[bright music]

- Announcer: Proceeds from The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show support PBS Wisconsin programming. Your financial gift helps make this event possible. Thank you.

- Hello, everybody, and welcome. Thank you so much for having me. This is my first lecture. I will tell you I am very nervous, so I'm gonna try and get through this. I wanna be brutally honest with you. I'm very nervous, so I appreciate all of the faces out here, and it's such lovely faces. So hopefully, I can get through this and it'll be a great and exciting lecture. 

So I'm gonna talk from the heart, 'cause that's what it's about, the passion of hand quilting. So, as you know, my name is Porfiria Gomez. I am a modern quilter. I'm a native New Yorker, born and raised in the Bronx. When I met my husband, I moved to Brooklyn to start our family, but New York is my home. Ironically, my mom is from North Carolina, Goldsboro, North Carolina. So I spent most of my summers in North Carolina, enjoying the country 'cause my mom is, actually, I come from a farmer's family. So my mom has a farm out in North Carolina. So we would go there every summer, watermelon picking, pecan picking, all the fun stuff that we would enjoy in North Carolina, Goldsboro. Just seeing family, friends, and just everything we enjoy in North Carolina. 

I also was named Martha Stewart's Quilter to Watch, which was very exciting. Back in 2020, she named me as one of the quilters that you must follow on Instagram for my linen fabrics that I pick out and the traditional colors that I use. I've been quilting most of my adult life. I learned about quilting from my mom, but I started quilting when I had my first son. And the reason I started fully becoming involved in quilting is because of being pregnant with my first son reminded me of my family. Family is very important to me, so that's why quilting weighs hand in hand with family and love and everything about the joy of your lineage. I started with my mom, of course, who is a quilter. She doesn't call herself a quilter. I had to give her that title as a quilter. She just says she makes them with love. That's what she'll tell anybody. She won't take on that title of a quilter.

Most quilters also do know me as in 2020, I started a foundation called the Color of Connection Quilt. It was about what was happening, that climate at that time with George Floyd and things that were happening in 2020. So I wanted to create with my partners a quilt that everyone could make, that we could all come to the table over something we all enjoy, which is quilting, and that was amazing because quilting has no color. It's just all about us coming together and doing something we enjoy. And telling stories about why we enjoy it or how we got started with quilting.

What we're going to discuss today is the passion of hand quilting and the progression of hand quilting. So I'm gonna talk about my story, naturally done by hand, the progression of hand quilting today, and start where and start how? So naturally done by hand. What do you think about when you hear "naturally done by hand?" Can anybody share any feedback with me?

- Audience Member 1: Sewing. 

- Sewing.

- Audience Member 2: Knitting.

- Knitting.

- Audience Member 3: Mending.

- Mending, oh, that's a good one. Who said mending? Mending's a good one. So when you think naturally done by hand, we've all been blessed with hands. We all have the ability to create with our hands, right? And we sometimes, I think, take that for granted or we forget about that when you become a quilter. You kind of forget that because you're trying to keep up with the machines that are out. All these modern machines that are coming out. So the first thing you think, I know for a lot of the modern quilters that I know, the first thing they think about is "I have to get a great sewing machine. I want to go out and spend tons and tons of money on a brand-new sewing machine because that's how I'm going to quilt."

But that's not how I grew up learning about quilting. It really isn't. I didn't have-- my mother had a Singer sewing machine that we bought from a secondhand store that I took 'cause she was gonna donate it again. But I took and put it in my home because it meant so much to me because it only had one stitch. It only had one stitch. How amazing is that? That one stitch created so many fond memories. Now, fast forward to 2006 when I bought my first machine, I was lost with all the stitches that were in the sewing machine. I was absolutely like, "Wait, wait a minute." And here I am, a modern-day quilter, and I was lost with all the stitches in these machines. And I kept thinking about what my mom had created for me. Like, I just thought of, "What do I need? Ma, what do I need?" A needle and a thread. That was it.

So naturally done by hand, to me, brings back the memories and the natural progression of quilting. And in this day and age, I don't know if you guys saw it on the news, we're from New York, but couple of months ago, we had the smoke that came to New York. So everything was dark. We were looking out the window. If you follow my social media, you saw these weird pictures. I compared it to a movie that was out in the '80s about the planet being completely red. So all I could think about is I didn't wanna pull out my machine. It was already hot at home and it was dust in the air. It was very hard for everyone to breathe. But I still was doing my quilting.

