An Interview with RaNae Merrill - October 2008
by Penny McMorris
RaNae Merrill is a quilt and fabric designer (for Blank Textiles). Her new book, Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts, should open up a new world of design potential, especially interesting to EQers, because RaNae has a CD accompanying the book that includes EQ lessons on drawing her special spiral blocks.
Q: RaNae we first met by phone, as I remember, during a tech support call. Is my memory right?
Yes, I think that's right.
Q: How did you get started making quilts?
Both my grandmothers quilted, and my mother taught me to sew when I was a kid. When my mother's mother died, she was in the midst of making a quilt for me, so my mother brought it home from the funeral. It sat in a box for years, until I pulled it out during my first year of graduate school. Turned out it was KING SIZE, and I hand-quilted the whole thing! Among my grandmother's things were a number of nine-patch blocks she had made. I kept them and when my sisters began having children I incorporated them into baby quilts for my nieces and nephews. I designed the quilts myself. I didn't know there was a quilting “industry” or patterns or books . . .
Q: How did you begin using EQ?
I was using QuiltPro, and after months of crashes and bugs and malfunctions, I finally gave up and called EQ one day. By that time, I had seen EQ at several quilt shows. I said “Can you FedEx it to me by tomorrow?” I had to buy a new computer around that time as well, and I changed my whole computer system from Mac to Windows, just so I could use EQ.
Q: What got you started working with spirals?
It was a number of years ago. I was working as a temporary secretary, and had nothing to do that day, so I just started doodling. Somehow I figured out how to do what I now would refer to as an 8-sided point-to-point spiral. It seemed like something that would work as a quilt, so I made Holiday Whirl just to try it out. It was the only quilt I had made up to that time that wasn't intended as a gift for someone.
Q: On your blog you list “4 kinds of spirals.” Can you describe these? And does your book deal with designing all four kinds?
There are Nesting spirals, Baravelle spirals, Point-to-Point spirals and Pinwheel spirals. In a nutshell, each has different proportions. Rather than give a long explanation here, I can show you here in this PDF file.
Nesting and Baravelle spirals share the same sewing technique, while Point-to-Point and Pinwheel spirals share their own sewing technique.
My book gives specific instructions on the similarities and differences between these spirals, and how to draw and design with all four types. There is also a separate set of drawing instructions specifically for EQ users on the CD that comes with the book. Whenever I demonstrate how to draw spirals, people are surprised at how easy they are, despite how complicated they look.
Q: I've never sewn a spiral design. But from reading comments of those who have used your method, you seem to have developed a way to simplify the sewing of what will appear to be a complex design. What is it about your method that makes designing and sewing these complex designs easier than it appears?
Spirals are paper-pieced, which eliminates having to worry about precision. There's no need to worry about correct seam allowances or aligning corners.
I always use a translucent foundation material, so I can see the markings on the foundation from both sides. EQ Printables Foundation Sheets are perfect for this. Unlike traditional paper piecing, I can draw the design on the front AND piece it on the front so my design doesn't come out the mirror image of what I drew. What you see is what you get, as the saying goes.
Q: Would I be wrong if I guessed that you loved math in school?
I was okay at math, but I liked music and art more. You don't need math to draw spirals.
Recently my parents retired and were moving out of the home they had lived in for many years. They asked all of us kids to come and take our stuff out of the garage. Among my things was a box my mom had saved containing one or two special things from each year of school. When I opened the box, there was a Spirograph set. It was completely intact, all the pieces were carefully stowed in the tray, even a few drawings were left in it. It was my favorite toy when I was in grade school, so I guess you could say this book has been in the works since I was a kid!
Q: From your blog about the book, I see that many other quilters have contributed quilts. How did you find these designers?
I sent out a general email to everyone on my mailing list, asking anyone who might be interested in a “quilting adventure” to get in touch with me and send a few samples of their work. I then reviewed the responses and selected about 75 quilters to participate, based on the workmanship of their quilts. I wanted all kinds of designers—from traditional to very modern—so that they would use spirals in a wide variety of ways, and I had quilters of every level—from beginners to national award-winners. They had to commit at the outset to designing their own quilt and finishing it within a 4-5 month period.
Q: Tell us how you worked with them. In reading through some of the notes back and forth between you and the designers I was struck by how you “coached,” critiqued and encouraged them. Some were very new to the idea of designing their own original blocks and quilts. And I could imagine how enthralling it must have been for them to have your one-on-one attention as they went from beginning to final design: like a mini virtual class. How did you arrive at this process?
I began by sending them material that described the spirals and taught them how to draw and design with them – basically, it was the draft of the book. At the same time I set up the blog as a forum where everyone involved could see everyone else's progress; I wanted everyone to learn from me as well as from each other. For each person I set up her own Work-in-Progress page. As each quilter sent me questions and photographs, I posted them to that person's work-in-progress pages for one-on-one coaching. The page also allowed everyone else to comment, offer encouragement, ask/answer questions, and share ideas. The work-in-progress pages became like journals for each quilt. It was a really fascinating and enjoyable experience, one I hope to repeat in future online classes.
