My Quilting Family

News from the cooking sister.

I received an email from my sister Paula, who is trying to finish a quilt she started 10 years ago. She has managed to add an inner border and 3 of the 4 pieces of the outer border to her quilt top all on her own. I'm so proud. It has only taken her 2 weeks. OK, 10 years and 2 weeks.

Then I got to this part of her message:

"I have some questions on having it quilted, I am not sure how to have it quilted on the plate pattern? The woman who has the quilt store has a machine and does quilting but it is like giving your baby to a sitter for the first time."

Plate? Funny, I though she said they were blue and white stars? I think the "plate" reference means that she is finishing a Dresden Plate quilt! This sister had issues with piecing when she took a her first class with me 15 years ago. Later, when we introduced the Dresden Plate in our block-of-the-month, she decided that hand applique was oh-so-much easier than sewing all of those pieces together. Further illustrating the differences in our DNA.

The funniest part of her message is the comparison of giving your quilt to a quilter and leaving your baby with a sitter. When you think about it, you can always get a new sitter, but once that quilt is quilted - it is all grown up. Too late for major changes. Wait until she hears my lecture on batting. I feel pretty strongly that a batting can make or break the look of your quilt. There isn't a right or wrong, you just have to know how you want to use the finished quilt to make the right batting decision.

Paula's finishing quest was spurred by the desire to make her grandson a quilt. His room is decorated in dinosaurs. I packed up a fat quarter bundle of Dino prints, one of our 3-6-9 patterns and a quick note and shipped it off to her before I left town for Quilt Market. Our 3-6-9 is a perfect beginner pattern and I thought it was something she could get finished before Ryan is more interested in girls than dinosaurs!

Out of the blue:

My youngest daughter appeared in the family room last night proudly displaying a cute little purse that she had made herself using the sewing machine in our guest room. The workmanship was excellent. The purse is lined, has french seams on the bottom and is totally reversible. Adorable! She had cut-up some old t-shirts to use for fabric and drafted her own pattern. Wow! I was impressed!

Lindsay is my crafty kid, but she has been working in the kitchen of a restaurant for over a year and I was pretty sure she had an overdose of those cooking genes. Now that she was finished she had a zillion questions about the process she used. For some reason she refused to consult me at the time, some foolishness about wanting to figure it out for herself, but she took notes for her next project. We discussed options and I did mention that I knew where she could get some wonderful cotton fabric.... and a magnetic snap closure..... and some interfacing......

There may be hope for my fabric stash yet!

Now I want to get my hands on that bag and turn it into a pattern!

Karen

I should probably stop blabbering on about Quilt Market. It isn't really fair to keep talking about an industry show where unless you are part of the industry, you will never attend (nor should you). It's just that Market is such an important part of what makes our industry tick, that it is hard not to dwell upon it.

You don't need to feel completely left out, keep in mind that Quilts Inc hosts Quilt Festival in Houston each fall (following Market) a spring show in Chicago and another in California that are open to consumers. You could attend any of those and feel the same rush, the same excitement, and see the same products and people from the consumers viewpoint. If you have the opportunity – JUMP at the chance to attend. The energy in the air is enough to keep you excited about sewing for years!

I have snitched some photos from the websites of my friends to give you some idea of what the big deal is all about. This is a glimpse of the convention floor in Houston. This represents only a tiny fraction of the 26 aisles and 1000+ booths that we need to cover.

If you are going to be effective covering the sales floor, it helps to have extra sets of eyes and ears to help you find the treasures.

I always take Debby, my store manager with me. We work well together, but have different taste. Quite often one of us will point something out, only to be met with a totally confused look and all the other can say is "really"? At which point someone needs to take a second look!

In addition to Deb, I have a unique and talented group of friends that also own shops. They too are scouring booths to find the best-of-the-best. Luckily everyone in the group is willing to share all of their favorite finds.

Our stores are spread out all over the country and it is always fascinating to see what is attractive to quilters in different regions. This is Mary Wilberg checking things out in the American Jane booth. Mary owns Quilting Treasures in Rogers Minnesota. Mary's opinion helped me make a $1000 commitment to Aurofil thread. - what are friends for if they don't help you spend your money wisely?

Karen Snyder is another member of our group and her ears should be burning on a regular basis. I am using the International Mystery program she created in my BlockWatchers Club. We talk about her every month! She is a great friend and a fellow fabric designer. Karen specializes in 30's reproduction fabrics and I am thrilled to have her as part of the Timeless team.

Karen is in the process of closing her store in Long Beach, Washington and taking on the responsibility of being the spokesperson for Elna Sewing Machines. We are all getting a kick out of seeing "our" Karen's face plastered on posters, magazine ads and Elna's promotional materials.

We stopped by the Krause booth to support, .... ok, to harass her durring her book signings, but she was gracious enough to autograph a copy of her "Quilts From My Garden" book for us to use in our auction anyway.