So what did I do? I ran and got my hand quilt. And then I kept thinking, "Well, what happens if everything turns off? What happens if there's nothing? Will we stop quilting?" Because quilting is like therapy for all of us. Well, most of us; I know it is for me. I still would wanna do something with my hands. So I thought about how amazing it is to make sure you always have your hand quilt, your hand kit, your quilting supplies, and what you would need in case something happens. You know, a blackout, anything. That's not gonna stop your progression of hand quilting.

Mommy, Nancy, and me. So I feel a little bit better; I see my mom. Believe me, before I started, I was on the phone with her and I'm like, "Ma, get on the next flight and come help me." [laughs]

[audience laughs]

And she's like, "I'm not doing that." I put "Mommy, Nancy, and Me" because this is how influential my mom, Nancy, and me are. We would be at home. Just picture this, my mom's cooking for her six kids. She's in her bedroom. My mom is a big sci-fi buff, so back then, there was SyFy channel all the time in our house. And we would also be watching PBS. So she would be going back and forth watching Nancy, and I would be sitting there watching her watch this, but I was all in awe. I knew what time it came on. I knew it was PBS Channel 13. I wanna see what she's making. And that's where this piece started to kind of invent itself.

So this is my mom's quilt. This quilt means so much to me. Each circle is a piece of fabric from myself, my brothers, friends, family, people in her congregation. These are pieces that they would give us fabric, she would gather fabric. We would cut out fabric. I helped cut out all these circles, and they were these little bitty circles that we would sit and just cut out one by one by one by one. And she wouldn't go to that Singer sewing machine. What she did, she would create these little circles, just keep going, stitching each one together by hand. At the time, for her, it wasn't. . . She did it in the moment of, "I wanna create something for my kids to be extra warm this winter." And that's what I admired, watching her, being completely excited about her saying, "Help me out, we're cutting these circles. Someone gave us this fabric. Let's cut out some more circles. Let's cut out and I'm gonna show you how to do it."

So sitting there, and some of them are my stitches, some of them are my stitches, majority are hers. I was just sharing how, I don't know how she was able to complete this as quickly. I'm working on a project similar, and it's taking me forever to create it, to recreate this quilt. But she stitched every piece together. And back then, there was a Woolworth, and we don't have Woolworth. I'm telling my age, guys. [laughs] There was a Woolworth in the city that we had that she would go to to get the batting. Now, I don't know what batting she used. I just know that I remember the batting. It's very heavy, mind you, it's very heavy. But it's stitched in love, and it's stitched with memories from my childhood.

When I look at this, all I could think of is my brothers and I laying on the bed, watching a movie and enjoying the fact that our mother created something that created warmth by hand. Not a sewing machine, just by using her hand. She stitched it together. She even mended her sides together. And you can still see some of the stitching on the side that she mended together. Now the back is a different story. She used a white sheet, so I'm quite sure it's all the stains of my brothers and I and everything else behind it. She also created two pillows behind it. One of the pillows she kept and the other one I do have in my possession. Again, I'm trying to recreate that same pillow, but it was all done by hand. She left a story for myself and for my brothers to have. And she showed that quilting doesn't have to be done with the most expensive pieces. They just have to be done with a passion, and you just have to start where you are.

So. . . The naturally done by hand and the progression of the hand quilter today. The natural progression is in your hands. Think about the lifelong quilt you created. Does it need patchwork? You can take time to mend it by hand. That's why I said, whoever said mend, it means so much. So I don't know if you do it, but I know the quilts that I took from my mom, I started to mend them by hand. And when I make quilts for my boys today, I don't know why or how, I use Kona, Art Gallery Fabrics, the best of the best, they still manage to have tears and rips and everything else. But the best part is not when I created it in the beginning. The best part is when I get to mend it. And the best part is when they see me mend it. They see their mom putting that stitch in, that forever memory. And that's what my hope is, because I have that forever memory. And that's what quilting is about, creating that forever memory. 

Even if you go to a secondhand store and you see a quilt and you bring it back home, whether you're making a jacket out of it, whether you're gonna use it for yourself, sometimes you have to mend that. So it becomes a part of your own personal story, which is so amazing to me. Because quilting, every quilt, all of your quilts, if I even touch it or see it, I can just imagine, what were they going through in that moment when they were creating it? What were they thinking about? You know, we always have stories in our quilts. All my quilts, I could tell you a huge story about what was happening, how I was feeling. That's what quilting is all about. The gut of quilting is about the story that we tell when we're creating these beautiful quilts, this beautiful legacy. 'Cause no matter where it ends up, there's a story. There's someone's hand, someone's beautiful hands that touched it, that made it. Whether you're a fabric feeler like me, I'm a total fabric feeler, there's something that you put into that. Everywhere in the world, it's by hand and it's the story that they're putting into what they're making.

