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Nature inspires marriage of creativity and fiber for quilter

The McHenry County Historical Society and its Heritage Quilters will offer a quilt program with artistic flair at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6, at the museum, 6422 Main St. in Union.

Celebrated quilter and lecturer Frieda Anderson of Elgin will explain what it takes to make your mark with fabric, drawing inspiration from traditional quilt patterns as well as nature. She will show off many quilts from her collection.

Born in Corinth, Miss., Anderson made her first quilt in high school. But it was at the University of Vermont where she reawakened her true calling.

"I have always made things, and I love the process of creating," Anderson wrote in her online artist's statement. "In college I majored in art history and minored in ceramics, but I returned to fiber because it was more satisfying. I can't remember when I didn't sew."

Something about quilt-making, the creative demands of design and melding of colors and shapes, drew her in.

"It's been a long and winding road," Anderson said from a quilt festival in Houston. "I've always have liked quilts, but I never thought you could make a living making them. I was in the fashion design program at Harper (College in Palatine) when I realized that what I wanted to make is quilts."

Now 65, Anderson has crafted more art quilts than she can count during the ensuing 25 years.

Not only does Anderson lecture and teach workshops, she also judges quilts and has penned three books … when she is not sewing quilts. She reserves afternoons for "creative things." Most of her work involves machine quilting and is inspired by nature. She even uses her own hand-dyed cottons and silks.

"I start out with an idea that something triggers; I should do, I could do, I want to do," Anderson said. "Then I take pictures and sketch something out. Then you go out hunting for the fabric and dyes. I mix my own colors like a painter."

Anderson hopes the audience leaves Wednesday's program with a greater appreciation for art quilts and their role as a gateway to traditional quilting. Young women, in particular, did not receive the home economics training she did in school. Consequently, they approach the hobby from a different perspective.

"They come to quilting with a different aesthetic and ideas. They are doing a lot more linear and sleek designs than traditional quilts have used in the past," Anderson said. "The idea is you work from the traditional forward and make it new, make it your own. They can do pretty much anything they can imagine."

The PowerPoint lecture and exhibition of Anderson's work will be followed by a drawing for the Heritage Quilters' handstitched raffle quilt - "Honoring Adelia" - a show-and-tell of quilts by those attending.

Admission is $8 for historical society members, $10 for nonmembers. For additional information, visit www.gothistory.org.

Frieda Anderson
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