Fabric of life

The ancient art of quilting is making a thoroughly modern comeback, courtesy of two creative sewers. By Kelly Baker.

The shop is unremarkable. The kind you might pass time and time again without being aware of having done so. But step inside and you’ll find this is no ordinary place. Here, a quilting business operates, but more importantly, magic happens.

The store is Material Obsession, and every day, it’s changing lives, for inside this room in this old-fashioned building, women of all ages and backgrounds gather. They’re drawn by their desire to create beautiful quilts, but they come here for another, perhaps more important, reason, and that is to talk, to listen and to extend support to one another in a way that‘s rarely seen in modern-day life.

“There’s something about quilting and women,” muses Sarah Fielke, co-owner of Material Obsession. “For some reason, when you sit and quilt together, you reveal your life’s story. We see it happen all the time. Someone‘s quietly stitching, then they look up, catch a woman’s eye and explain that their husband is ill, or they have a problem with one of their kids, or they’re experiencing a crisis of some kind. Suddenly, everyone is giving advice and offering a shoulder to cry on. It’s amazing how it happens.”

Sarah’s business partner and friend Kathy Doughty agrees, saying that, despite having co-owned the store for three years, she‘s still moved by the way the women who come here care for one another.

“It really is wonderful,” she says, sipping coffee at the country-style wooden table where the quilting group gathers.

“Times have changed and so many women these days no longer live near their mothers, grandmothers, sisters or even their children. They can’t go to them for support, so they recreate that sense of community right here.”

It was that sense of sharing and community, and a love of quilting, that brought Sarah, 34, and Kathy, 49, together four years ago. When they met, the women, who both live in the Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill where their store is based, had long been passionate quilters.

Sarah grew up in a quilting household with her mother always working on one creation or another. She paid little attention to her mum’s fabric works of art, aside from making the odd bedcover for her teddy or Barbie, but all that changed when she was pregnant with her first son, Charlie, now nine. Suddenly, Sarah was gripped with the desire to sew a quilt.

“I wanted to decorate his nursery but couldn’t find anything I liked,” says Sarah. “Everywhere I looked, all I could find were things that were daggy and covered in angels, so I decided to make my own.”

Sarah whipped up several items for Charlie’s nursery, but then she continued to quilt. Soon, she was obsessed and quilting metamorphosed from a nursery project, to a hobby, to a life. Sarah began selling her works. She also taught quilting, and it wasn’t long before every spare moment was spent sewing.

They hadn’t met, but Kathy was having a similar experience. She came to the craft after being given a quilt from a friend after the birth of her second son, Noah, now 14. Kathy’s friend and her daughter made the quilt, and when they presented it to Kathy, she felt something stir deep inside.

“I was so completely overwhelmed,” she says, shaking her head at the memory. “I was struggling emotionally. My father-in-law had just died, my parents had returned overseas and my son was ill. I was a mess, but my friend gave me this quilt and all I could think about was how much work had gone into it. It was beautiful, and seemed like a real expression of friendship. I could feel the history of womanhood in it and I wanted a part of that.”

Kathy went to the library and borrowed every quilting book she could find. As a non-sewer, she had to teach herself from scratch, at first struggling even to stitch a straight line. She was often baffled by the books’ complex instructions, but muddled her way through and within the next eight months had made five quilts.

Most of Kathy’s quilts were made from scrap material she found at home. She cut and sewed her kids’ cast-off clothing and used second-hand bits and pieces, but the finished creations were things of beauty. It seemed Kathy had found a calling and, like Sarah, she began to sell her quilts in a bid to make a living.

The two women gained enormous satisfaction from their passion, but there was something missing… other women who felt as they did. Sarah, who by now was teaching classes at a quilting store in Hunters Hill, was tired of “quilting in a vacuum” so, in February 2001, she headed to Hunters Hill Quilters, a nationally known quilting group. In May 2002, Kathy joined and the two instantly hit it off.

“The room was full of women making amazing quilts, but one really caught my eye, and it was Sarah’s,” says Kathy. “I thought it was great and had to ask about it. From then on, I guess I just sort of stalked her,” Kathy adds with a laugh. “I kept saying, ‘hey, do you think you’d like to start a business together?’”

At first, it was just a pipedream, but one they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, let go of. The more they talked, the more convinced they became that they should take the plunge and go into business. After all, they had so much in common. There were the obvious things: their passion for quilting and the desire to make a living from it while juggling kids and husbands. But there was also a more subtle reason to work together: Sarah and Kathy were designing and sewing distinctly original quilts that broke many of the craft’s traditional rules. They used non-conventional materials with unusual patterns, such as stripes (said to be too hard to match up), spots (non-directional) and oversized flowers (difficult to cut). Both also steered away from the more commonly used tans, browns and golds, and opted for bright, primary colours and retro prints, and they used oversized stitches in colourful thread. It seemed Kathy and Sarah were turning traditional quilting on its head and loving it.

“We definitely did things differently,” says Kathy. “We did what we liked and made what we thought would look good in our own homes. It was pretty different to what most other people were doing.”

The women knew their unusual quilting style would attract attention and were convinced a business was a good idea. Still, they weren’t entirely sure how to kick it off. Then something totally unexpected occurred. The woman who ran the quilting shop where Sarah taught classes announced she was retiring. She then asked Sarah and Kathy if they might like to buy the business. Both women knew instantly what their answer would be.

Material Obsession opened several months later. It's now been trading for three years and Sarah and Kathy work there six days a week and put in long hours, but they’re happier than they could possibly have imagined. It seems their dream of quilting full time has come true.

“We put in a massive amount of time and there's no way we get compensated for that, but we’re happy,” says Sarah. Kathy agrees. “The trade-off for the hard work is that we get to do something we love,” she says. “Every single day, no matter how tired we are, we put the key in the lock, open the door, step inside and just sigh with pleasure.”

Part of the reason for this pleasure is that Kathy and Sarah are bringing quilting into the modern age. They’re serious about the craft, but refuse to get bogged down in traditional rules if they feel they’re not beneficial.

“A lot of women think sewing a quilt means doing it in a very traditional fashion… stitching millions of one-inch squares and taking 15 years,” says Sarah. “If you want to do it that way, we‘ll teach you how, but it’s not the only way. You can do something simple and it will still be very satisfying and beautiful.” In fact, Sarah and Kathy say they can have absolute beginners stitching and completing a basic quilt within six weeks of classes.

“We have people who come in here who’ve never threaded a needle,” says Sarah.“ But they have so much fun that they’re soon off and running.”

Often, students become so talented that they have no need for Sarah‘s and Kathy’s teaching, but in more cases than not, they continue the quilting classes.

“We have lots of women coming here who could be working on their own,” says Sarah. “They know exactly what to do, but they like to come here to sit and chat and just be with one another.”

How to get started

Want to make a quilt but don‘t know where to start? Visit a quilting shop and ask for advice. Explain that you’re a novice and ask whether the shop sells simple patterns for non-sewers (most shops do). Many also offer classes where you can learn the basics.

“We get lots of beginners here and they’re very welcome,” says Sarah Fielke, co-owner of Material Obsession, Hunters Hill, Sydney.

If you prefer to go it alone, there are numerous how-to books with easy-to-follow instructions. Two of the best are The New Sampler Quilt by Diana Leone (C&T Publishing, 1996) and Your First Quilt Book (or it should be!) by Carol Doak (Martingale & Company, 1997). 

 

Words: Kelly Baker. Photography: Scott Hawkins. Hair & make-up: David Novak-Piper.