This quilt here that I have is one of my recent modern quilts that I made. So the pieces are sustainable. I call them sustainable pieces because they were pieces of fabrics that I had from my kids, from around when I purchased fabric in the past. I took those pieces and I began to piece those together. And that's what I mean about the progression of the modern quilter from hand quilting to if you send it off to a longarmer. How were quilts made before sewing machines? The question we all have to think about, right. Again, it goes back to what I mentioned earlier. When you first start out quilting and making, you don't necessarily have to run out and get the best sewing machine. You don't have to run out and get a sewing machine. You really don't. You just have to start with what? What are the two most important supplies? A needle—

- Audience Members: And thread.

- And thread. We all have those canisters, at least, I hope you still do. I have one. I made one for myself, thinking about childhood, which is that cookie canister. There's commercials now, everybody's making fun of it, right? [laughs] You know, there's not really cookies, it's like childhood trauma. They always took the cookies out and they just put buttons and needles inside. But how iconic is, and I love that culturally, everyone has experienced that, right? They go and they're like, "Oh, Grandma has cookies," or "Mom has cookies," and you open it and it's just a container of buttons and needles. 

[audience laughs]

But how amazing is that, we all share that experience, right? We all know about that container. What was the name of those cookies? I know they're butter cookies. I can't remember the name of the cookies. But how amazing is that experience that we can all share that, and it doesn't have to stop. It's something that should continue because it is the progression of quilting. It is the natural progression of hand quilting. Everyone should have it. So my mother had the round cookie tin container. I have the tea box 'cause I love tea. So I have the little tin box from when I bought tea, and I put all my stuff in there for my boys and I trick them too with that. 

The marriage of the home sewing machine and your hand quilting. And that's where it goes back to this in particular quilt. The marriage between your hands and your longarmer or your home quilting machine. You can marry the both of them together. For me, when I made this, I was just in a car. We were on our way somewhere, and I just started to put the fabrics together. When I'm traveling, I'm on the subway. If you ever visit New York and you see me, I'm telling you, I'm that person that's sitting there, I don't care, I'm gonna sew. There's times I'm on the train and I have my whole full quilt. It just makes me happy; I just enjoy it. It takes me away from the chaos of New York City. [laughs] But I pieced these together and then I had the Kona, which I love, I just used the Kona fabric, and then I sent it off to my longarmer. But there's two things that's happening in there. My longarmer's hands and my hands. And we created this beautiful piece that was, actually, sent to a museum that I had hanging up, which is very, very honorable. It was wonderful. So that was the progression. Seeing that happen, that I could still hand quilt, but I could still send it out to my longarmer.

Modern quilters today, the first thing they do, they send it out to the longarmer. I remember having a conversation when I went to my first quilting conference and I was surprised, honestly, that everybody was sending all their quilts out to longarmers. I was shocked because I wasn't used to that. That was something that was brand-new to me. And they said, "You're still using your home machine and you're still stitching it yourself?" I'm like, "Isn't that what we're supposed to, is that not quilting?" I got confused; I was like, "Oh, no." But then I remembered in the moment that things had changed. There was a faster way of doing things. There's a faster way of getting what people use today, their social media content out and their quilts and things like that. So they would send them off. And I took it as, okay, there's somebody else's love that's being poured into my quilt. There's a story about that person that I picked to longarm and the story continues to go and to go, 'cause we all have stories to tell, and I'm a big storyteller.

I love telling the story of how something happened. You know, I'll sit you down and tell you, it started from here, it went here, it went there. Because I love that time and that connection that we could tell stories about how things evolved and how come we love it so, right. Especially now, no one talks about the story of how the quilt makes you feel, how you love it so or that in particular quilt was particularly special to me because of this or because of that. So the marriage, and there is a marriage between the home sewing machine and hand quilting. I hope I'm not going too fast. [laughs]

The world is in your hands. How many people have heard, like, quotes, like "The world is in your hands," or "You have the power in your hands," and you know, they're so on and so forth, right? I think there was a quote by Nelson Mandela that talks about how our hands have the ability to change the world. You have the ability to change one person's life. Like, when I walk through these quilting conventions and I see these beautiful quilts, see, my thought process is, "Oh, my God, what was she going through? What was she thinking? Why did she pick those colors? There's something amazing about her colors. Who did she send it to?" And I'm reading the story, trying to identify what was actually happening or what was going on in her spirit that created this beautiful piece. 

