Quiltfolk Issue 08 Highlights Michigan Quilters

When I heard that Quiltfolk Issue 8 was about Michigan quilters I went to my local Barnes & Noble to pick up a copy.

The articles include quiltfolk I was very familiar with and some who were new to me.

Divided into sections by geographic location within Michigan, the first is Up North, the "top of the mitten" on Michigan's lower peninsula and the Upper Peninsula.

First, readers met Rachel May, a professor at Northern Michigan University whose book An American Quilt I reviewed earlier this year on this blog. Rachel has also written a book on making Modern Quilts.

The next profile is Gwen Marston, who recently retired from teaching. I was lucky to have taken a workshop with Gwen many years ago through my local quilt guild. Her "Liberated" quilting techniques freed quilters from the perfectionism required by the big quilt contests.

Gwen Marston quilts I photographed in 1996 at Crossroads Village, Flint Michigan

Some of Marston's books from my personal library

Readers meet Ann Lovelace, two time Grand Rapids Art Prize winner, whose landscape quilts are just awesome. I reviewed her book Landscape Art Quilts, Step By Step here.

Ann Lovelace and her award-winning quilt. From Ann's website.

Other North folk profiled include Monte and Carol Graham and their featherweight clinic.

The "thumb" of Michigan is where I now live and where I grew up. The population-dense Metro Detroit and Ann Arbor include quilters from the Great Lakes African American Quilters' Network and "Detroit Star" Carole Harris, and former fabric designer and quilter Lizzy House whose new venture is in gardening.

Mid-Michigan--Lansing and Grand Rapids--is an area rich in quilt heritage. Readers meet teacher Lynne Carson Harris and learn about sisters Pat Holly and Sue Nickels. I have seen Pat talk about her award-winning The Beatles Quilt at the Capital City Quilt Guild in Lansing long ago, and also was on a weekend retreat with a Muskegon-based quilt group she helped to organize and returns to attend. Seeing how Pat worked on her machine appliqued quilts was a marvel.

Sue Nickel's quilt Alberta Rose photographed at the 1995 Ann Arbor Quilt Guild Show

The "Dream Team" at the Michigan State Museum are quite familiar to me. Marsha MacDowell brought a talk and slide presentation to Hillsdale, MI when I was first quilting. Seeing the quilts from the Michigan Quilt Project was an inspiration. I knew I had to make the Mountain Mist pattern Sunflower Quilt.

This Sunflower Quilt was my first applique project

MacDowell has written many books including To Honor and Comfort on Native Quilting Traditions.

Marsha MacDowell's To Honor and Comfort from my personal library.

Quilt pattern book from MSU museum quilts by MacDowell. from my personal library.

I met Beth Donaldson through the Capital City Quilt Guild and for a while a group of quilters created a reproduction quilt from the museum's collection, meeting in my husband's church. A year ago, I saw her presentation on the Detroit News History Project at the CAMEO Quilt guild in Clawson.

Beth Donaldson's book Charm Quilts from my personal library

Mary Worrall is another familiar name from my Lansing days. And Lynne Swanson is the last of the "team."

Michigan Quilts includes discoveries from the Michigan Quilt Project
Published by MSU Museum. book from my personal library.

The Michigan State Museum has a large collection of quilts This team created and maintains the Quilt Index, a resource for searching thousands of quilts and quilt-related materials. Readers will learn about this amazing resource, including the great perennial favorite quilt The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue.

The legacy of Mary Schaffer is included through doll quilts she gifted to Gwen Marson, who first discovered and promoted Schaffer's quilt legacy.

Mary Schaffer American Quilt Maker by Gwen Marston. from my personal library.

You can "look inside" this issue at the Qulitfolk link by clicking here.

The idea of this magazine came to Mary Fons, daughter of quilting icon Marianne Fons whose Fons & Porter television show and magazine are well known among quiltmakers. As Mary describes it on the website,

At some point in my ongoing, passionate love affair with quilts, I realized something: No one was taking pictures or telling stories about the passion part. Wonderful teachers shared their expertise in person, on TV, and online; plenty of patterns were available; and there were friends with whom I could talk about my big love. But I wanted to see it. I wanted to read about it.

Then came Quiltfolk.

In late 2016, Quiltfolk published its first issue, and everything changed. Here was a magazine without ads, on gorgeous paper, with the most beautiful photographs I had ever seen of quilters and quilts — and it seemed to care as deeply about stories and people and quilt history as I did. Who were these Quiltfolk people? 

The magazine is 180 pages of articles and photographs without advertising. It comes out four times a year, each issues concentrating on a specific state.