An article about my work in the local paper, Harku Valla Teataja no. 23/2016 (page 5)
Text and photograph by Aule Sagen.
I am adding the text below again, so it is easier to read than from the picture of the paper.
In a room under the roof in Vaana-Joesuu, expressive pieces of fabric become patchwork that tells stories
The upper floor of Mailis Kess's home in Vaana-Joesuu has, since the children left, been given a new life as a patchwork house. In the nooks and crannies under the roof a sewing room and a fabric store have been set up, and the scraps, organised into boxes by colour tone, have a room of their own. Finished work has its own room as well: quilts, bags and other smaller pieces. On top of that, Mailis takes on a couple of larger commissions every month, so that the patchwork pieces created tell their story about their future owner too.
Patchwork swept her along
A few years ago, after a youth full of challenges, Mailis decided that she would no longer work for wages. That her new field would be handcraft was quite a natural choice for a woman from a family of artists and craft masters. She was not sure, though, which direction would suit her best, because she has done handcraft all her life. Her mother painted on silk and porcelain, her grandmother was a leather artist and her grandfather a smith. "When I finally started working with patchwork, it swept me away completely: those patterns, those colour combinations," Mailis's eyes shone as she described how patterns and possibilities begin to take shape from fabrics. Next comes making the design, fitting and measuring, but the result is always a great surprise. "In the design you can draw out the patterns and combinations of colour tones, but how those patterned fabrics will finally play together there cannot be drawn in advance with a pencil," she said of what makes patchwork especially compelling for her.
One quilt keeps you busy for a long time
The first clients of the company she founded, Mailis Design OU, were the schools and nurseries of Harku parish, and for them she has made piano covers, kannel bags, picnic blankets, wall hangings and beanbags. The smaller useful items now also made in the patchwork room keep the business ticking over and make it possible to concentrate on larger and more creative work. Making one large quilt, though, can take a whole week. First the design is made. Simpler designs may be ready in a couple of days, but often the planning of a new piece and the creation of the first image begin a week or two before the sewing itself. That is why the patchwork maker always has a folder to hand for making notes about the interesting ideas and solutions moving through her head. "Some ideas may ripen in my head for months or even years before they take their final shape and I can start work," Mailis said of her creative process. Cutting the pieces of the pattern, sewing, finishing, the photo session, packaging, and a week has gone.
Quilts that speak
Mailis buys 10 to 20 m of cotton fabric and wadding every month, so that the stocks of colour and pattern are sufficient. The patterns, though, are largely born from the production offcuts of a clothing factory and from clients' materials too. Really old clothes Mailis would not put into a quilt's pattern, because they no longer stand up to washing. Older fabric remnants can certainly be used. In the end it is the different pieces that tell a quilt's story: "A piece of grandmother's overall fabric, a square from one favourite dress here and another there. Those are what awaken memories and make a quilt speak." Her own first quilt was made from the checked and blue woollen fabric of her old school skirts, and it still gives her a warm feeling.
Sadly the life of a craftsperson is still more of a way of life. The market, Mailis says, is not yet ready to accept the real price of labour intensive patchwork. Small pieces of work do at least make it possible for the large ones to be made. "But I can certainly enjoy a cheerful, creative life," the business owner rejoiced at the freedom and the chance to realise her ever new ideas.