And there's no two pieces alike. One thing I love to say with quilting, you take the pattern, I take the pattern, I call myself sometimes a rogue quilter. If I get the pattern, I go rogue. I'm over here with it, I'm cutting it this way. And then there's some people that stick to the pattern. They make it exactly, but there was something that went into them creating that pattern. It was something that they were thinking about. So when I think the world is in your hands with hand quilting, I think about how we all share the same thing. Everybody put your hands out. Just put your hands out if you can. We all share the same thing. We all have, hopefully, we all have our fingers, everything. We're all quilters. And you look at it, we share the same thing, we share the same hands. If we put our hands in a big bowl, you can't tell whose hand is who, I'm telling you. [laughs]

You could just tell this story. I know when I met my husband, who's here today. He surprised me 'cause he knew I had jitters. He's over there; we're gonna peek at him. [all laugh] When I met my husband, I thought about my mom. She would always say. . . My nickname is Jelani. She would always say, "Jelani, do you know that there's so much to be told in a person's hands?" She would always say that. And she would say, "When you meet your husband, you're gonna know that's your husband by his hands." And I'm, you know, "Whatever, Mom." [all laugh] But she was right. Years later, my first date, all I could see was his hands gesturing. The hands just kept moving, and it told a story. My mom said the working man hands or the man that doesn't work. I could tell by his hands, his story, and I fell in love with that moment. I fell in love with the hands, honestly, I did. I still love your hands. [laughs]

And even today, when I sit and create my quilts by hand, I'm watching my hands and I'm thinking about what can I leave for my three boys? What can I leave for them? Will they remember my hands the way I remember my mom's hands and her bracelets jiggling as she went in the thread and needle up and down and the rings jiggling and the noises it would make? How my brothers would run through the house. How the house smelled. The food she was making. Those memories she was creating. Now, I mentioned to you earlier, I started quilting again when I got pregnant. I just went and found what I had at home and I just started doing it again, and the reason, I thought family, legacy. I wanted to create that for my family. And when I meet other quilters and they tell me their story, the first thing I ask, "When did you start? How did you get started? Tell me more."

And then I love to hear the stories and people share. I just was talking to someone outside and she was talking about how she learned from her cousin. And I'm like, "This is so awesome." Can you imagine the two of them? I don't know them, but the two of them together. And what joy it must've been for the both of them sitting there together, talking about fabrics and creating and you did this and you did that. A common ground, something that we all share. Something we all can enjoy by hand.

I did this really quickly; it's a rough quilt. [laughs] It's a Ohio Star rough quilt. But in the moment, I was going through something. Earlier this year, I had transitioned from a position I had at work and I transitioned to trying to create more quilts and become a quiltpreneur. That's what my goal is. And a lot of tears. A lot of pain, a lot of sorrow. A lot of ups, a lot of downs. A lot of laughter. My kids making me laugh and telling me they need new quilts now, again. [laughs] But all I could do is think about my hands. That's the one thing I have. That's the journey. My hands are gonna take me to the next journey. They're gonna create another story. So the world, and I know that may sound a little cliché, the world is in your hands. The world is in your hands, your quilting hands. You guys are all quilters. Everyone in this room is a quilter, I'm assuming, or you love quilts.

And you can start right where you are. Start where you are and be patient with yourself. You have to be patient with yourself. You know, have you ever been frustrated like I have, I look on media or I'll visit a quilt show, and I'll see someone's art and I'm completely intimidated. Wow, they did that by hand. Wow, they did that by a machine. Wow, they did that; how did they do that? Completely intimidated. Your art is your art. Your hands are your hands. Your story is your story. You don't have to be someone else or try and imitate something else. Just imitate what you are, who you are through your hands, and be patient with yourself. Don't be. . . You know, a lot of times, I wanna go back to my mom 'cause she's helping me. She's not here, but I need to see her face.

A lot of times, we're so hard, we are our worst critics. We are so hard on ourselves when we are creating. But start where you are and be patient. All you need is that needle and thread. Or, like someone mentioned, just mend that quilt. Take that time to mend that quilt, that gift you give to someone. So remember the passion and the progression of hand quilting. And that's my end. I know it finished early, but I'm gonna take questions.

[audience applauds]

I wanna thank you, too, before we start taking questions. Some of you have been, your faces are just amazing. Really, I'm being so honest. Thank you for being patient with me and being my first. I hope to continue to talk a little bit more passionately about hand quilting and evolve this sort of lecture. So do I have any questions?

What Betsy asked is that she knows that, at one point I started with my partners, both Michelle and Keyana. Michelle was from Atlanta; Keyana is from Columbus, Ohio. We started together the Color of Connection Quilt. And she was asking what that meant to me, am I correct in saying that?

- Betsy: Yeah, just any experiences that really stand out 'cause you did some outreach with that.

