Going For It is our Spaceship series where we share what we learn from inspirational people who invest in themselves and others, chart their own courses, and change their lives and communities in the process. We talk to Molli Sparkles.
A list of things Molli Sparkles didn't know about quilting before they started:
- That it’s a multi-billion dollar industry
- That the third quilt they ever made would be a national award-winner
- That they’d end up on The Today Show with Karl and Lisa, teaching Karl how to quilt
- That there’s a Comic Con for quilts, named QuiltCon, and not only would they get to attend, but their quilt entry would win a first place ribbon
- That they’d become a spokesperson for a sewing machine company
- That they’d get fan mail, sign autographs, and be recognised in the street
- That they’d inspire more than 3,100 men who quilt to find acceptance and community, built by being their creative selves in traditionally female spaces.
Making a quilt is an emotional rollercoaster
“I always find that in the process of making a quilt, there are emotional phases.”
“I start with, “Oh my god I’ve got this amazing idea!” and the ideation of something is a real creative adrenaline rush. Like, “I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that!” – whether it’s in my sketchbook, or on my design wall. I'll do a lot of just throwing fabric at the wall.”
“Once I start seeing the initial visual, it becomes, “Okay, this is awesome, awesome.””
“And then I’ll get about halfway through it. And instead it’s, “Oh, my God, what was I thinking, this is awful!””
And I start really doubting myself, thinking, “This is never gonna work.”
“I always go through these up and down emotions so I know to keep going. Usually around ninety percent I start thinking that, “maybe this is okay,” and then by ninety-five percent, “Oh, I need to rework this and this,” and I get really up and down with it.”
“By the time I get to the end, I’ve usually circled back to, “Okay, this is amazing, this is the most amazing thing I’ve ever done.””
Let’s back up for a second
When Joshua Helms was a kid, he lived with his grandparents in small-town USA and took in the world around him.
“I am originally from a small town called Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. I grew up there in the middle of the countryside, and when I was 18, I moved to Philadelphia to go to the University of Pennsylvania. I was there for five years before moving to Australia to continue my education at the University of Sydney, Sydney College of Arts and in photography. So I was always meant to be a photographer. Or I thought that's what I was meant to be.”
But then photography fell by the wayside when Joshua started his first full-time job.
“I put all the creativity aside, and for the longest time, I would just draw or sketch in my sketchbook.”
“I was always creative – but as a quilter, or a fabric or textile artist? There was never any part of me that was interested in that.”
Joshua used YouTube and books to learn to quilt
Five years after finishing his Masters of Fine Arts, Joshua took on a creative project that would change the course of his whole life.
“My grandma was a quilter… And I thought, oh, maybe I'll make a quilt to give to my grandmother as a thank you for raising me and being generous with her life for me. And so I taught myself, I just watched YouTube videos and read websites and books.”
“I went out to Spotlight one day and I bought a rotary cutter and some fabric and scissors and all the necessary tools to make a quilt and I went home that night and realised I didn't have a sewing machine, which put a dampener on the evening's festivities!”
And then fate stepped in
Joshua borrowed a sewing machine from his mother-in-law, and realised it was the exact same model he’d watched his grandma use all those years while growing up.
“I was very familiar with it, you know, standing next to my grandmother all those years watching her sew, or playing with the fabrics on the table or whatever, with her telling me, “Don't touch anything!””
“And so there was that weird feeling of, “Okay, this is meant to be.”
He created his first quilt, which was made with yellow patchwork, titled it ‘Walking on Sunshine’ and hand-embroidered a quote:
“It said, “Grandma – being together is like walking on sunshine.” It was very well received."
And then, he started a blog
Years before, Joshua had purchased a domain name on a whim. His friend had been calling him Molli Sparkles so he bought www.MolliSparkles.com.
“It was like, “Oh, my gosh, I have this domain name, Molli Sparkles, and it would make so much sense to be my craft name!” And so I started this blog.”
MolliSparkles.com launched in 2012, in the same year Joshua finished his grandma’s quilt.
Though there were an estimated 31 million bloggers at the time in the US, Molli Sparkles stood out.
“You know, as a gay man, entering a traditionally female dominated craft world, I had a different take on the experience of everything from buying fabrics to designing quilts to talking about the quilts.”
“Combined with my art background, I was able to approach it from both a kind of silly point of view, but also quite an art historical viewpoint, and merge those things together.”