Another of the great ways that EQ helped the process of communicating was simply being able to email EQ files to each other, or to export designs and email them to each other.
By the way, somewhere in the process, people in the group started calling themselves “spiromaniacs” and the name stuck!
Q: I noticed that several designers not only used EQ6 to design with, but were in fact new to designing in EQ6. Yet they arrived at sophisticated designs. I think this speaks to your methods and encouragement, and their determination to learn. How do you feel?
It was so interesting to see what happened with EQ in the group. I provided some basic instructions for how to draw spirals in EQ, and some of the more experienced EQ users immediately started using it. When they showed their designs, quite a few people were so inspired by the possibilities that they immediately went out and bought EQ and learned to use it. (It is a pretty easy program to get started in!)
I think Evelyn Larrison's quilt Goodness, Gracious, Great Ball of Fire! really was a catalyst for this happening. Evelyn used a star layout from the Layout Library. She began with a spiral within a square block and EQ automatically warped it to fit into the non-square “patches” of the quilt layout. The process is really easy and the results were quite stunning. The new Block-Turned-Quilt tool in EQ6 could be used to do something similar.
Q: I've linked (below) to the dialogues you had with some of the designers who used EQ6. Care to tell the “design story” of any of these quilters?
Well, I've already mentioned Evelyn Larrison's quilt and how it inspired so many others in the group.
Susan Lock was one of the new EQ users. I gave her a little jump start by sharing some blocks I had already drawn (all of which are on the CD with the book, in EQ format) so she could focus more on design and less on logistics. She really stretched, and ultimately came up with a new idea I hadn't thought of yet—using spirals with different numbers of rings in them. That's one of the great things about working with new “spiromaniacs” is that they haven't settled into routines and assumptions yet, so they often come up with some really fresh, exciting ideas!
Jill Kerekes is an engineer by training, so she used EQ to draft some basic blocks, then exported them, and put them together in PhotoShop and by hand in ways that stretched beyond traditional quilt layouts. She was one of the first to explore the “mandala” style layout. Even though her design goes beyond EQ's layout capabilities, EQ still was a very useful tool for creating the spiral blocks of the design.
Micki Wiersma does a lot of needlepoint, so it's not surprising that she ended up doing spirals with a lot of very small pieces – each of her spirals is 8” or 9” in diameter and contains about 200 pieces! She was another who started using EQ during this project. She started working with Baravelle spirals, and when she discovered how easily EQ let her experiment with colorings she created many, many different designs. Ultimately, she chose the ones that best suited her quilt.
Linda Cooper began with a really simple way to vary a spiral – she used EQ to change the proportions by setting it in a rectangle instead of a square. Then she laid her broderie perse flowers on Layer 2.
With Muriel Roberts, you can see that with some of the participants I “nudged” them in a direction that would fill a need for the book. EQ let Muriel try a lot of different ideas easily in a short period of time so we were able to arrive at something that we both liked (I hope!).
Sandy Weber started out drafting by hand, but she had had EQ5 sitting in the box on her shelf for a long time. When she started to see what others were doing, she got it down, loaded it up and took off. It took her out of her comfort zone and expanded her skills really quickly, and she had a blast! Even though she likes to stay with very traditional designs, EQ certainly made experimenting with color easy, and also made it quite easy to print out perfect templates, even for very large spirals.
Q: Tell me about the “Designing Spiral Quilts in Electric Quilt” workshops you teach.
Originally I had envisioned this as a classroom workshop where people would bring their computers, but the online format works so well—and avoids having to haul around a sewing machine AND a computer, plus all the sewing equipment and fabrics—so I've re-created it as an online course. Students will be able to work comfortably at home while still having all the interaction with me and other students, and the online format lets us spread the learning out over a longer period of time, so there's time to really develop ideas. (For more information about RaNae's classes go to http://www.ranaemerrillquilts.com/workshops.html or sign up to receive her newsletter at http://www.ranaemerrillquilts.com/sas-mailinglist.html.)
The best way to get a sense of how this works is just to spend some time visiting the blog. Since the CD that comes with the book now provides a lot of pre-drawn templates in EQ, the design process is streamlined, but I still want students to learn the basics of drawing spirals in order to have the ability to create spirals in their own individual ways. I've also developed some techniques in EQ to go beyond the traditional layouts to create mandalas and free-form designs and will cover those in more advanced classes once students have mastered spiral basics in EQ.
EQ has really become an indispensable tool in my quilt design process, and not only do I enjoy teaching my students how to use it, but I enjoy learning from their process and their discoveries too!
Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts, from Krause Publications, is a complete guide to creating your own spiral quilt, from drawing spirals to designing a quilt, choosing colors and fabrics, and sewing.
For more information visit RaNae's site: www.ranaemerrillquilts.com
and the Spiromaniacs blog at: spiromaniacs.wordpress.com
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