Robyn Gold creates colorful and whimsical quilts with commercial fabrics and a lot of embellishment. The individual elements on her pieces are all applied with needle-turn appliqué. And, she keeps busy supporting the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show with Wish post cards.
When was the first time that you remember realizing that you are a creative person?
Looking back, I think I’ve always been creative, although I wouldn’t have thought of it that way then. I designed my own paper dolls as a kid. I wasn’t raised in a sewing environment, though my mom did manage to make a few Barbie doll dresses for me. But both of my parents were artists in their own ways, though not professionally. My mom painted, and my dad made wonderful things in wood, including a marvelous jewelry case that looks like an old-fashioned wardrobe.
In high school, I sewed a lot of my own clothes, but got too busy in college to continue that. After college, I picked up needlepoint and created my own designs. Finally, in 2004, I found quilting. I was first attracted to traditional Baltimore Album style appliqué quilts (I still am, actually, and have several in the works), but once I discovered art quilts, that became my happy place.
How did you get started making fiber art? Why did you choose that medium? Or did it choose you?
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As with most quilters, I started out with traditional quilts, but gravitated to hand appliqué almost immediately.
My transition to art quilts came about as a result of a challenge by the Ogallala Quilt Festival (held annually in Dimmitt, Texas, in early April). They provided 4 fabrics, and the challenge was to make a small (no greater than 100 inches perimeter) quilt, adding no more than 4 fabrics, including backing, binding, and sleeve.
To meet the challenge, I found myself using ribbons to create a 1950s-style diner floor, the backside of some of the challenge fabrics, yarn for the girl’s sweater and socks, and lots of embellishments. This became my quilt Steppin’ Out. I won third place, and I was hooked on art quilts and on embellishing!
What do you do differently? What is your signature that makes your work stand out as yours?
I use traditional techniques (needle-turn appliqué and hand embroidery) to make art quilts, so I’m a slow quilter compared with other art quilters. Unlike most art quilters, I don’t fuse fabric. I’ve never liked the feel of it, and the handwork is very meditative for me.
I tend to make whimsical pieces, whether they are quilts or embroidered pieces. Mostly, I want to make pieces that make viewers smile. Circus Daze is one of my early art quilts, but still a favorite, as is Sea Song.
Beep, Beep! was a bit different for me, in that I was trying to make the background more realistic. I couldn’t resist making my roadrunner whimsical, though. This quilt won Best Use of Color in Wall quilts at Pacific International Quilt Fest (2018).
I also have fallen in love in hand embroidery, thanks to classes from Sue Spargo and Laura Wasilowski. Laura taught a class at Quilter’s Affair (precedes the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show) a few years ago and uses felted wool/rayon. I have been having fun playing with that ever since, as you can see in Flower Power and Blue Gardenia.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Almost everywhere. Now that I live in Sisters, I’m inspired daily by our amazing scenery and the wildlife that share our town: mule deer (love their ears!), quail, wild turkeys, and peacocks.
The creative community here in Central Oregon is also a wonderful source of inspiration. So many amazingly talented people here, I can’t help but be inspired!
Traveling also provides lots of inspiration. I’m not the best photographer, but I take lots of photos to use as inspiration (that way I don’t run into copyright issues). One example is Home Tweet Home. This quilt was inspired by a wonderful old, very twisted tree I photographed in Charleston, South Carolina.
What different creative media do you use in your work?
In my art quilts, I use buttons, beads, lace (old and hand-dyed or painted), ribbon, rick-rack, pearl cotton thread, polymer clay buttons, Color Catchers, felted wool, sparkly tulle, and (just recently) hand-dyed organza (thanks to a good friend!). And probably other things …
When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?
When I first started quilting, I very carefully drew out my patterns on graph paper, but I found I couldn’t even follow my own patterns, let alone someone else’s, so I gave that up pretty quickly.
Nowadays, I usually do a very rough pencil sketch, but I’m better at “drawing” with fabric than I am on paper, so my sketch really is rough, and I fully expect things to change along the way. Sometimes, I’ll only sketch the main element and I’ll just cut out fabric shapes for the background, especially if it’s a landscape.
Do you have a dedicated space for creating? If so, what does it look like?
I have an amazing studio with a large design wall. I have north and south facing windows, out of which I can see the Three Sisters, Broken Top, Three-Fingered Jack, Mount Jefferson, and Black Butte. Lots of inspiration there!
Working across many different media, how do you organize all of your creative supplies?
Not nearly as well as I wish I did! However, having to root around in my various stashes sometimes leads to inspiration or ideas for a piece that I hadn’t considered.
How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?
Too often! And yes, I’m definitely not one of those focused people who can finish one piece before starting the next. I have found, though, that I don’t run out of inspiration this way. If I reach a thinking point on one project, picking up another sometimes helps.
Can you tell us about the inspiration and process of one of your works? How does a new work come about?
I’ll describe two. The first is Berkeley Square (pronounced Barkley, like the song). This quilt was inspired by another Ogallala challenge and by a painting my mother did of New York. Because I was limited by the number of fabrics (4 provided and I could only add 4), I turned to painting some of the fabrics to get the different colors of buildings. I also used puffy paint and couched some sparkly yarn. The tree trunks are made of ribbon. I’m currently working on an updated version of this idea for an East of the Cascades Quilt guild challenge.
