Mary Hill

Mary Hill

MI49016-061

Mary Hill

Pam Schultz

2011-10-08

Susan Salser

Hastings, Michigan

Eleanor Wilkinson

Pam Schultz (PS): This is Pam Schultz. It is Saturday, October 8 [2011.] at 1:41 p.m. I'm interviewing Mary Hill at quilt camp at Michiwana Camp in Hastings, Michigan. This interview is being conducted for the South Central Michigan Quilters' Save Our Stories project of The Alliance for American Quilts. How are you today, Mary?

Mary Hill (MH): I'm good, thank you.

PS: Good. Tell me about the quilt you brought in today.

MH: I started this quilt with a strip project. There's a group of us that do Friday night strip quilts, and this was one of the first ones we did. I used 2 ½ inch strips, everything from my stash. I bought the background, and I bought the border when I was done designing it.

PS: What special meaning does this quilt have for you?

MH: I went through my divorce in 2003 and there was a period of time where I only sewed out of my stash because I was trying to conserve money and this is one of my stash quilts, so it's special from that standpoint.

PS: It's a real triumph.

MH: Yeah, to find everything in your stash that will work.

PS: Why did you choose this quilt to bring to the interview?

MH: It's one of my favorites from the color aspect. The reason I like doing quilts is because I love playing with color and this one, I think, turned out really nicely. I love the way the colors play in it.

PS: What do you think someone viewing your quilt might conclude about you?

MH: That I like green? [both laugh.] It's not easy being green. I think that it's where my artistic talent comes through, is in my design and my use of color.

PS: How do you use this quilt?

MH: This one will be on my bed. It also could go in my living room because I have a green couch, but I primarily designed it to put in my bedroom.

PS: Well, that kind of answered what are your plans for this quilt?

MH: Yep, that's my plans.

PS: Tell me about your interest in quilt making.

MH: I started quilting in 1981 when my daughter was a baby. There was a lady that was doing quilt classes and so I went. That was back when we had to cut the templates out of cardboard and trace around them with a pencil and add a quarter inch. I've always sewed. I had an aunt that used to get me for two weeks in the summer because my parents both worked so I kind of got pushed around in the summertime. And this aunt always sewed and so she taught me to sew. Then I've always loved working with fabrics and colors and that kind of thing. When I had Sarah, I hadn't sewed in a while and I was making baby clothes doing all the things you do when you have a little baby, and just decided I really wanted to make some quilts for her. So that's kind of where I got into it, was from that.

PS: How old were you when you started quilt making?

MH: Well, that would have been 1981 and I'm 60 now so I'm not sure. [PS laughs.]

PS: How many hours a week do you quilt?

MH: Since I took this new job I don't quilt as much. I mainly do most of my quilting at retreats, but I go to probably six or seven retreats a year, so I get away from my job and I just immerse myself in quilting for a weekend, and then I go back to work and put it on the shelf.

PS: What is your first quilt memory?

MH: Well, one of my quilt memories is a funny one. This is not quite my first quilt memory, but when I was working at a quilt shop in Grand Rapids [Michigan.] they got in the French blue and the yellows and it was such a wonderful line of fabric and I stood and looked at it for months because I was cutting fabric at that station and every time I was in the shop working I was looking at this quilt fabric and designing a quilt in my head. I ended up doing a Lone Star with Log Cabins and I took it home because I was so excited about it and I opened it up and my husband at the time said, 'Looks like baby shit yellow to me.' [both laugh.] And I was crushed. I put it back in the bag and I didn't finish it until I got divorced. [both laugh again.]

PS: Are there other quiltmakers among your family or friends?

MH: My friend Rebecca and I quilt together, and we do, well you saw the quilt that we did with the pumpkins? It took us almost four years to make this quilt, but we only worked on it when we were together. So, I have my good friend, Rebecca, that we do some things together and that's really been nice. I met Rebecca at a retreat, and she was a brand-new quilter and every time she came over to my table, I was working on something else, and she was just amazed that I was doing all these different things. [coughs.] And that's why I'm laughing is because this weekend she is the one that's working on eighty zillion different things and people are coming around and saying, 'Oh, what are you working on now? What are you working on now?' I remember her thinking that was just a horrible thing that you couldn't just sit and finish one thing.

