I’m currently in the process of finishing up over 30 customer quilts before Christmas, remodeling my kitchen, and working on three new books. You would think that this would be enough on my plate. Unfortunately, I have a serious case of “oh look it’s a squirrel” lately. (Hence Mr and Mrs Notions) For those of you who have not heard this term, it basically means I am easily distracted.

So, instead of working on all the things I should be working on, I started surfing the web and saw an add for “Elf on the shelf”. I’ve never really been a fan of Elf as he came along after my children were of an age to appreciate him, but it got me to thinking, what about a quilting version of him?

I started going through my notions and other quilting items I had laying around, and I have a lot of them. I hadn’t realized quite how many I had been collecting over the years, until I had to move them all to the new house, and have been trying to find ways to use them. This project was perfect.

Mr Notions takes about 10 minutes to make, but I warn you he is addictive. I spent the next two hours finding fun cute places to hide him around the studio. Then, of course, I decided he needed a wife. I’m drawing the line at pets and children. I do have to get some work done. If you want to join in the fun, follow me on Instagram and post pics of your own Mr Notions with #mrnotions. I will have some special gifts for the person who posts the most creative and fun picture.

For Mr Notions, I bough a tape spool from Joanns Fabric. Mrs. Notions I used an old antique spool I had lying around. You will also need assorted beads/buttons, jewelry wire, hot glue gun, and a cheep ornament head.

Start by passing a piece of jewelry wire approximately 10″ long through a round bead or button. Twist wire to secure bead.

Thread “arm” beads on in desired order.

Wrap wire twice around top of spool. Going around “arm” once to secure. End with wire facing out for opposite “arm”.

Thread opposite “arm” beads on in the same order as first “arm”. Twist wire at end to secure “hand” bead.

Repeat steps used on “arms” to make “legs” and attach in the same manner. I then decapitated my cheap ornament and used the glue gun to reattach the head to the top of the spool.

Add any embellishments you want. I gave Mr Notions a Steampunk belt buckle and Mrs Notions an angel necklace.

This time of year can be lots of fun, but it can also be stressful. Take some time for yourself and just do something fun. Cant wait to see what everyone comes up with.

The post Meet Mr and Mrs Notions first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.

I’m not admitting anything here, but they may or may not have received entries over the years that included a picture of a pile of fabric and a note that said “I think it’s going to look like this.” The entry deadline was always the middle of March. Quilts due at the show the beginning of May. This gave me roughly six weeks to get my act in gear. I miss this.

There aren’t any quilt shows that let me get a way with this now, but there is a garment challenge. You enter the challenge and get your “challenge” fabric at time of entry. They don’t expect you to have even started at this point. This works well for me.

This year’s fabric was a pretty blue/turquoise batik. I’d been thinking about a Stevie Nicks/Flower Power inspired coat for a while and this would work perfectly. Most of the time when I make garments I start with a commercial pattern. Next, I alter to fit because I’m vertically challenged. This time I couldn’t find one that looked like the image in my head, so I improvised. I Frankensteined a pattern out of multiple other patterns creating additional pieces as needed.

The first step was compiling all the fabric and trims I would need. Fortunately I have a moderate (read copious) stash of these things. Needing to use a recognizable amount of the challenge fabric on the garment, I decided to make the sleeves, and the sides of the upper bodice from the challenge fabric. I don’t like to quilt the sleeves as I feel it makes the garment to stiff and as any quilting I did was not going to show on this fabric this worked out perfectly.

Next I made a mock up out of muslin to make sure it would fit. Occasionally, I’ve skipped this step in the past always regretting it. After assuring that the coat would indeed fit, I started making crazy quilt blocks. Each block measured 15X15 with free form piecing using random fabrics and trims that I had picked out to mostly follow my color scheme. When I had enough blocks, I joined them together to make sections big enough to cut the pattern pieces from. I always cut my pieces several sizes too large initially to allow for shrinkage when quilted.

I spent the next couple of days frantically alternating between quilting the pieces I already had cut out and piecing the rest of the blocks. (Did I mention that I started this process 5 days before the deadline) After quilting everything, I cut the pattern pieces to the actual size I needed and began to assemble the garment. I had already constructed the lining so I just needed to insert it into the coat.

