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Evening Star Quilters Davison-Richfield Senior Center on 10135 Lapeer Road in Davison www.orgsites.com/mi/esq esq.guild@gmail.com Official Home Page Email address for guild inquires
davisoneveningstarquiltguild@gmail.com email address for the newsletter submissions
https://davisoneveningstarquiltguild.angelfire.com/index.html JUNE, 2009 Volume 34, Issue 6 |
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Interview with Patsy Hartz. June 8, 2009
I was able to interview Patsy just after she arrived home from a trip up North with her husband. She attended Adrian College and later got a Masters Degree in English from Oakland. Patsy is married and has two grown children. Recently she has been working as an office manager.
Patsy stated she has been sewing since the age of 14 but did not start quilting until 1985. She initially made traditional quilts but as she honed her skills she became interested in contemporary art quilting. The numerous art classes and workshops she has taken has helped her hone her skills and sparked her creativity. She was a student of Nancy Crow and took many of the classes offered though the Quilt Surface Design Symposiums in Columbus Ohio.
Patsy was a member of the Davison Evening Star Quilt guild in the 90s. She belonged to several sit and stitch groups at that time. She said she learned applique from Audrey Derscha, took classes from Ami Simms and attended as may of the workshops she could. Making some of the mystery quilts pattern offered and the skills she learned from the 4 corner sessions that guild hosted is what she liked the most. Patsy said at one time she served as program director for the guild and booked many of the speakers and workshops.
What she remembers most from the time she was a member of Evening Stars was the friends she made. She started knowing one or two ladies but became friends with a large number of the quilters. Patsy still belongs to two sit and stitch group but is not currently a member of any organized guild.
Patsy has quilts displayed in the Oxford Public Library, Ann Arbor Hospice, McClearn Hospital. She will be discussing the quilt she made for the Ypsilanti District Library as a commissioned piece in 2001.
I asked Patsy my favorite question, “ How do you deal with quilter’s block.” She said she knows of two ways, “Go to the studio and make something every day.” But what works better for her was to do something unrelated, to look at other forms of art. Quilters often get their initial inspiration from other quilts, but as you progress in your knowledge and skills your inspiration comes from other art forms and the natural world.
I was curious how a quilter could make such a large project so I asked Patsy, “How do you organizes your work.” First she said you should have a solid skill level. She took a lot of art, quilting classes and workshops to improve her skills. She said for most of her projects she starts by making a scrap guide of all the fabrics she is going to use so she can plan out the various locations the fabric will be in the project. Patsy often makes a color mock up of the work, this helps her to conceptualize the project but it is also usually requested by whoever commissions the piece. She makes lots of list of all the steps she will take to accomplish the work. Although she follows the basic rules of quilting some changes are made due to the sizes of some of her works. Patsy said she would discuss this more when she gives her lecture.
Favorite tools: Fabric, fabric and more fabric. She use to dye and paint (Nas-Dar textile inks) much of her fabric in her earlier works but due to time restraints she currently works with batiks. She likes the luminance of the batiks fabrics as they are closest to stain glass a quilter can get. Patsy says she plans to discuss more of her process during her lecture.
As soon as I hung up the phone I was thinking of other questions to ask Patsy about her project and process. I know you will have tons of questions too. I have included links to the Ypsilanti District Library, where you can see a small picture of the work. I can hardly wait till our June meeting.
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Links for Davison Evening Star Quilt Guild
Davison Evening Star Home Page
Official Web Page for DESQG
KAY NICHOLS WORKSHOP APPLICATION