PS: How does quilt making impact your family?

MH: My daughter is an artist, and she paints with oils. I never thought of myself as being an artist and Sara was in school and somebody said something to her about where she inherited her talent and she said, 'Well, just look at my mom's quilts.' And that just made me feel really good.

PS: Oh, that's a wonderful compliment.

MH: That's what I thought.

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

MH: I used, yeah, I used quilts when I went through my divorce, very much. That's why I brought this one. It's kind of an example of that time in my life. But I think sewing just is one of those things that kind of calms me down. I can sit and sew all day and feel like I've accomplished something, but I feel like there's a part of that energy that's coming out of my sewing machine that makes me feel better.

PS: Tell me about an amusing experience that has occurred from your quilt making or teaching.

MH: Oh, I teach now just mainly at camp, but I used to teach quite a bit in shops around the Grand Rapids area. I can't think of a--oh, a sad thing was the day a lady almost cut her finger off with a rotary cutter. That was kind of frightening. Ended up having to take somebody to the Med Center. But a funny thing, I don't know. I have to think about that.

PS: Probably something every time, but--

MH: Yeah, it's always different people and I think the nice thing about doing that is showing people that they can use their creative gifts. A lot of people, I think, are afraid to make mistakes or they're afraid to do something new for fear they're not going to do it perfectly. I think we, as women, have this issue about, 'I have to do it just so, and everything has to be just so.' I think seeing somebody who has developed to point where they have that freedom to make a mistake when they do something is kind of the fun part of teaching.

PS: What do you find pleasing about quilt making?

MH: I think having something done when you are finished with it and you like the way it looks. The fact that you can use it to redecorate a room or change the way something looks in your home. I like the idea of having something that gives comfort. When I quilt for my granddaughter and give her a quilt like I did an Alice in Wonderland fabric about the time the movie came out. And I took her an Alice in Wonderland quilt and she knew who the characters were on the quilt, 'cause she's four now. That was really kind of fun to see them snuggle up in something or see her drag it around and know that she really enjoys it. And when she comes with her dolls, I make little quilts for her and little things that don't really take much time, but small children have been getting something that's just wonderful, especially if grandma made it for them.

PS: Yes, and she'll remember that all her life. What aspects of quilt making do you not enjoy?

MH: I don't like putting binding on. That's why Becky Green does all my bindings. [both laugh.]

PS: What art or quilt groups do you belong to?

MH: I belong to the Berrien County Quilters [Michigan.] since I moved to Berrien County last year. I joined that group. And I belong to Cal-Co. [Cal-Co Quilters' Guild, Battle Creek, Michigan.]

PS: Do you belong to any circles or groups?

MH: No, I don't. Well, I go to the appliqué society that's part of the Berrien County group.

PS: Have advances in technology influenced your work? If so, how?

MH: Oh, yeah. The rotary cutter was huge. Like I said, when I first started quilting we drew around anything we could find that was cardboard that was thin enough and would save all the little things that were in my husband's shirts and all the stuff to make templates with and when that template plastic came out, that was just the most wonderful thing under the sun and then the stuff that you could iron over, that was way cool and now just using a rotary cutter and knowing what rulers I have and having a collection of rulers has made my life a whole lot easier. I love to appliqué. Freezer paper, I couldn't live without freezer paper, and a hundred and one things to do with freezer paper.

PS: What are your favorite techniques and materials?

MH: Freezer paper appliqué is one of my favorite techniques. Materials, I like to use Do-sew from the old Stretch and Sew days, draw my appliqué pattern on and flip it up and flip it back down so I have great placement for things. My rulers, my rotary cutter is my friend.

PS: [paper is turned.] Describe your studio or the place that you create.