I was getting awfully close to the deadline at this point and I needed to take pictures to send it in, but I wasn’t actually done. Fortunately I had enough finished that it looked done. I pinned on the buttons, and tacked up the hem and sent off my pictures a full 27 minutes ahead of the 12 pm deadline. Ok, so maybe that was cutting it a bit close even for me. I stayed up till about 3 am finishing the coat and sent it off the next morning to the show.

I always make my quilts and garments for me to enjoy, but I have to admit it is nice when they win something. This one did not disappoint and came home with the first place ribbon. One of these days I’m going to see what happens if I actually finish ahead of time. (probably not lol) I wish I knew the name of the beautiful model that wore it at the show. I wish I was as tall. Oh well, that’s what boots are for. Can’t wait to start my next quilted Garment. This time I think I’m going back steampunk. Stay tuned for details and as always Happy Quilting.

The post Adventures in Quilted Garments first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.

I spent last week in Paducah, KY, at the AQS Quilt Show.  I’ve been lucky enough to attend the Spring Paducah show twice now.  Once as a spectator, and once as an Instructor.  I taught at Fall Paducah six months previously so I thought I had an idea of what to expect.  As usual, I was wrong.  I really enjoyed Fall Paducah. It was busy and full of events just like the Spring show, but in the three years between attending and teaching at the April show, I forgot just how many people attend. I started the drive from Lincoln, NE, to KY, on Monday.  It is possible to do the roughly 10-11 hour drive in a day, but it’s not a lot of fun.  I drove roughly half way the first day and stopped for the night in Kingdom City, MO.  The plan was to get some computer work done and get an early start the next morning. When I checked into the motel, I discovered an email from Andrea Ray the quilt show coordinator. My quilt “Star of India” had won something! The email they send is pretty generic.  It says you won something, but not what.  Now I wanted to make sure that I got checked in to the hotel and all my teaching stuff unpacked in plenty of time to get dressed up for the awards ceremony. (Those of you that know me know this means I put on my boots and a nice shirt to go with my jeans.)  Traffic was really busy coming in, and by the time I got everything unloaded, I had about 20 minutes to get dressed and over to the show. (This part will make more sense later.  Remember I was running, as usual.) I met up with friends and we found a place to sit.  I am more of a hide in the back sort of person. They were more of a sit in the front kind of people, but I went with the flow.  I know that just getting into the quilt show is pretty cool and winning anything at Paducah is a real honor. Let’s be honest though, everyone wants to make it out of the dreaded Honorable Mention category and place in their category.  So, I will admit, when they got through that section and they hadn’t called my name, I was feeling pretty good. Then they got to my category; no name.  Now I’m wondering was that really my category?  Maybe I had entered it in a different one and just thought that was my category.  Quick check of the rules on my phone, nope that was mine.  Now I’m not just excited; I’m getting nervous.  By the time they were down to the last four awards I was positively hyperventilating.  When they called my name for “Best Moveable Machine Quilting” I was ecstatic, but I told myself “just be cool”.  Yeah not so much.  I thought I would go up and graciously accept my award, but I just couldn’t help bouncing up and down when I got on the stage.  (There is actual video footage of this on YouTube, Yikes!) Now I know that AQS is being really classy by giving the winners something besides a ribbon, but I’m not sure in my case this was such a good thing. Here I am totally freaking out, shaking with nerves and excitement, having just managed to walk up the stairs and across this big stage in front of hundreds of people without falling on my face and what do they do? They give me a crystal vase. Sure, it’s beautiful and awesome, but now I have to figure out how to get back across said stage and down the stairs with out tripping or dropping it. This may not seem like such a hardship to most people, but I’m lucky not to trip over my own feet on a good day.

After managing to make it back down the stairs, I called my husband. Apparently, I was talking even faster than normal because he and my son thought I had been in an accident and not that I was sharing really cool news with them. I finally got them to understand and made my way back to my friends. It was at this point that I realized I had forgotten to buckle my belt. (Remember when I was talking about running to get ready earlier?)  Biggest night of my career and I’m walking around with my belt unbuckled!  Only me LOL. Now what I really wanted to do at this point was head over to the premier and check out my quilt with its ribbon and my new chair.  (For those of you that don’t know, this is the only  quilt show that gives the top four winners their own studio chair with their name and everything on it.  These are highly coveted in the quilting world and valued almost as much as the prize)

Instead, I had to be good and go to the teacher’s meeting.  I’m sure that it was important information, but all I could think was “got it, we’re good, let’s go people”.  (You may have guessed patience is not my strong suit.) I finally got to go see my quilt/chair and talk/bask LOL in front of it.  (It’s nice to hear all the compliments, so when you go back to your real life and your teenagers roll their eyes at you and go “yeah, right mom, whatever” you can think back to more tranquil times.) By the time I got back to my room and finally got calmed down enough to sleep it was around midnight.  I was back up by 6 the next morning as I taught 8-8:30 Wednesday and Thursday, 8-6 on Friday, and Saturday 8-3.  I had an absolute blast teaching all my classes and met a ton of cool new people.