Those of us that make up the stores at http://www.myquiltvillage.com/ had a "town meeting" to do a little town planning, select a block of the month that will start in January and discuss the new - and exciting- editions to the site. I think you are going to want to check in on the village often, right now we are blogging every other day, and it is fun to track what each of us are doing.

Now it is time to get ready for Christmas.

Yes, Christmas.

It's time to plan demo's and projects, sample gift giving ideas, decorate.......... ho ho ho.

Karen

Quilters from Mars?

Have you ever been out-of-your-skin excited about something in a room full of grumpy people?

That's the way I felt traveling home from Quilt Market last evening as Debby and I sat in the Houston airport discussing all of the wonderful items we had purchased for our store. Market was filled with great new product, wonderful new patterns, exciting ideas and color and excitement everywhere you looked. The airport was filled with grumpy people flying home to nasty weather, political polls and dire stock market reports. Looking around at the reaction to our excited chatter I think they were wondering exactly what planet we were from.

The world could use more quilters.

I took a quick photo of the Timeless Treasures display of my new fabric, projects, patterns and accessories before the festivities began. My fabric line is only about one tenth of their booth space but I was thrilled with the look and the "feel" of the display. Thankfully so were several other "important" people in the industry.

You can tell everyone that you "saw it here first" when the fabrics and patterns start showing up in catalogs and magazines!

I will be sending out a "News Flash" when the bolts of fabric arrive and are ready for sale both in the store and on the website. If you want to keep up with the news, log on to our website and sign-up for the E-Updates. http://www.thequiltcompany.com

One of the absolute BEST parts of Quilt Market is having the chance to meet in person with a wonderful group of shop owners that I am thrilled to call friends. We jokingly refer to ourselves as the "Village People" - maybe you have seen our page in McCalls Quilting? We also have a website http://myquiltvillage.com where we have created a virtual "town" of 8 wonderful quilt shops. To be honest, the best part of the site right now is the blog. Although we sat down together and planned some great new additions that will be added in the coming weeks, so there is LOTS more instore for the site, including free pattern downloads. The group includes fabric designers, pattern designers, top selling machine stores (assorted brands) and we stretch from California to New Jersey and Minnesota to Texas and our ideas and opinions are almost as varied! You won't find a better group of caring, sharing individuals with more deversified tastes.

You have heard the saying "Two heads are better than one" - just imagine the amazing things that happen when the 8 of us get together! It is exciting to be able to bring that energy and enthusiasm to our site, my store, my customers and my own blog!

Karen

Quilting by phone

My sister Paula called.

Paula is my older sister. She works in banking (proving she has a math brain). She and her husband are fabulous, innovative cooks, one of her daughters is a chef and is married to a chef. I on the other hand was usually asked to bring ice to the family dinners.

Paula lives in Atlanta and has just become a Grandmother for the second time this year.
She wants to finish her "old" quilt, that she started here in Pittsburgh, so that she can start new ones for her new grandsons.

I tried to explain to her that "real" quilters don't bother finishing an old project before starting a new one. She claimed that she needed to brush up on her skills before starting a new project. She also pointed out that she still has the first 6 blocks of the very first block-of-the-month we taught in the shop (15 years ago) in a drawer somewhere. That should count for something.

Naturally I agreed to help.

Our conversation went something like this:
Paula: You remember the quilt, it was blue stars with strips around the outside.
Me: Strips? Do you mean sashing?
Paula: Ok, if you say so. Now I need the stuff that goes around that.
Me: Borders?
Paula: Is that what comes next?
Me: Are the blocks sewn together into a quilt top?
Paula: Uh-huh.
Me: Then you are ready for borders.
Paula: How big are my borders?
Me: How big would you like them to be?
Paula: As big as you tell me to make them.
Me: Do you have fabric?
Paula: No, how much should I buy?
Me: How big is your quilt?
Paula: I don't know.
Me: 3 yards.

Sometime this week my sister is going to walk into an unsuspecting quilt shop carrying an unfinished blue and white Ohio Star quilt that she started 10 years ago as a high school graduation gift for her daughter. That same daughter is now married and has just had her first baby. My sister is going to drive the clerk crazy trying to match 10 year old fabric, having no idea what she needs or how to finish her project. My hope is that the clerk is not only kind and understanding, but that she keeps it simple. Paula plans to call me so that I can talk her through the finishing process. I know what she really wants is for me to say "just send it and I will finish it for you".

In our family DNA, Paula got the cooking genes.

Tonight, I sleep.

Done!

Not exactly completely finished, but pretty darn close! Close enough that I can relax, enjoy a glass of wine and get a good night's sleep. The quilts that have to be completed are stitched, quilted, bound, photographed and I've even written and illustrated the instructions. All I have left to do is press the "print" button on the big bad color printer.

WHOOPIE!

Here's a photo of the last item I finished. This is a 9 block project that was made using the technique in "Wonderful 1 Fabric Quilts" by Kay Nichols. I love the idea, and yes, the entire thing was made using just ONE fabric, the repeating stripe from the Refresh line.