- Yes, absolutely. So we continue, unfortunately, the Color of Connection, Michelle went on to have a addition to her family and Keyana went on to do other things. So for me, I continue the message of Color of Connection. I'm still the main founder of Color of Connection, and we're pushing the agenda of just everyone coming together. So for me, what it meant is that I had the opportunity to talk to different people. You know, sometimes people are afraid to come up to me or say anything. And with the Color of Connection, one of the things that I appreciated the most is there was questions that people just walked up to me and asked the question, and that's what I want. You know, I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable because others feeling uncomfortable, they make me uncomfortable. We're both uncomfortable, so just ask the question.

I think sometimes a lot of people forget that the common core of quilting is, again, going back to just you doing something by hand. It doesn't have a face, it doesn't have color. It's something doing by hand. There's so much history. And how would you know my history if you don't ask me the history? How would you know? So I appreciate the opportunity that I was able to just speak to many people about just creating quilts and coming to the table to talk about quilting and talk about what it meant to me and hear what it meant to others. And for people to see there's people like me.

You know, I grew up with quilting. This is something that is engulfed, again, going back to my mom, she would tell me stories that in the barn there was, she said, "Oh, I wish I would've saved all those quilts that your great-grandmother used to make." She said, "When I wanted to get away, I would run to the barn and fall asleep on big stacks of quilts that were in the barn." And she was like, "I wondered why they had them in the barn?" [laughs] But she remembers, like, she would tell me like, "I would take my book in there. Me and my dog, we would be laying," and I wish I could get pictures of that. But the memories, her telling me that and then visiting family and saying, "You know, what about that quilt?" My mom is Dottie. "Dottie, what about that quilt you're working on?" "Oh, I'm gonna make one." Every time someone's having a baby, anytime somebody's graduating, either she's gonna knit them something or she's gonna make them a quilt.

And talking about that, and I'm a kid of the '80s. You know, my mom is a kid of the '50s, and me and her share that common ground of quilting. And how would anyone know that a person who looks like me grew up around quilts unless someone comes and talks to me about it? So Color of Connection was a way for me to show that and share that with so many people. The first thing in modern quilting that I don't appreciate is they think that the modern quilters of today are just doing it like, "Oh, they're doing that old lady thing." It's not an old lady thing. "Oh, they're doing that white thing." It's not a white thing; what? I'm doing something that is gener, gener, help me guys.

- Audience: Generationally.

- Generationally, something that was embedded in me. Something I recognize as young, hip, and fabulous. Okay, I could sit in a room with a 92-year-old woman and talk about quilts. And this hasn't just started for me. It's always been like that. It always been like that. Before I met my husband, I was talking about quilts. And we've been married, God bless us, almost 20 years now. So I was talking about it way before. When he met me, we were discussing, I was sharing, he probably didn't know what I was talking about 'til he came to the first quilt show with me. And I had the opportunity to say, "Yeah, this is this," and he's, "Oh, okay." He still don't know what I'm talking about. But it's okay. [all laugh] It's okay.

But you know, quilting is something, it's something amazing. It's just an amazing creative outlet that so many have to know about. And I think some people do know about it, but they don't wanna talk about it. You know, sometimes there's issues when it comes to quilting, some stigmas, ugly stigmas that are attached to it. But how would you know about a person like me unless we open up the conversation? And then when people see me at quilt shows and they're like, "Oh." You know, I get hugs. And by the way, like, I thought it was so sweet the last quilt show I went to, I was getting these cute little gifts 'cause they knew I was working on paper piecing my next quilt, and they said, "I have something for you. Tell me, how did you cut yours? How did you," I love that, having the conversation. We're just two quilters. You may be more advanced. I may be more advanced, who knows? But I love to have the conversation and open up the door, and that's one thing I loved about Color of Connection.

Cindy asked me, where do I get my inspiration? So inspiration can be found everywhere, anywhere, for me. I could be walking. . . My first quilt pattern was inspired by the beautiful diagonal triangles that I would see in my area. There was these beautiful pieces of geometric designs that I would see. So I decided to do a big block quilt inspired by the streetlights that I would see, some of the graffiti I would see in the city. The train, New York City train line. I'm always going, so I'm always looking at the artwork that they have in the trains. Beautiful, beautiful, bright colored artwork. But I get it from anywhere. And currently because of the climate and the stage that I'm in because, like I said, we have a family farm, we're in a transition of going back to North Carolina and getting our farm back up and running and having things going, it's all about the country for me.

