Quilt Folk Feature – Behind The Scenes

Hey Creative Friend,

I got featured in a beautiful magazine called Quilt Folk. Quilt Folk is a special magazine, in that, it’s both a travel magazine and a quilt magazine. It’s a magazine about people, places, and quilts. It comes out every quarter.

The thing they do that makes it so different from other quilt magazines is their focus on one specific place at a time. In their most current issue #17, they traveled to the state of Connecticut, my home state. And I am so blessed to be one of those they chose to feature.

They did a story about my professional art organization SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates). And they chose to feature three of us SAQA members who live in Connecticut.  I got the news in October last year from Quilt Folk’s chief editor – Mary Fons – that she’d chosen to feature me in the SAQA story. I was elated. 

So, I’m going to share with you behind the scenes of how it all came together.

Quilt Folk Feature – Behind the Scenes

Remember that we were still in COVID times, last October. So ,planning photo shoots, interviews, and everything that goes into making a beautiful magazine like theirs was still a challenge. I learned that during normal times, the entire camera crew, writers, stylists and everyone, will travel together. Then, they’ll come out to your studio to do the interviews and take the photos they needed for a feature, in one session.

However, in COVID times, we had to do things differently. Zoom calls and emails had to replace live, face-to-face interviews. The camera crew was pared down. However, I couldn’t be happier with the crew I got. I had a photographer and stylist sent to my home studio and they were excellent. I’ll tell you more about these two ladies a little later.

Putting Plans in Place

So, arrangements were made, appointments were scheduled for when photos will be taken. I was assigned to a writer (Victoria), who will interview me for the article, she was going to write  We fixed a date and time when that will be done. We did all of this over video and emails. (I don’t know what we’re going to do without video conferencing now that we’ve become so used to it. Our lives have been changed forever by COVID. We had such a terrible snow storm this week and my son didn’t have a snow day because , he had to do remote learning).

Anyway, now that all the plans had been made, excitement going through the roof, it was time to wait for the actual dates to come around and get the show going. I was both excited and nervous.

The two ladies, the photographer and stylist, Melanie and Kimberlee were awesome. I mean they were great. They were the only two I had in-person contact with. They made the experience so painless. It was not nerve wracking at all.  When the arrived, I was ironing some one of my works to get it ready for photos in case they wanted to photograph it. So, I left the ironing, went out and brought them into my studio space.

The Photoshoot

And that’s where the photoshoot started. I wasn’t sure what they wanted to photograph and if they had a specific plan. I didn’t want to get in their way if they had plans. However, they made it a collaborative effort, pulling me in to help with how things were arranged and styled. By the time we were done with the studio, we’d turned it inside out, pulling this from here, fishing for that from there, it was just great.

After taking photos in the studio, we took some in other parts of my house and then went out into the yard. It was a cool fall day. The grass was wet but the sun was out. It was a nice day to take photos outside. When they were all done, I asked Melanie how many photos she’d taken. She told me she’d taken more than a thousand photos in that 2-hour period.

It was a fun experience. I enjoyed working with the entire team – Mary, Melanie, Kimberlee, Victoria, and Carmen. What an honor!

The magazine is currently available for purchase. It’s a beautiful magazine. It’s full of photos and very minimal writing. You’ll be inspired by both the photos and the stories in there. In my feature, you’ll learn all about my first encounter with what a hanging sleeve is used for. I’ve come a long way. I’m grateful to God for the journey. I appreciate the role SAQA has played in my journey and my development.

Team Quilt Folk – you did an excellent job.  I’m honored.

Creative friend, you can grab your copy of the magazine from Quilt Folk’s website.

Warm regards,

PS: To learn more about what I like about SAQA and why I think it’s important to join a professional art organization, read this post.