I always start every class by asking my students to introduce themselves and tell me why they are taking that particular class. Normally I get a lot of “I want to improve my feathers”, “I want to learn to freehand better”, or “I need ideas on what to quilt.” In my Quilting Mehndi class, I got an answer I honestly can say I never heard before. One of my students introduced herself as Roxanne and told me that she had discovered my blog and thought it was really funny that I thought my quilt machine was a boy because it was a back-seat driver and whined a lot. (See “It’s a Boy” in the archives if you are curious.) She told her husband about it and a few weeks later he came back and said “Do you know people make money doing this? Would you like one?” To which she of course said “Well, Yeah”.  Upshot was she got a longarm for Christmas and thought she would come take my class.  When I told my husband about this he said “People read your blog?”  Ha, Ha. Everyone thinks they’re a comedian. I loved every minute of the quilt show. I was still on cloud 9 from the awards ceremony and I don’t think I came down all week. When I wasn’t in class, I spent as much time as I could over by my quilt.  As my only free time was during lunch, I managed to lose 5 lbs. while I was at the show. (Not the best way to lose weight, but I’m not complaining.) I had awesome students in all my classes and got to reconnect with old friends and meet some new ones. What I didn’t get to do a lot of was sleep.  Now I don’t need a whole lot of sleep, but I do need to get some occasionally.  My plan was to hit the road right after I got done with the All-Star review at 3 on Saturday, drive to O’Fallon (about 3-4 hours) go to bed early and sleep till I woke up.  No alarms, phone off, just sleep. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans.  I wound up staying until a little after 4 so that I could pickup my chair and take it with me.  On the drive to O’Fallon I got held up in traffic for about ½ an hour.  No biggie, these things happen.  Then I got to my hotel.  Apparently, the universe decided that I had had a good ride and it was time to bring me back to reality. I check into the Holiday Inn only to discover that they were hosting the regional peewee soccer tournament. There were a couple hundred 9-12 year-olds practicing in the courtyard, the elevator, the hallways. Lots of enthusiasm but not a lot of parental supervision.  Upside, I got an early start in the morning.  I made it home to an empty house.  Everybody was either at work or doing something for school.  I got to unload everything and chill on the couch for an hour before people starting arriving home. (at least the ferret was happy to see me.)

And, If I needed any additional proof that I was back in the real world, my messy studio, the 10 loads of laundry and the sink full of dirty dishes brought me right back to earth. I’ll just have to enjoy the memories until the next quilt show adventure.

The post A Wonderful Week in Paducah first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.

Before telling you about my new addition, I’d like to tell you a little bit about how I got to this point.  I’ve always sewn.  At least as long as I can remember.  My mom taught me to sew when I was little. I did the requisite 4H projects in the small midwestern town where I grew up. Making a few baby blankets, but no real “quilted” projects.  Only getting into quilting when my niece and nephew were born 20 plus years ago, but I never really made any quilts.  I just made tops.  I tried hand quilting.  It wasn’t for me, and I’ve never got the hang of moving the quilt around for domestic quilting.  It wasn’t until we moving to Lincoln, NE, ten years ago, that I started actually finishing tops.

I taught nursing at the University of New Mexico, prior to the move, but with a 4 and a 7-year-old I needed something more flexible.  I saw an ad for a used Gammill Longarm machine in the paper and I told my husband “I can do this as a business”.  He said “sure, I believe in you”.  “No,” I said “I appreciate that, but I really think you need to come look at it”.  “It’s ok, I trust you” he said “if you say you can make it work, I know you will.”  Now whereas I appreciated his support, I really felt that he needed to come look at the machine first.