It's all about the food for me. Food is a big inspiration for me when it comes to quilting 'cause, to me, they go hand in hand. Ironically, they really do. Whatever you're eating or whatever you're snacking on or whatever you smell, they go hand in hand. So for me, I think about the food as inspiration as well, the colors, the comfort of it, and right now where I'm at. So it's like either wherever I'm at, I find that inspiration. So right now, it's all about, right now I'm big on horses. So I'm getting a lot of inspiration from horses 'cause I'm hoping I can get a horse one day.

[audience laughs]

[Porfiria laughs]

Anyone else? Any other questions? Yes. Yes, great question. So Tamara asked, she has quilts from her great-grandparents, and what approach would I take to mending these quilts? So quilting, so I'll use an example. I'm in a process of fixing a quilt that I bought from a secondhand store. The first thing I did was I tried to examine what type of fabrics, what they used. You know, linen is, like, my big go-to. So as I mentioned, I love linen fabrics. I'm not quite sure. It looks like it's a mixture of cottons and linens and something else, excuse me. For me, what I did is I tried to spot clean it to make sure I can get it out. I'm too scared to put it in the washing machine. I'm very, very scared to put it in the washing machine. So I'm spot cleaning it, which these days with three boys, I'm always spot cleaning. So I'm trying to use, like, my Tide pens. But be very gentle in cleaning them.

But assessing the fabrics. Older quilts, like this quilt, I would never put it in a machine now. I'm too scared. Like, if you get up in close, you'll see there's some stains probably from the wear and tear over the years. I wouldn't spot clean it. I mean, I wouldn't put it in a machine. But I think assessing the materials, trying to figure out where or what it is, how durable it is. Because what happens sometimes when we do, you don't know if they pre-wash the fabrics. You don't know the background of what happened. So spot cleaning it would be the best technique I would go about doing it, unless it's a really, really big problem, then I would probably dry clean it. You can dry clean a quilt; you can. You can dry clean a quilt. I've seen it done. But spot cleaning is what I would stick to. Unless you know more about the fabric and the history of it. Do you know how old it might be?

- Tamara: My great-grandmother passed away in 1967. 

- Okay.

- Tamara: So it was probably in the '50s. And it looks like maybe there was some true cotton, you know, for a border perspective.

- Yeah.

- Tamara: But everything else is probably shirts from someone.

- Yeah, yeah, spot cleaning it and matching fabric. So even one of the, a newer quilt that I'm trying to work on, I'm spot fixing it. So I'm trying to match pieces that look similar. Almost doing like an appliqué on it and mending it in that section to create a brand-new quilt. Now, my son gave me this idea, and if you've ever tried it, please share with me. 'Cause I'm like, "I don't think you could do that." He wants me to make him a new quilt. But the quilt that I originally made, I don't know how he shredded it up or what. I don't know what, he went to war with this quilt. I don't know what happened. But he's like, "Well, Mom, can't you just sandwich it through another quilt?"

- Tamara: Sometimes. So my grandmother did that with most of my great-grandmother's quilts.

- Nice.

- She would just take a new piece of cotton fabric and put it on top of the old quilt, sew it down with her sewing machine, or tie it.

- Okay. 

- Mostly tied.

- Okay.

- And then kept it moving. But those quilts got really heavy. And as a child, we loved it 'cause we get this heavy hug from the quilts, but that's all she would do. Layer it and then tie it.

- So now that you've said that, I'm gonna try it. But when you mentioned the heaviness of the quilt, all I think of is, it's still gonna keep them warm and keep them where they need to be. So for quilts, if it's extra warm, I'm fine with that. And believe me, I think they love it. Because for me, this quilt is, I really think it's about three pounds. I kid you not. When you come up, you can actually touch the. . . It's very heavy, but it feels like a hug. So I'm gonna try that.

- Audience Member 4: Tell me about your interest in linen and what you're doing.

- So I've always loved linen because I feel as though linen is a natural fabric to use. And I feel like the quilts that are made with linen, for some reason, they're very durable and they last, they're timeless. So linen for me is, like, my go-to, so if I'm ever shopping for fabrics, I'm shopping for linen. And I love the simplicity of linen as well. Some of the blocks here are made out of this mixed linen material. But I love the fact that with linen, if you're lucky, you could find, like, a natural-dyed, really pretty natural-dyed linen. So I love the fact that, again, it's so durable and it's something that will last forever.

So for me, I prefer to work with linen more than anything else. A lot of my fellow quilters, modern quilters that work with me, they kinda steer away from linen 'cause it's not as bright as the other current fabrics that they have out here today. But again, timeless. You know, I'm one of those classic people. I try to stick. . . I love the past that comes to the future. So linen for me is what I'll always go to. And the quilts that I'm working on now, my next quilt pattern is inspired by linen. And then I think farm, you know, natural. Just stick with the natural life of linen, yeah.

