Elaine Wick Poplin is a talented quilter and artist known for her vibrant use of colour, particularly in batiks and modern fabrics. Her journey into quilting began at a young age, inspired by a family history rich in sewing traditions. She made her first quilt at just 11 years old, and her passion has only grown since. With a background in biology and years of teaching high school mathematics, Elaine’s work often reflects a unique blend of structure and improvisation.
She has exhibited quilts (and won) in prestigious shows like AQS Paducah, International Quilt Festival in Houston and QuiltCon and since 2022, she has been an ambassador for Cherrywood Hand-Dyed Fabrics, where she showcases her dynamic work with colour and design. Known for her improvisational techniques within geometric structures, Elaine’s quilts stand out for their bold experimentation with colour and form. She also teaches classes, lectures, and releases exclusive patterns through Cherrywood and her website. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to share her work and inspiration with you today.
Elaine Wick Poplin
“I love to play with saturated colours and find interesting ways to get them to interact. Batiks have always allowed for fun blending and experiments in transparency. The clear colours in modern fabrics attract me for the same reasons, since I’m drawn to strong colours rather than pastels or muted colours.”
How did you become a quilter?
Both of my grandmothers were talented seamstresses in their own right. I grew up with an artist mother who is also very proficient with a needle and thread. She taught me how to embroider my own drawings when I was five years old, and I made my first quilted item (a nine-patch pillow) in Brownie Scouts when I was 8.
We each drew our monogram on a square, embroidered it, and then cross-stitched a bouquet that I drew and Mom charted for the group, and learned how to do blackwork. The pillows were sewn together by machine and then hand-quilted, and I was hooked.
I made my first quilt when I was 11, and I have been an avid maker since. Over the years I’ve made my prom dresses, my wedding dress, and many of my daughters’ clothes when they were younger. I made quilted furniture covers when I was in college, and then took my first real quilt class in 1999.
What are you making at the moment?
I usually have several projects going at once so that I can bounce around between different techniques when one stumps me. Currently on the design wall is an improv-pieced spiderweb experiment that will likely be made into a pillow. It’s cool but I don’t really want to explore it more than the four blocks I’ve made. There also some fused mosaic pieces on the wall that I’m working on as a potential class for me to teach. And on the sewing machine is a sample for a pattern that is also currently in development and will be released hopefully later this fall or winter.
What was your first memory of stitching?
Mom was a freelance designer, custom charting photos for cross-stitch for people around town, so it’s always been part of my daily life. I remember asking to learn and rather than have me make something specific, she had me draw a flower and then taught me how to embroider a stem stitch, a chain stitch, and French knots. When I was finished she had it framed professionally and I still have it.
You’re clearly a big fan of batiks and modern fabrics – what is it about them that you like so much?
I love to play with saturated colours and find interesting ways to get them to interact. Batiks have always allowed for fun blending and experiments in transparency. The clear colours in modern fabrics attract me for the same reasons, since I’m drawn to strong colours rather than pastels or muted colours. Currently I’m an ambassador for Cherrywood Hand-Dyed Fabrics so I’m having a wonderful time playing with their full line of colours. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of playing with colour.
You’re trained as a mathematics teacher. How much of your current success do you attribute to this?
I actually have a degree in Biology, and only wandered into teaching high school mathematics when a teacher at the private school I had attended quit suddenly, nine days before school started in 2000. I happened to have lunch scheduled with my favourite high school math teacher that same day, and she had moved up to being one of the administrators. By the end of lunch she had somehow managed to convince me that I desperately wanted to leave biotech to teach math. I jumped in with no training beyond the instructional role I had in biotech at the time and the experience directing children’s theatre, and thankfully I loved it and was good at it. When my kids were born I took about 8 years out of the classroom but tutored on the side to keep my foot in the door. In all, I taught and tutored math for 22 years before I retired to quilt every day.
How have you found the ‘business’ side of running your own quilt company?
It’s hard to find the motivation to do the mundane stuff for sure, so I struggle with that. I’ll admit I’m easily distracted by my design wall and piles of fabric everywhere. I imagine that when my oldest moves out this fall I will need to move my desk to her room so that my office space is separated from the temptations in the studio. I just have zero willpower when surrounded by the delights in my sewing room.