And then, Sparkles flew
By day, Joshua Helms worked in the tech industry, but outside his 9-5 he built a movement as Molli Sparkles, quilter to the stars.
“Joshua still works in the tech industry, but Molli Sparkles is a textile artist. I call Molli my nom-de-quilt, or my quilting drag queen name, because she’s very much that.”
Joshua values honesty in himself and others as the most important quality – but Molli Sparkles helps him turn it up to eleven.
“I think because Molli Sparkles is traditionally what kind of sounds like a woman’s name, rather than a guy's name, a lot of times people who are new to my world will automatically assume I‘m a woman because quilting traditionally is more of a woman’s vibe.”
Molli Sparkles is a big deal in the quilting world. They’ve created 120 quilts, sold patterns, written for magazines, won awards, and even come close to being cancelled.
“Molli Sparkles as a caricature of a human being can be loud and proud and unabashedly just upfront about what their thoughts are, and what they would say to other people is sometimes a little over the top.”
“Molli Sparkles will definitely tell you how it is – I call it ‘truth tea’... but it’s only if you ask, and it’s only in a nice, loving, supportive way. If someone’s looking for advice you want to tell them, and create a safe space to subvert some of the traditional roles of quilting.”
Not everyone’s a fan of subversion
“In my years of quilting, I've definitely been at the centre of sh*t storms and people calling me all sorts of C words and F words. And sometimes it's hurtful. But it also tells me I'm doing something right. Because if I'm pushing a button or a boundary that is causing people to react that way, then that's exactly where I need to be in my artistry.”
Molli helped a community find their craft
The average quilter is an American retiree in her 60s, and traditional quilting spaces are set up to serve the average quilter.
So where can everyone else go?
Molli started two support groups on Facebook, and one’s especially for men.
“I have a Facebook group called Men Who Quilt and that has about 3,100 members, of self-identifying men who quilt, and I’m super proud of that group.
“I started that group in January 2014, because I wanted to find other people like me. I think we all have this desire to find like-minded souls in our day-to-day life. And I was looking around, and I thought, “Okay, well, I’ll just start a group, I’ll invite the people I know, maybe they’ll know someone, and they’ll know someone… And like, it kind of took off. It literally started with eight people and now there’s 3,100 people.”
The group is filled with active encouragement, and men sharing their experiences of being othered in spaces that are usually reserved for women.
“You know, you go to a quilt shop, and a common question is, “Oh, are you here to pick up something for your wife?” whereas that can be quite demeaning for some men.”
“Especially in Middle America, like I grew up in Oklahoma, as I said, so again, small town, very conservative views. So for a lot of these men, it's like, “Oh, you grew up in the middle of nowhere, Ohio, or Nebraska, or something, and… the conversations or the struggles are always with just wanting to be heard and seen and valued and respected, no matter who you are.”
“And I think that's something as human beings, we can all appreciate that we've been, you know, unheard or unseen or bullied or dejected in some way.”
“And the last thing I ever would want is for someone to be wanting to fulfil their full creative spirit and feel like they can't do that. That just, that hurts my soul. So the group Men Who Quilt is something I'm most proud to keep going and be just a champion for everyone who wants to create.”
What’s Molli’s advice for when you want to go for it?
“I definitively think that you should create for yourself first, and allow your creative output to be an expression of you as an individual because you're the only you you've got.”
Molli shows that following your creative heart can take you anywhere.
“I never thought this was going to be a thing. You know, I set about making the quilt for my grandmother and just thought I'd just make a quilt. I knew that sewing machines existed and craft magazines existed, but I never thought that the quilting world was that large of a scope or that I would become even a small part of it.”
“I never thought this was going to be a thing...I never thought that the quilting world was that large of a scope or that I would become even a small part of it.”
At Spaceship we think that long-term investing is about building a life for yourself and others that you want to live in. What life is Molli investing in?
“I want to continue to create a space where people feel valued in the quilting community, for whatever, wherever they are in their own journey.”
“I think community is so important in the creative arts, because it allows you to reflect on your own pursuits and output. But then, it also imparts new ideas and wisdom on to other people as well. So I just want to keep creating a journey that I can go on, that inspires other people to be part of, and encourages them to live their best life as a creative.”
Going For It is our Spaceship series where we share what we learn from inspirational people who invest in themselves and others, chart their own courses, and change their lives and communities in the process.