The battings that I use in between, I always use a natural cotton. Natural cotton is what I use. I get a big spool of it and I use natural cotton. Again, timeless. I know that it's gonna last years after. It's something I can pass on. I do think about how it affects when I'm giving out gifts of my quilts. So I'll always stick with a natural cotton, yeah. Now, between this quilt, again, I can't remember what was used between it. So it could be a mixture, but I feel like it probably was a cotton that she used because of the depth of it, but I'm not quite sure what she used. But in between mines, I'm always using a natural cotton. It's just my go-to, yeah.

- Audience Member 5: When you learned to quilt, I mean, are you doing a rocking stitch that I found intimidating? I mean, when you were young, is that what you learned?

- So I traditionally use, so my mom has these, she did it herself, she made this frame. And I use a big hoop, 18-inch hoop when I'm doing mine. And it's a traditional rocking stitch, up, down, up, down. I'm trying to learn more of the running stitches today. I also, I always mispronounce it, but I'm a big fan of, forgive me, I know I'm gonna mispronounce it, so bear with me, sh-sh—

- Audience Members: Sashiko.

- Thank you. [laughs] I try to use that 'cause I love that technique. We're actually, our family is going to Japan for a little while. So I plan on learning a little bit more about that because I love how that looks as well in quilt art. And I have a friend, she actually didn't do any pattern pieces, she just did the sashiko all over her quilt, and how amazing it looks. So I have to learn more about that. 

But when I look at that, again, it goes back to what this whole talk is about, the passion of quilting. Because dated back, you know, the Japanese, they started doing that, I can't even tell you when that started. But they just started with, again, a hand movement of doing this and something that's timeless. And if you visit some of the museums, and my brother sent me some pictures. I said, "Whatever you do while you're there, let me see some of the beauty of the sashiko stitching." I couldn't believe the dates, like, wow! And it still looks so brand-new and so fresh. And then I think about when he went up, I wanted to get a sewing machine that did that. And the price of that sewing machine that could do something that you could do by hand, wow! I don't know if you've priced that in particular machine there. I'm not gonna say who has the machine, but the price of that machine is so. . . I can make probably 25 quilts from the price of that one sewing machine, and it's something that I could do by hand. Something we all can do by hand.

- Audience Member 6: During COVID, I did three tops, but the one top when I was stitching the piece, and I hand stitched everything. Because many times, because we couldn't go out, I'd sit out on my patio until it got too hot, and then I'd go back in. But during this, I broke my wrist, and I taught myself to hand piece with my left hand. So there's a piece of this quilt that's put together with my left hand.

- Oh, wow.

- And any time I look at it, I always think about that.

- Oh, my gosh. 

- I thought you might enjoy that.

- No, thank you; no, thank you. You made me think, when she said her left hand, my mom's a lefty, I'm a righty. So it's so funny that I watch her do her quilts and then she actually would get a little irritated when I would do it because she's a lefty. She's like, "What are you doing? Give me my quilt back." Because she would stitch it a little bit different than how I stitch it, but thank you so much for sharing that amazing, amazing story. And again, thinking about where you were, right. This summer, my mom has her mini garden on her terrace and we sit out there and, of course, natural farmer, she is covered in, she just gave us so many peppers. We don't need any more peppers, Mom. [laughs] She's sitting there just using her hands, still sitting there, creating in her element, making stuff, stitching along, stitching along, and we're sitting on the terrace. We don't have to run inside to get anything. We can do it where we are. Prospect Park, sitting in the park with my kids this summer, just sitting there.

They're able to do stuff and I'm able to just sit there, and I always pack it to go; it's in the car. You know, I did a interview and she shared a giggle with me because I said, "Listen, if you go in my car, and I know my husband gets tired of it, he does. You'll see there's always some sort of quilt in there." And he's always bringing it in the house. And I'm always taking it back in the car because wherever we gotta go, even if I'm going to the supermarket, I just gotta get that one little stitch in or I have to piece. Like I said, I'm trying to recreate this. And, again, I don't know how my mom did it. But for me, it's like each one, you can actually see the stitches of each one that she put together, no machine, by hand, by herself with six kids, busy household, and she just pieced it together. And this is one of many because we had so many. It was six of us, she wanted everybody to have their own quilt on their bed. So everybody had a quilt on their bed that she pieced together. 'Cause she would get so frustrated about putting that needle in her sewing machine, even though it created only one stitch.

