We were lucky to catch up with Heidi Parkes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Heidi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

As a full-time professional quilter, one of the unexpected problems that I did not foresee when I began this career a decade ago in 2014 was, that I struggle to find time to sew! One would think that I’d be sewing all the time! I’ve come to understand that this my circumstance more this year because I’m the current Artist in Residence at The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and when guests walk past my studio, they rarely find me sewing. Most of the time I’m at my computer, like I am now, writing this article… Here are some of the things that I did this week instead of sewing:
-Meeting with my assistant on Zoom to coordinate the rollout of a yearlong Quiltmaking course that I teach online
-Making a welcome PDF for students in my sold-out class, for which we will gather 11-months from now at Woodland Ridge Retreat
-Posting on Instagram
-Submitting a quilt to an international competition, with specially sized photos and a unique 100-word artist’s statement for that quilt
-Photographing some recently finished fabric vases (I sewed them over the weekend!), and mailing them to the South Bend Museum of Art
-Teaching at the local library, in support of my Creativebug classes LINK: http://shrsl.com/3o9px
-Meeting with my students from Sardinia, Italy in a reunion on Zoom
-Updating my monthly email newsletter
-Tabulating my finances for my taxes

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

You might notice that a lot of my not-sewing time is devoted to teaching, and that’s another great love of mine. I studied art education at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and graduated in 2005, after which I taught art for 9 years at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville, IL.
I love quilting, and I love introducing the art form to other people. I’m especially known for pushing the edges of what a hand sewn quilt can look like, and this, as you might imagine, is a slow process. Upon seeing my quilts in my studio, folks very frequently ask how long they took to make. I might answer that I worked on it from August till February, or from April till July. This unsatisfying answer gives way to the question of total hours spent sewing, at which point I’ll guess that it takes 80-200 hours to make a quilt. Much of that time is hard to track, because these are some of the times when I squeak in some sewing:
-While a passenger in a car/train/bus/airplane
-While teaching on Zoom, and while in meetings
-During Wednesday pizza nights with my aunt while watching a movie and sipping a tasty drink
-While filming reels for Instagram
-And my favorite, while watching marathon TV, most recently: Fargo, and House of the Dragon

This slow business of sewing makes me so curious about what a quilt can be with the techniques I love (visible hand piecing, repurposing textiles, and using thick thread), that I MUST enlist the help of others by sewing their quilts too. I’m great at helping folks find hidden bits of time to sew, and I care a lot about body-care while sewing too. I’m a certified yoga instructor, and my hand yoga videos on YouTube are a great resource for restoring your hands from smartphone scrolling, sewing, and typing at the computer.

I exhibit my work internationally in quilt shows, art galleries, and art museums. I teach and lecture on quilts and mending. I maintain a robust social media presence on Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. I stay true to my love of showing the artist’s hand and storytelling, especially through my work with Diary Quilting.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

In 2014 I began building my presence on Instagram. One of the first things that needed to happen was changing my mindset- I realized that in order to be an artist, I’d need to be a public person- that people would need to be able to think of my name and have an image of my art come to mind. Wow, that was a completely new idea for me. From there, here are some top bits of advice:
-Notice the accounts that you love to follow and make a checklist of the kinds of posts that you see. Then, tick off that checklist each month. (ex: headshot, process photo, detail pic, tools, time lapse reel, edited final version, etc)
-Pay attention to engagement. A big number of followers means nothing if your posts aren’t being seen liked, commented on, saved, and shared. Encourage these actions by replying back to comments, making content that you would save, commenting on other artist’s posts, and amplifying content from your grid in your stories
-Take great pictures! Notice the lighting, angle, background, and other details that look professional.
-Take my on-demand Instagram for Quilters and Artists class

LINK: https://www.heidiparkes.com/shop/instagram-for-quilters-and-artists

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I love so much about being an artist!!! I love being my own boss. Before changing careers, I still made art all the time, and I got a lot from my creativity, but now as a professional creative, I get to decide when I wake up, how hard I work, who I collaborate with, where I travel to, how much I charge, what I make, and so much more. That level of personal autonomy and a self-led-life is incredibly satisfying to me. Being in the public eye and shifting views on what a quilt can be is a thrill too. And, putting my whole heart behind the art that I want to make, teaching and inspiring other people, and even getting to share about my work while typing an article instead of sewing: that ability to reach others with my art means the world to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.heidiparkes.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heidi.parkes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeidiParkesArt
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidi-parkes/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/HeidiParkes/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/HeidiParkesArt/

  https://www.threads.net/@heidi.parkes

Image Credits

Heidi Parkes, Jeff Parkes, Danny McCullough