MH: My studio is always my kitchen table. Someone can spend $18,000 and make me a sewing room and I probably would sew at my kitchen table, because that's just like my favorite place to sew. I love to be in the middle of everything. I'm very visual so I have to see everything, so my space always looks the wreck of something because I have everything strewn out. If I put things away, I don't see them and it doesn't come across my brain I even have it, so that's the kind of person I am. The last time Rebecca was over, I have a little house that I'm renting in the area that we were making my sewing room. I have my cutting table and my ironing board set up. And Rebecca graciously helped me cull through everything and sort of organize it so it's my space.

PS: Do you use a design wall?

MH: No. I don't have one.

PS: Do you use something else?

MH: Use the floor. I would use a design wall if someone would give me one, but I don't have one. I don't have a place. I've lived in four places in the last eight years.

PS: That's hard.

MH: It's very hard, because I have things, I know I have, and I can't find them. And every time I feel like I'm settled I have to move again, so I'm really praying for a place where I can unpack and nest.

PS: How do you balance your time?

MH: Because of my job, I have two weeks out of the month where I have to go to township meetings and board meetings, so I do a lot of things at night those two weeks. And the other two weeks my nights are really my time, when I unwind. But then, because I have this evening means I'm able to take time off so that makes it nice if I want to take a whole day off, just sit and sew all day, I can.

PS: What do you think makes a great quilt?

MH: Contrast. When I worked at the quilt shop and I knew quilters were coming they always want to make their quilts mono-chromatic, so the tip was to give them a ruby beholder and say I want you to go around the shop and look at quilts that you like and look at them through the ruby beholder. Now, [coughs.] let's stack up the fabrics that you've selected and now let's look at them through the ruby beholder. Are you seeing the same things? Then they won't because they don't ever put lights or darks in their quilts. So that's one way to help them create or build a quilt to see values. Most quilters don't look at whole values. So, if you look at a quilt you don't like usually it's because it doesn't have enough contrast.

PS: What makes a quilt artistically powerful?

MH: I think the use of color, but what might be powerful to one person isn't necessarily powerful to another. I think a lot of its taste. I think one of the most outstanding quilts, most outstanding quilts that sticks in my memory, that I ever saw, was years ago I went to one of the traveling quilt shows and it was in Ft. Wayne and I was able to go away for a weekend by myself and I remember walking through this quilt show and seeing this quilt hung that was a taxi cab and it was going through the rain and it showed the rain and it was just breathtaking. It's not anything that I would ever do because that's not where my talent lies and it's not the kind of quilts I do, but I just thought it was just spectacular. That quilt has always stood out in my mind as being one of the most magnificent quilts I ever saw.

PS: What makes a quilt appropriate for a museum or a special collection?

MH: I think the quality of the quilting certainly and I think its appeal to a lot of different people. I think that we're all different so there are a variety of things. I know Sue Nickels got a lot of acclaim over her Beatles quilt. It didn't appeal to me. I think different things appeal to different people and so if I was a curator and I was selecting quilts, probably the quilts that I would be selecting would be geometric shapes and stars and things that are more common. Farm House Quilts where a lot of people do art quilts and I think they're spectacular but they're not anything that I would want to own or even look at every day. I think it would be great to have a room like this with a cathedral ceiling and to be able to hang quilts and be able to put things up and down. If I could design, my own house that's what I would want.

PS: What makes a great quiltmaker?

MH: Patience. And an eye for color.

PS: Whose works are you drawn to and why?

MH: I like appliqué quilts so I would say probably say like Piece of Cake Designs, those types of designs I like because I like the geometric parts of them. I like Barbara Brackman's work. I like Barb, Alma that do Blackbird Designs. I like their work a lot.

PS: Which artists have influenced you?

MH: Probably Barbara Brackman the most. I think when I started looking at the different shapes and things for appliqué and I have and E-Q IV. I know have they've advanced since then, but mine's one of the early ones. That helped me a lot, too, when I really learned to use that program. I used to use it a lot when I taught, putting things together and trying to explain to people things.

