Artist Profile Series: Frances Holliday Alford

Frances Holliday Alford

Grafton, Vermont

1. What is sitting on the edges of your work table?  Sometimes, it is one of my wonderful cats.  Rex, Ruby or Dixie.  Dixie likes to eat thread.  The other two are better at knocking things over.  

2. If someone looked beneath the surface, what could be revealed that we might not know about you? I feel I have been through a number of currents and countercurrents.  I have had a career that lead me down some interesting paths.  A Papago Reservation, A School for the Blind in South Korea.  Central Texas, and finally retirement in Vermont.

3. What occupies the space between your sewing machine and your cutting table?  There is a very nice rolling office chair between me my sewing machine and my cutting table.  On occasion, there are scraps of cloth, debris, scissors, candy wrappers or a sleeping cat.

4. What is the most exquisite moment in your artistic life?  I love standing aside and listening to people who are looking at my work on display.

5. Do you have daily rituals in your studio?   I often sew random scraps together to get myself centered. I also enjoy listening to audio books.  I do not like background music but I have a very obnoxious habit of humming to myself.

6. Reflecting on the quilts that you have made, which one stands out to you?  Last year, I made a self portrait for Dinner at Eight.  I feel it has been my best work, so far..

7. What do you have an affinity for in your work?  I love bright colors, floral images, whimsical subjects and lots of embellishments.

8. What kinds of patterns do you use in your work to create interest and texture?  For background texture, I like to do free motion quilting, often with random written words or spirals.  I also like to make x's and stars in embroidery floss.

9. What personal iconography is identifiable to you exclusively in your work?  I am known best for heavily embellished art work.

10. What was your inspiration for the Best of Dinner at Eight?  My friend Anke died this year.  Because she was from Holland, I had tulips on my mind all during the spring months.  I had to do tulips for her.