid to put things together that other people wouldn't or having my own style. I think that becomes more important the more that you quilt. I've been quilting for twenty--almost thirty, oh God, almost 30 years. 1981 was when I really started. The first stuff was pretty ugly but the latest stuff is much better.

KSM: So there is growth there.

KM: Yes, well I think so but it could just be that the fabrics have changed. [laughs.] It was pretty traditional back then and now it's anything goes. I think I relate better to the anything goes than the traditional. I like to use patterns in--maybe take a traditional pattern and kick it up with unusual fabrics and unusual pattern combinations. I talked about my fascination with the color orange and the Kaffe Fassett fabric. The quilt that I'm finishing has this Kaffe Fassett as the central focus. It's a simple Snowball block with a Nine Patch. Every fabric in it is orange. It's kind of a wild and crazy. And I hope other people appreciate it for its wild and craziness and I felt brave to work with all that orange and all those prints..

KSM: What do you think makes a great quilter?

KM: Hum. What makes a great quilter? I think it needs to be someone who is grounded in the traditional ways. How we all probably came to quilting was starting making our own templates and making the perfect inch seams and who has realized that it doesn't always have to be done that way. That maybe if your points don't match perfectly, it can be a freeing experience for a person so that they would be open to not having everything be perfect. It's hard to make something that is perfect. Look at the Gee's Bend quilts for example. Some have wavy edges. The focus is not on being perfect, the design and joyfulness that comes out of those quilts is their focus. You need to be loose enough so that you can forgive yourself if it doesn't turn out perfectly and love it anyway, and you need to not be afraid of taking chances, putting that red block next to the purple block and seeing if it goes. It might work well and it might get the movement going that you want in a quilt. And be willing to experiment and know what's important to you too so that you can be true to yourself and produce things that you are happy and content with, no matter where their end destination is. Some quilts stay with you, some quilts are gifts, some people sell their quilts too. I don't know how they do it, it would be like parting with children. [laughs.]

KSM: What do you do with all of your quilts?

KM: Some become gifts for very special people. [laughs.] I'm kind of, I guess maybe I don't like to share them or I don't think people will like them [laughs.] or I don't know what the reason is, but I end up keeping a lot of them. I do mostly smaller sizes because it gets them done faster and I used to be a very get it done kind of person, but now I'm a lot looser about that. If it sits around for a couple of years, you know, it is not such a big deal anymore. When I give them away I make them with intention for that person and I try to do something that will make them happy and make them laugh, but yet still display my whimsicality. I have a friend that I made a boxer shorts quilt for and it was all things that he had talked about and we joked about through a couple of years and I sent it to him and I think he really enjoyed it. He said that the most important thing for him to get this quilt was that it had been made especially for him. It's a good thing to make people happy with, make them smile, make them know that you thought of them and cared enough about them that you would take our time and your resources and create a quilt for them. It makes them feel loved and special.

KSM: In what ways do you think quilts have special meaning for women's history?

KM: I think that existing in a man's world was not easy in the 1700's, 1800's, and I think women took to fabric because it was what they knew. They were the ones that wove the cloth and saw to its production and were the providers of cloth for all their household needs. They made the sheets, the towels, the clothing, and I think it is just a natural kind of outpouring of creative energy and an expression for women to make quilts. Once the Industrial Revolution hit things changed so much with sewing machines and the fabric being produced in mills rather than in homes. It freed up time for women to experiment with quilting and display their artistic merits. Early quilts certainly display artistic designs and creative usage of fabric. I think women quilting is a natural progression and I think it is a medium that women feel comfortable and intimate with. Maybe women were intimidated by art terminology and mixing paint and oil paint and sculpture. Quilting is something that you can relate to because it is so tactile. I think that is part of why it has been so appealing to women, because we are always putting clothing on ourselves, on our children, on our families, we are doing the laundry dealing with clothing. We are always surrounded by fabric, textiles are the fabric of our lives and it is a great way for us to express our love of them.

KSM: You have been terrific. Is there anything else that you would like to add before we conclude?

KM: I should thank my mom and dad for always having the time, interest and money available for me to experiment with arts and textiles and all the experiences that they gave me. They were sort of the inspiration for my interest in this and for my Master's Degree in textile history with a quilt studies emphasis and that is basically out of their love for textiles and how they raised their family.

KSM: What have you done with your degree?

KM: Currently I work in a bookstore and people come in and speak the textile fabric language so we chat about that a bit. I'm also on the board of the local art museum, the James Memorial Preservation Society. I work on their exhibition and grant writing committee. I'm trying to get more textile exhibitions for their galleries. I'm also working on a research project involving quilts and homesteaders.

KSM: Are textile exhibits well received when they come to town?

KM: The area quilt guild has a biannual show and it is usually the highest attendance. I think that is true of most museums everywhere. They find that the clothing or textile exhibitions draw a lot of people because it is something everyone can relate to.

KSM: I want to thank you for taking your time out of your day to give this interview with me. You were wonderful, seriously.

KM: I'm not so sure. I think I rambled on.

KSM: Your rambling was wonderful. We are going to conclude our time together, and it is now 11:58.