  After a bit of persuading, he came with me to the lady’s house.  He was really quiet for a few minutes, upon being confronted with the enormity of seeing a longarm machine for the first time, then he said “we’re going to need a bigger truck.”  That’s all he ever said about it. I really love that man.

Now I had a Longarm that cost more than my minivan and a husband who was incredibly supportive.  (this sounds like a good thing, but it was a lot of pressure too.)  I started teaching myself everything I could about longarm quilting. Taking a few classes, but not until later, as it was hard to get away with little kids.  I did have an advantage in that I had grown up in a family business, so at least that aspect wasn’t new to me.  Also, I knew that I had to make this work no matter what. 

Fortunately, I really enjoyed it.  This helped get me through some of the rougher patches.  (The first time I blew a fuse and was in tears because I thought I had killed my machine).  (The first time a needle broke and ripped a customer quilt.  It happens.)  My joy and love (my kids and family called it something different, i.e. obsession) for my new-found career got me through all of the difficulties I encountered. (Believe me, not every day was a bed of roses). Over the last 10 years trying to be open to new opportunities and challenges as they have come my way.  Some have worked out better than others, but I’ve learned something from all of them.

This brings me to my new addition.  Last November, I had the honor to become a Gammill Quilt Artist.  I have loved Gammill since I bought that used Optimum plus.  They are a beast.  There is nothing my machine won’t do. (within reason, of course) So, given the opportunity, I jumped at it.  I had toying with the idea of getting a second machine for a while, and this was just the impetus I needed. There was only one problem.  Where was it going to go?  These are not exactly small after all.  Even going down to a 10’ table it was still going to take up a fair amount of space. My husband was not wild about the idea of it living in the living room so I had to come up with plan B. 

Fortunately, my dad used to own a construction company. He helped me remodel the back half of my studio and finish the ceiling.  I pretty much bought out the shelving section at my local Shopko and organized the heck out of the rest of the space.  There wasn’t any room to spare, but we created enough space to put in the new machine. 

Now it was just a matter of waiting for the machine.  Between my schedule and theirs, and the awful flooding around the plant, it took a little while before we could coordinate a delivery time.  Finally, two weeks ago, the awesome Holly and Farley Zuber of Coyote Creek HQS in South Dakota brought me my new baby. 

It’s fantastic.  Both my new and my old machine are hand guided, so I can still only quilt on one at a time, but it allows me to actually get some of my own things done.  In the past, if I wanted to work on something of my own, I had to rush to get it done.  I didn’t want to be late with any customer quilts.  Now I can have something of mine on one machine and a customer quilt on the other.  The new machine has a light bar and hydraulics.  I don’t know how I ever got along without these.  I had hydraulics put on my old machine while they were here too, and my back is absolutely loving it.

Now some of you are probably wondering how I determined it was a boy.  For starters, it’s a lot more demanding than my old machine.  It’s a Gammill Vision 2, so it has the touch screen and just like a smart phone it’s wants to be the center of your attention.  You know, look at me look at me.  Also, because of the extra features (don’t get me wrong, they’re really cool) it has more bells and whistles.  Literally.   Lastly, it’s a back-seat driver.  It keeps telling me that I drive too fast. So, I’ve decided it’s a boy.  (apologies to the three I live with, but it is what it is.)

The post It’s a Boy! first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.

After spending a little bit of time working on the math, I figured out that the quilt was made up of (30) 12″ square blocks.  Half of these were solid blocks decorated with quilting.  The other half were the ones that were going to be a problem.  Made up of two different blocks; one a six-inch solid square. The other a nine patch with every other square a leymone star.

If you are doing the math, you have probably figured out that makes each of these stars a whopping 2X2 inches.  Each comprised of 16 pieces and 23 seams.  About this time, I’m thinking maybe this isn’t the quilt for me.  Especially after figuring out that each of the eight diamonds making up a star were 17/16″ with the seam allowance.  So I put the project aside, but something kept drawing me back.

Fast forward a year. I was looking through my project books trying to decide on a new show quilt, and saw this quilt again.  I thought “ok, can’t hurt to try”.  Sometimes it really amazes me how much I can delude myself.  First, I started trying hand piecing the blocks. I freely admit that I do not have the patience for hand work. I started figuring out how to do this on the sewing machine.  I’ll admit that I am not a big fan of “Y” seams. When they are only three eight’s of an inch, they make me want to pull my hair out.  I’d make one block that was absolutely perfect. The next 10 not so much.  Oh, and did I mention needing a 130 of them?