PS: How do you feel about machine quilting versus hand quilting? And, what about long arm quilting?

MH: I'm in favor. [laughs.] I have been hand quilting a quilt for the last ten years and this is a funny story because I took it to my bee, my Saturday bee and I didn't feel well at the time. I was going through a real bad time in my life, physically. And so, my friends were basting it for me, and they had it all laid out on these tables. They were crawling all around basting this quilt top together for me. They got all done and I looked at it and I said, 'Well, great. Now I can take it home and machine quilt it.' And I thought they were going to have a fit. [PS laughs.] But I've been hand quilting it for ten years and it's not anywhere near done, so hand quilting probably is not an option for me and my lifestyle because I wouldn't have anything done. I have used a Gammill. I have a friend that has a Gammill, and I have quilted two quilts on it myself and it's kind of fun to do but it's not anything that I would ever want to do. I'd never want one. I have no desire to have one. But most of my quilts are machine done, on long arms. I do some smaller things myself on my sewing machine, but I've learned a long time ago not to do anything very big because I just don't enjoy it.

PS: Why is quilt making important to your life?

MH: I just can't imagine not doing it. It's such a part of what I do, who I am.

PS: In what ways do your quilts reflect your community or your region? [clears throat and excuses herself.]

MH: Well, I think living in Michigan we know it gets cold in the winter, so we want to snuggle down in the wintertime, so that's kind of part of what we do. My grandmother quilted later in life, and I have two of her tops so I kind of feel like there is some kind of historical significance to what I do as well. I think it's just mainly living in Michigan and knowing it's going to be cold and knowing I'm going to want to be warm.

PS: What do you think about the importance of quilts in American life?

MH: I think it's such an example of art in America, primitive art or women's desire to have things beautiful in their homes. When you look back at how they used to do them with feed sacks and they used to do them out of clothing, and the whole evolution of the way that our ancestors quilted, and it's such an American skill. Other countries don't really do what we do, so I think it's so primarily an American art. I love it.

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

MH: Oh, because that's what our ancestors have done. That's how we put things together. I think it shows the resourcefulness of American women, too. I think we are just really unique, maybe we're not, I don't know. I don't know women from other countries, but I just know my friends and people that I quilt with all seem to be very resourceful and very loving and kind and very supportive of each other. I think that's one of the things I like about it is that it is such a supportive community.

PS: How do you think quilts can be used?

MH: Any way you want to use them. You see people going to football games and sitting on them and I've had friends complain about, 'Oh, yes. I gave my son a quilt when he got married and when he got divorced and now, he uses it for this or that.' And I think well, that's great. That's what you wanted him to do is use it. But some people only want them to be heirlooms, don't sit on my quilt. I've always been of the idea that you should use it and enjoy it and then I'll have an excuse to make you another one.

PS: How do you think quilts can be preserved for the future?

MH: You'll kind of think this is funny, but I have listened to people over the years talk about, 'Oh, we need to preserve them. We need to put them in this kind of paper, and we need to do this, and we need to do that.' And my comment has been, 'You know, the world is going to end someday. It is all going to burn. It is all just phttt.' So, I guess I'm just more in the moment than I am a preservation person. [PS laughs.]

PS: What has happened to quilts that you have made or of those of family and friends?

MH: Well, I have two of my grandmother's quilts, like I said. When I was married to my ex-husband, I had one of his grandmother's quilts, which I've given back to the family. But my quilts, my girls either have them or I have them, or they're stacked in tubs as tops waiting to be quilted someday. They transport much easier before they're quilted.

PS: Waiting to grow up.

MH: That's right. When I might need a gift, I might pull it out.

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

MH: The cost of fabric.

PS: That's a big one. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?

MH: Nope, that's pretty much it.

PS: Thank you.

MH: Thank you.

PS: This has been wonderful. We are finished with our interview, and it is 2:07 p.m. Thank you, Mary.

MH: Thank you.