Sure, there are still lots of "wouldn't it be nice" projects that I might be able to get done. I want my displays to look like those in an expensive specialty store. I want them to stand out in a convention center filled with color and beautiful quilts and wonderful displays. I like to add fun or interesting items like a big fluffy white bathrobe trimmed in the soft blue and white Counterpoint prints and a matching spa bag filled with bath products. ..... wouldn't that be cool!.... maybe tomorrow.

Look, I'm a Cover Girl

Here in Western Pennsylvania our local governments are townships. We live in a very small one, just 4 miles by 4 miles. Hampton Magazine is our version of the town newspaper. It is published about every 3 months, mailed to every home in the area and contains all of the important information (like when to sign-up for swimming lessons and which teachers are retiring and the water treatment report, which as you can imagine is spellbinding.). In every issue they write a feature on a local resident or business. The Quilt Company was chosen for the issue that was published and distributed on Monday.

When they contacted me to tell me about the feature, they said it was about the STORE. When they called to schedule the photographer they said that I would need to be in the photo. I hate having my photo taken. I love having my work featured, but photos of me..... not so much.

The first photo shoot was scheduled on the same Monday that hurricane Ike blew threw town causing major power outages. No power also means no hair dryer or curling iron. The photographer had the decency to not show up for that appointment. We rescheduled for Tuesday. He was busy taking school photos and ran late. We scheduled for Thursday, then Friday then the following Monday afternoon. By Monday morning I was pretty confident that there would be another cancellation and I would be off the hook and only a stock photo of one of my quilts would make the cover. No sooner had that thought entered my mind and the photographer, with a spare 15 minutes, walked in the door.

Now you would think that a woman that was going to have her photo taken for a magazine cover would at LEAST bring a hairbrush to work with her. Nope. I had planned to go home for lunch, change and get ready for the shoot. That plan didn't work. The publisher also had the idea that the photo should be in "fall" colors and as uncluttered as possible. As you can see, that didn't work either.

In an E-Update message that I send to my "regular" walk-in customers, I told them that the photo shoot had happened and I was having a bad hair day that day. I inserted this photo in that message. An amazing number of people assumed that the person in the photo was me. Even the people that see me ALL the time thought that this person was me - without makeup.

What on earth were they thinking? My eyes are brown.

I've been taking lots of friendly harassment from the clerks at the post office, the bank and the guys at the printer (who claim they like the idea of my being a cover girl, but were really hoping for a centerfold - I pointed out that I am old enough to be their Mother). Funnier still are the comments from the people in town that have known me my entire life. Most of them are like very proud parents. They've been stopping me in the store to tell me that they always knew I'd "do good". One older man claimed that I must be a genius. I've figured out how to make money doing something that his Mother and Grandmother did all their lives and all they ever got was "sore fingers."!

Ahhhh..... the glamor of it all.......

Tax plan

Yesterday didn't go exactly as planned.

Our meeting with the Sales Rep was cut short so that he could catch an earlier plane. The 3:30 bus didn't arrive until 5pm and it took 3 trips to the post office to ship all of the Block of the Month packets. We lived through it. I was exhausted and everyone is happy and that is what customer service is all about.

Now it is back to sewing for Market.

The endless sewing of strips and squares for simple projects gives me plenty of time to think. Usually I think about sewing, patterns and project ideas. Lately I, along with the rest of you, have been bombarded with political opinion. Almost 75% of the emails I receive are politically based. One reason is that my husband is an elected official. He is a small town council person, but it is still an elected position, so everyone in town knows which side of the fence we reside upon.

One of those political emails contained a laundry list of "pork" added to the economic bailout package. I wish I would have know about that sooner. I would have applied/lobbied for some major quilting "bacon". I think we could have qualified. With the right "spin" I can be pretty convincing. When you get right down to it, quilters in general can have a much larger impact than say, a wooden arrow manufacturer?

How is this for an economic plan:

I think the US Government should send you a check equal to the value of 20% of your unused fabric stash. A rebate of sorts. A little thank you from the Government for stimulating the economy and spending money on things you really didn't need in the first place.

When calculating the value of your stash to determine your rebate it would be important to be honest. Just include the value of your unused stash, don't include the cost of your U.F.O.'s. For my plan to work, we have to be fiscally responsible. We don't want to bankrupt the economy! We can account for the value of your U.F.O.'s in phase 2 of the plan ; ).

Each of us would be getting a hefty check in the mail. And what would you do with that check? Exactly. You would spend it. Probably on more fabric. Thus stimulating the economy. A direct infusion of cash right into the base of our economy, the retail sector. Wall Street would have to love that. Some of you may actually spend MORE than the actual rebate check. Lets face it, as a group, we understand consumer spending.

What's not to love about that plan?

It makes about as much sense as the one Congress came up with..... maybe more.