Steven Spielberg's production company, Amblin Enterntainment, in conjuction with Universal Studios, is producing a film based on Whitney Otto's best-selling book How to Make an American Quilt.The movie will star Maya Angelou, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Capshaw, Kate Nelligan, Winona Ryder, Jean Simmons, and Alfre Woodard, but the real stars are the featured quilts. Patty McCormick, president of the Southern California Quilt Guild, had the task of creating the quilts and acting as technical supervisor for some of the scenes.
The movie, scheduled for a fall release, revolves around a friendship quilt that a circle of quilters is making for Finn (Ryder). The 96" x 96" quilt, named Where Love Resides, is made of eight friendship blocks and eight alternate blocks. To make the quilt look like it was the product of eight people's work, Patty invited seven quilters, in addition to herself, to contribute blocks. Each one illustrates a story from the life of a main character.
One of the characters is Anna (Angelou). Her block is a miniature of an 1880 story quilt, called The Life Before, which was made by one of her slave ancestors. In an effort to keep with the spirit of Anna's quilt, Patty enlisted the help of Afraican-American quilt historian Barbara Brown for the design and African-American quilter Dora Simmons for the sewing and quilting.
The Life Before and a Crazy Quilt required special attention to make them appear old and worn. The Crazy Quilt, made by Christine Dabbs, is one that Finn was given as a baby. To give it that well-loved look, the studio props department ran it through a washing machine with rocks.
The Grasse Quilting Bee is a quilt designed to look like a topographical map of the fictional town where the story takes place. It will be the first quilt shown in the movie. Another quilt in the movie was made from a 1936 pattern. It will be shown for just 30 seconds during the 1940s flashback of Anna taking her baby Marianna home from the hospital. (The adult Marianna is played by Woodard.)
Although Patty taught all of the actresses how to appliqué and quilt, hand doubles were used for close-up shots. Patty had pictures of all the actresses' hands and had to match them with those of experienced quilters.
Enthusiasm for quilting caught on with some of the cast members. Anne Bancroft, who had started a quilt during an earlier picture, finished that work, and what had started as a patch for a hole in her jacket turned into a large folk-art appliqué.
Patty enjoyed all of the hard work and the sometimes grueling shooting schedule, but she admits, "After working behind the cameras, I will never look at a movie the same way again."