Feature: Judge Illona Hull

By Janet Esch

I first met Illona Hull in a class, "Basket of Flowers" led by Patricia Cox in the early spring of 2004: I was a novice and clearly, Illona was an expert. She listened quietly, as is her wont, and she appeared to be doing a classroom observation--there was no light chatter from her. She seemed to know everything; I wondered why she was there. When I asked her about her "overlay" which to me seemed only to get in the way, she said, "Some of the blue lines always show so I don't draw any design directly on my fabric." She showed me the technique and gave me a piece of the overlay to try for myself. Indeed I followed that technique for my first appliquéd basket: I recognized a talented teacher. And now I am amazed when she shows me her completed quilt of the basket of flowers, and she credits Patricia Cox for a special technique that she uses of placing flat pieces of green behind the flowers to cover small bits of the lighter background that show through the bouquet. (Of course, I had forgotten that detail even though I took copious notes.) This small incident illustrates Illona's manner of learning: quiet, but always listening, alert to any detail that can improve her skill as a quilter.

The basket from a design by Pat Cox. Note the fussy cutting in the roses.

After a class with Faye Anderson in 2005, Illona completed this quilt that took first place.

Illona grew up in a world of "stitchers." Her mother taught her to embroider at the age of four years. Why so early? "It was the only way I could get you to sit still," her mother told her. Her first piece looked "O.K. on the front, but like a bird's nest on the back." When she was in the 5th grade, her grandmother taught her to crochet, and Illona soon won a blue ribbon for a10 inch pineapple doily in adult competition at the Louisiana State Fair. "That was the first bite"; competition became affiliated with hand work. Also in the 5th grade, she began making her own clothes--"fabric was 25 cents or 10 cents a yard on sale"--for perfect fit and economy. Her parents moved to Maryland where she attended high school and then college at the University of Maryland, majoring in home economics. When I ask Illona about meeting her husband, she gives a rather sly smile. It was not happenstance! A neighbor told her about a very handsome cousin and Illona connected the name to someone whom her girl friend had wanted her to meet three years earlier. She immediately called her friend and said, "Remember that guy you wanted me to meet? Invite us for dinner next Sunday." It was an auspicious meeting. He went to Viet Nam and she went to college in Maryland and then back to Louisiana--"my dad decided I needed to be distracted majorly!" and also her degree from Maryland did not provide a way of self-support so she returned to her grandparents' home and attended Louisiana Tech to complete an education degree. When he returned from Viet Nam, the young man called her aunt and uncle from Shreveport, LA. and surprised her at her grandmother's house; they were married 3 weeks later--"it does not take a year and a half to plan a wedding"; in 3 weeks Illona and her aunt had made two bridesmaids' dresses and a wedding gown and Illona, herself, arranged the flowers. Today she and her husband reside in the brick farmhouse, which has been in his family for 5 generations with her children being the 6th generation of Hulls in Westminster, MD. For 17 years she and her husband ran the dairy farm. As the wife of a farmer, she fed chickens and delivered calves at 2:00 a.m. Her favorite anecdote: "After the birth of my youngest child, I was up at 2:00 a.m. to feed him; my husband drowsily asked me, ‘While you are up, will you go out to check on the calves?' And I did because it was important enough for our business."

Since Illona lives close to her family, it is natural that old quilts have "drifted" into her life. A great aunt by marriage died and among her things Illona discovered a quilt, "white background with 1930's sea foam green fabric of monkey wrench design, quilted in wine glass pattern, still with its pencil marks. Hearing of the quilt, an aunt said, "I have one of those quilts too" and later at a reunion, another said, "Oh we have a quilt exactly like that." Telling her mother-in-law the story, the 4th quilt emerged; "but I ruined mine" she said, "by trying to wash the pencil marks out and it's crinkled. Take it; you're interested in quilts and I don't want it any more." The four quilts were made in 1933 in the house in which Illona now lives. "I get goose bumps just thinking of it," Illona commented, and we share a moment of living history; this is why old quilts thrill us. "Women had a voice, just not a public voice," Illona says.

Her father, hearing about the quilts, produced more quilts that Illona does not remember; her grandmother probably kept them in her "chiffonier: one quilt is done in an orange peel pattern in red and white with cotton seeds in the batting which has been traced back to 1842 made from the cotton on the family's farm in Mississippi." Illona also has the carding boards that made the batting. It is probably a wedding quilt made by her great, great grandmother. From her mother's family Illona received quilts, one that, according to Phyllis Twigg, appraiser, has an 1876 Centennial fabric. There are also blocks with fabric of madder red, pre Civil War fabric. Breathless, Illona pauses; "I was so tired when I came here tonight, but now I am all wound up," she says. (I have met Illona, August 22, at the perfect place for her interview, the Maryland State Fairgrounds, where, together with her friends--also members of BAS, Nancy Mosner and Chris Booth, she is responsible for the quilting department. The State Fair will open in two days and they are very busy.) Talk of quilts always inspires, always generates energy and always regenerates our lives.