The second is currently traveling as part of SAQA Oregon’s Biophilia exhibit. I designed Nature’s Renaissance for an East of the Cascades Quilt guild challenge for the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in 2021. The theme was Renewal, and I wanted to show that Mother Nature will eventually create beauty, even out of the devastation of the wildfires that plague Central Oregon. I had fun using a similar tree in my quilt 13 Daffodil Lane, but in Nature’s Renaissance, I really went to town with buttons as embellishments.
I have done very well with various challenges; they seem to inspire me to be quite creative in my solutions. For example, Jerome Finds the Magic Jug was for a Red challenge, held by the Caprock Art Quilters (a SAQA circle in Texas). I felted the red wool that makes up the pot and did a lot of hand embroidery.
Sapphire Shores was for a blue challenge, though I didn’t complete it in time. Still I was pleased when it won the teacher’s award from Laura Wasilowski (one of my quilter models) at the Ogallala Quilt Festival in 2019. In that quilt, I decided I wanted all the street and building names to be colors of blue and look like the color named. I learned several new words researching that quilt. Both quilts also traveled to a couple of national shows.
Which part of the design process is your favorite? Which part is a challenge for you?
I love designing, picking fabric, and hand appliqué. I also love figuring out embellishments (often buttons) that will enhance my quilts. The actual quilting part is still a bit of a challenge for me, but that old “practice, practice, practice” line is too unfortunately true, and I have seen my quilting improve.
How do you know when a piece is finished?
Usually when I reach the deadline. That works for my quilts, but for my embroidery pieces, I sometimes have trouble deciding if the piece is done so some pieces get set aside until I figure it out. I have a few too many of those waiting for answers …
On your fiber art journey, what is the best piece of advice you’ve received along the way?
Practice, practice, practice. That worked for learning to do needle-turn appliqué and the actual quilting.
One of my early quilting teachers was Suzanne Marshall from whom I took an appliqué class at Empty Spools. She is a master at choosing commercial fabrics to achieve the effects she wanted (rocks, trees, etc.), and I’ve tried to emulate her in that way.
What do you do to keep yourself motivated and interested in your work?
That is not a problem for me. I have so many different projects in some state of completion, all I have to do is check some of the various bins I’ve got stacked in my studio. I’m also inspired by fabric, Instagram posts, the scenery and wildlife in Central Oregon, friends and their work, and travel.
You volunteer to help support the annual Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. Tell us more about the show and the WISH project.
The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show is the largest outdoor quilt show in the world. This year is our 49th year. Pretty amazing!
Jean Wells built this up from a beginning when she hung just a few quilts outside her store, the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon. This show has become a bucket list item for many quilters, and it’s truly amazing to see the whole of downtown Sisters covered in quilts on Quilt Show Day; this year it’s July 13. In addition, a week of quilt classes, called Quilter’s Affair, is held the week before the quilt show.
One main fundraiser for the Quilt Show (which is and always will be free to attend, but certainly not free to put on!) is the Wish Card program. This started 17 years ago as a program that benefited Wendy’s Wish through St. Charles Health System and the quilt show. That changed a few years back (before my time) to supporting just the quilt show and a scholarship for a local arts student, who will be announced later this spring.
The Wish Card program has several components. The teachers who come to Quilter’s Affair from around the world are asked to donate a fabric postcard (4 by 6 inches) to the quilt show. These are then professionally framed by 5 local framing companies (two in Sisters—Sisters Gallery & Frame Shop and Wildflower Studio—and three in Bend—Bend Picture Framing, Eastlake Framing, and Sage Custom Picture Framing). During Quilter’s Affair, we hold a silent auction to auction these cards. The top price is $500. Where else can you get an original piece of art from some of the best quilters in the world for that?
The second component is a fabric challenge. Each year, we selected two fabrics that are donated by Andover Fabrics and ask people to design fabric postcards using recognizable amounts of the two challenge fabrics and any other fabrics, techniques, and embellishments they choose. Last year we had 155 challenge entries from around the country and Canada. The top three winners are awarded cash prizes, and their postcards and those of the honorable mentions are also professionally framed and auctioned in the silent auction. In this case, they will be available for bidding until 2 pm on Quilt Show Day. This year’s deadline is May 1, 2024 (received by, not mailed by). Learn more about the fabric challenge.
The third component is non-challenge postcards. We encourage anyone interested to submit a 4 x 6 inch fabric postcard. These are sold all during Quilter’s Affair and during Quilt Show Day (until 4 pm) for $10 per card (or three for $25). We will also mat some of the cards and sell these for $25 each, and we frame a few additional cards and sell these for $100. It’s a great way to use up some scraps, try a new technique, or just feel good about supporting a wonderful quilt show! Last year, we received 365 non-challenge cards, and we received postcards (teacher, challenge, and non-challenge) from 26 different states, Canada, Germany, and Australia.
I work with an amazing team of 15 women who help me with the Wish Card program, and it takes all of us! One of the things we do is to write an individual thank you note to every person who sends us a postcard (assuming they’ve included their address!).
How can people participate in the WISH challenge?
Challenge packets are available through the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show site. Send completed postcards (challenge and non-challenge) to SOQS/Wish, 220 S. Ash Street #4, Sisters, Oregon 97759. We look forward to receiving cards from your readers!
Next year, will be the 50th year of the Quilt Show, so we’re hoping to receive a postcard (challenge, non-challenge, or teacher) from all 50 states.
Where can people see your work?
Instagram: robyngoldartquilts
Websites: www.sistersartsassociation.org/artists#/robyn-gold
www.saqaoregon.com/robyn-gold
Interview posted April 2024
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