- Audience Member 7: So what fabrics are you using in your recreation? Are you using clothing that people are—

- Yes, so I'm on a sustainability mission. That's what my workshop is tomorrow. I'm doing a sustainable quilting workshop by hand. Everything is massly produced today. There's just too much of stuff. Everybody is going through too much of stuff. You know, I'll share with you, I'll go to a quilt show and I overbuy. I always overbuy, and it'll sit in my workshop and sit in my workshop and sit in my workshop. And then I'll get inspired by something, I have to have it. I go and I buy everything. I buy the whole collection; why? For what? And then it sits there.

So I made the conscious and very impactful decision for myself that I did not want to keep doing that. I don't need to do that. I need to use what I have on hand. I get very frustrated at the beginning of every spring, packing all my kids' clothes in bags and bags and bags to donate. It frustrates me. It makes me very sad 'cause I don't know where these clothes are going, and I don't wanna be another person just setting up the demise of our planet. So I decided, you know what? Let me cut these pieces out. That's how quilting started, anyway. Let me find the color. Light colors with light colors, darks with dark, and create a beautiful masterpiece from what I use. And my clothes mostly are always linen cotton, so I have so much there. So let's cut it out.

I get the kids involved too, even though they try to dodge me every time. [laughs] Every time, they try to dodge me. As soon as they come downstairs and they see I'm there. "Do you wanna help me?" "Uh, uh, I forgot to feed my pet bird." My sons will come up with any excuse to get away. But I'm cutting them out and I'm thinking about what I used to do with Mom. Cut out little pieces, create little pieces. And when I run out, which I doubt I will run out in my lifetime, I doubt. I can only pray and hope that someone else will get these bags of fabrics and these supplies that I have and will be able to enjoy and create something for themselves.

- Audience Member 8: Can you talk a little about the technical aspect of your hand quilting? Like you said you put it in the hoop. But is there a particular needle, thread?

- So I do have my thread needles that I do use. It's a Japanese brand that I have. I can't pronounce it, but I purchased them. . . I don't know if you guys have this Japanese store here, but where I am from, it's called a Daiso. Do you have it in Wisconsin? Okay, so it's called a Daiso, the store. It's a Japanese-inspired store and they have these hand needles, hand quilting needles that they sell and they're, like, a dollar. I pick them up from there. But any traditional, standard hand quilting needle. I know there's needles here. A good friend of mine got some information for me today about some of the needles. So I'm gonna visit that booth today and probably pick up some more needles. But a traditional, standard hand stitch needle.

I actually have a collection with Aurifil for threads. I'm a big Aurifil thread girl. And I'm putting out a hand quilting thread line that I use because when I went to the last quilt show, I was able to pick up some of the threads. But again, in my natural state, I have three colors, which is usually the gold, the copper, and then the white. So the one that I used in this one is the copper. I usually like a heavy weight, like a 14. You know, it's nice and durable. And, again, a rocking stitch that I go back and forth with. 

I'm learning more about how to hide my knots. So I'm not a expert in that; I can't give you that. But I'm learning, I'm trying to do better with my knots. So on the back of my quilt, you'll see that I have some little stitches that I knotted together and so, you know, once they meet. So I'm trying to learn the technique of hiding them in a quilt. And I've seen some amazing stuff, again, with some former Nancy's programs where she shows how you can hide the stitch underneath, which is really good information. So next time I see you, if I'm able to do it, it'll be bigger and better, and I'll show you that I was able to hide all those stitches.

- Audience Member 9: Heidi Parkes is a quilter and she purposely does not hide her knots. It's part of the texture of the quilt.

- Oh, I love that. 

- Yeah, Heidi Parkes. She's on Instagram also.

- So you see how different, so I was told, I was so excited, and I was sharing this quilt with someone and the first thing they said was that, "Oh, no, honey, the back of your quilt is not done." I said, "Oh, I didn't know." You know, I grew up with my mom, she didn't hide hers. She would just, I guess she hid these inside because she put a layer of fabric on top of this. But I thought it was pretty neat that you could see my. . . But no, but thank you. That made me feel so much better. So much better. Wow, no, seriously I feel, that was like a weight, 'cause I was like, "I'm not there yet. I haven't got to that level," but thank you. So at least I know there's two types of techniques for the hand quilting.

Okay, so I wanna thank you all so much for having me. This was amazing, you guys were so awesome. I genuinely want you to understand you were so awesome in helping me create this lecture. And I hope by Saturday, the jitters will be gone. I won't sound like I'm crying. [laughs]

- Audience Member 10: You did great.

- Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. Thank you.

[audience applauds]

And if any of you wanna talk, you wanna say hi, I'm a hugger. Hug me. [laughs] Thank you all.

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- Announcer: Proceeds from The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show support PBS Wisconsin programming. Your financial gift helps make this event possible. Thank you. 

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