Chris Booth, Illona Hull and Nancy Mosner enjoy their work heading the quilting department at the MD State Fair.

Twenty-five years ago, Illona was working in a yarn shop in Westminster, teaching needlepoint and crochet. The manager asked her to teach quilting. Like every teacher, she started at the library where she found Marguerite Ickis' Standard Book of Quiltmaking and Collecting and read it "cover to cover." She also worked with a friend who made raffle quilts by hand on a room-sized frame in her home. There while her four and five-year-old daughters played with Barbies under the frame, Illona learned the art of quilting and she began to teach classes. Fifteen years later at a quilt show a woman pointed at her and said, "Oh gosh, you're the lady who taught me to quilt." The best prize of good teaching.

Now after her children are grown and she has returned to full-time teaching, Illona still finds time to quilt. She has made 16 Baltimore Album blocks of Ellie Sienkiewicz' designs with Jinny Beyer fabric and a foundation piece with poinsettias that is filled with hand quilting. "I knew that I would never have time to put the Baltimore Album blocks together quilting by hand so I decided to learn machine quilting." After a class with Karen Buckley, and much practice she first entered five or six pieces in the MD State Fair. She didn't win anything, but she learned from the judges' comments and by the 2nd year one quilt received a Blue Ribbon. She was making all of her quilts on a 1971 Kenmore but with arthritis developing in her fingers, she could no longer pull the material through the 6 ½ inch opening. She now sews on a 1998 Juki that does only straight sewing. "What really changed my quilting was finding Aurifil thread, 50 weight, and getting an air conditioner unit in my sewing room." She also credits Harriet Hargraves, who wrote the book, From Fiber to Fiber, and Diane Gandynski, called a master quilter by NQA, and author of Guide to Machine Quilting--"I have absorbed that book"--with her success in machine quilting. "Diane's work convinced me that machine quilting can be expert enough to be used on a Baltimore Album."

Illona holds the "quilt of many colors" that received Best Machine Quilting and Viewer's Choice award.

Illona's grandchild was born the day after she completed this block taught in Mimi Dietrich's class.

Illona designed the Iris in this three-dimensional bouquet of flowers.

The focus of Illona's work for the last several years has been to become a Certified Judge through the NQA, an honor that she achieved in 2005. "It was more work than anything I did in graduate school." A strenuous process: "paperwork," a detailed resume and many questions--"I thought I knew a lot about quilting until I started researching the list of subjects"; an interview by a 3-member panel of judges from NQA about her paperwork; mock judging--20 minutes to judge quilts and give explanations for decisions; and two years of working with judges at the National Show in Columbus, OH, which she continues to do. Since 2005 she has served as judge at the Maryland State Fair, Sotterly Plantation and numerous quilt guilds, but her teaching schedule keeps her from traveling during the school year.

Illona continues to be very involved with the Maryland State Fair. This year she has not individually entered anything in competition--"it was my year of donations": five quilted pieces for BAS' Quilting Party, a quilt in silent auction for the Maryland Terrapins in the School of Agriculture, and a quilt in a silent auction for NQA. But this year she, Nancy Mosner and Chris Booth made a quilt for what they thought would be used in a raffle for the MD State Fair's Scholarship Fund. However, "Mr. Max," Nancy's husband who is general manager and president of the State Fair, decided it should be kept to honor this year's 125th anniversary of the Fair. It will be placed in the new Exhibit Hall with other memorabilia.

The roosters stand in front of one of seven quilts in "Meet Me at the Fair"

Canned foods and baked goods: part of all country fairs.

Details of the cars on the roller coaster, a bug quilt and wine and cheese surround the ferris wheel

How do you applique a Pepsi-Cola?

The John Deere tractor is one of seven vehicles including trucks and other farming equipment.

It wouldn't be a MD state Fair without horse racing. There are six other horses in the quilt.

The quilters used three different fabrics for the pig's eyes.

Postscript: "Meet Me at the Fair" won a blue ribbon in its class, and went on to become Reserve Grand Champion for the quilt department. It also received awards in the large category for Most Creative, The President's Ribbon, and Viewer's Choice.

Illona's award winning silk flower arrangement in the Governor's Desk category from last year does just that: sits on the governor's desk because it won 1st place. She has received many Blue Ribbons, Best of Show and Viewer's Choice awards for her quilt entries. That little doily in 5th grade began something very big.

Illona's search for new experiences continues. She is beginning the process to become a quilt appraiser. This fall "under Hazel Carter's wing" she observed and took notes at the Sully Plantation Quilt Show, September 10th. She also is interested in learning to do quilt restoration, and she is writing course descriptions for classes in machine quilting for next spring and fall. Illona's motto is "Never waste a minute." And it shows in all of her achievements and awards, but most of all in the beauty of her quilting. I think I will be first in line for her next class in machine quilting.