We all have moments when we feel less inspired. What tips do you have?
Keep showing up. Even if all you have the stamina to do is to sew one seam, do that. Every day. After my dad died in 2017, my Muse seemed to “leave the building,” so to speak. I just couldn’t find the emotional bandwidth to decide on a new and exciting project. There was a stack of strips next to my sewing machine which I didn’t feel like putting away, so I just began sewing them together, cutting them apart, and sewing them back together in the style of Seminole piecework (but without measuring for precision because I didn’t have the energy for that either).
Seminole piecework has been a favourite of mine since I was a child and I have returned to it again and again in my sewing lifetime. The first 20 strips in the stack were all greens, and when I finished a section of piecing I’d put it up vertically on the design wall next to me. Because I wasn’t measuring or trying to be accurate in my cutting at all, some of the sections curved a bit, and when vertical like that, those green sections began to suggest the shape of a cactus. I was numb as I created more and more strip sets, just letting the cactus and its landscape grow organically, rather than making any plans as I went along. I describe the process of making that quilt as akin to “squeezing blood from a rock” because no part of it was easy for me. It represents a creative desert in my life–but I kept showing up, day after day after day. And when I finished making it over two years after I started it, the Muse was back and I was able to find my creative voice again.
What quilt artists that are currently working today inspire you personally?
Karen Stone, Ursula Kern, and Chawne Kimber top my list for sure. Every single time I see one of their quilts it takes my breath away. I love that they usually create freely/improvisationally within a geometric structure. It’s definitely my comfort zone. Each of these women has mastery over skills that I am still exploring, so I love seeing their work.
What’s next for you?
I’ve just had quilts in AQS Paducah and AQS Grand Rapids this year, but those are the first quilts I’ve exhibited since 2018 — like I said, after my dad died I had a dry spell where I just wasn’t creating much new stuff. And then the pandemic happened, my girls graduated from high school and the beginnings of college happened, and I didn’t enter shows for a while.
In 2022 I was approached by Karla Overland of Cherrywood Fabrics to be an ambassador, and I’ve been creating pieces to showcase what you can do with their fabrics for 2 years now. I’ve worked the booth with them at two trade shows, and taught 4 classes off-site for them in Paducah this year. I’ll be doing that again next year as well, and traveling to Houston next month for IQF to work the booth. I have released several exclusive patterns through Cherrywood and others that are available through my website at messygoat.com.
I’ll be teaching at the Minnesota Quilt Show next summer. I also teach classes locally here in Huntsville, Alabama periodically too. I’ve travelled to Florida and Tennessee and other guilds in Alabama to lecture and teach, but I’m really just getting started in that venue. I do plan to offer some Zoom classes as soon as I can get a more settled workspace for doing that, because my current setup in my studio is a bit awkward for that. Announcements about those will be on my website when they’re ready. I also custom quilt (free-motion and ruler work) for people on occasion. But that load has been pretty light so far in order to make sure I have time to work on my own projects.
Key Takeaways
Here are the key takeaways from the interview with Elaine Wick Poplin:
A Lifelong Journey in Quilting: Elaine began quilting at a young age, influenced by her family’s deep-rooted sewing traditions. Her passion started with a simple nine-patch pillow at age 8 and has grown into a lifelong artistic pursuit.
Love for Bold Colors and Batiks: Elaine is drawn to saturated, vibrant colors, particularly in batiks and modern fabrics, which allow her to experiment with blending and transparency.
Improvisation and Geometric Structures: Her quilting style blends improvisation with geometric precision, finding inspiration in other quilters who work freely within structured designs.
Persistence Through Creative Challenges: Elaine emphasizes the importance of showing up, even when uninspired, sharing how a creative dry spell after her father’s passing led to her rediscovering her artistic voice through patience and persistence.
Quilting as a Teaching and Business Venture: Alongside her artistic achievements, Elaine is an ambassador for Cherrywood Hand-Dyed Fabrics and teaches quilting classes. She balances creative work with the business side of quilting, from custom quilting to releasing exclusive patterns.
Embracing New Opportunities: Elaine continues to push her creative boundaries, with recent exhibitions, teaching engagements, and plans to offer Zoom classes to expand her reach in the quilting community.