I thought maybe I wasn’t cutting them out accurately.  When you’re cutting out pieces that are only 1/2″ square 1/64 of an inch can make a difference.  I bought a custom-made accu cut die for my studio cutter.  This helped, and by this I mean now one out of every nine was acceptable.

What next?  Maybe I could paper piece it.  Nope. There really wasn’t any good way to paper piece the “Y” seams. I really didn’t want to try to split the setting squares. I’m not even sure it was possible because of their size. I  tried a hundred different ideas before coming up with one that worked. And it only took me seven years!  The only thing worrying me was the stability of the points.  With only a few thread in each (as they were so tiny), I just wasn’t sure how stable they would be. It was however, all I had.

Now I should mention I was working on a deadline.  I work best with deadlines.  For the last nine years, I debuted my new show quilt at MQS, not because they were a fantastic show (they were). But because they didn’t require a finished quilt at the time of entry.  They liked it mostly done, but would take entries that included a picture of a pile of fabric and a description of what it might look like.  Not that I know anything about that.  Lol

The entry deadline was the second week of March, with quilt delivery the first week of May.  Giving me six weeks to finish the quilt.  Having always made it before, I didn’t think this year would be any different.  I really should know better than to tempt fate.

Everything was going great.  I pieced the top and quilted it, pleased with how it was turning out. The only thing left was soaking it, to get out the water-soluble pen I used to mark the quilt, and binding it.  Taking it off the frame, I soaked it and laid it out to block and dry. I thought everything was fine, until I checked on it the next morning.

This is where I should probably mention that I used a beautiful purple batik for the stars.  I always prewash my fabric and thought I had rinsed it enough.  Apparently, not so much.  I’m sure you can see where this is going.  Walking into my studio I found that my pristine white background fabric was now a pretty tie dyed purple. Well #$%#.

I spent the next two hours researching getting excess dye out of quits, without having to put it in the washing machine.  Finally, I decided on the tub method.  Fill the tub with hot water and dawn, totally submerge quilt, and leave for 8-10 hours.  Several very notable quilters swore by this method. I’m sure it probably worked great for them. Not so much for me.  I tried rinsing and repeating. All I wound up with was a pink/purple quilt.  There was nothing left for me to do but try the washing machine. Three cycles and a ton of synthrapol later, I had a white quilt with purple stars, but really crappy points. Unfortunately, the only thing I had got right so far, was that the points weren’t up to machine washing.

The show was only a week a way. There was nothing I could do but pull the quilt.  I felt awful, but what could I do.  This was the only time I hadn’t made the deadline.  I apologized profusely to the quilt show chair and then felt sorry for myself for the next few days. Finally, I decided enough was enough.  I still wanted to make this quilt.  I did the math, and decided  making 10 stars a day, I could make the May 20th deadline for Houston.  Remember it was May 2nd.

I figured out a different way to do the points making them more secure,  washed the bejeezes out of the purple batik, and spent the next three weeks frantically making stars, quilting, and binding the quilt.  I finished it 2 hours before the entry deadline.  Thank god Houston went digital last year, or I would never have made it.

Finally, I’d finished it and everything was great.  The show accepted it! Now to ship it off to Houston.  I decided I would ship it rolled instead of folded for the first time.  Why I thought this was a good idea, I don’t know.  Rolled around a pool noodle; off it went.  I thought everything was fine, great in fact.  I received a message that the show was even including it in the promotional magazine.  Yippee!!!  Then I arrived at the show and saw the quilt and the magazine.   It was really crumpled and looked awful hanging.

LET ME BE REALLY CLEAR ABOUT THIS I love IQA, and I know they took excellent care of my quilt.   I am absolutely sure that the problem originated with the shipping company.  I always ship exclusively FedEx, because UPS always looks like a 600 lb. gorilla jumped up and down on my package, no matter what way I ship it.  This time, because of my bright idea to ship it rolled, the only option was UPS, being too long to ship ground per FedEx’s rules, and they mangled the box.

No problem, this was fixable, right?  Got the quilt back, reblocked it, gave it the once over with a fine tooth comb, and sent it off to the next show.  It went directly from there to its first AQS show.  AQS will now send your quilt from one show to the next, until Paducah, and then it comes back home.  Because of this, I didn’t see the quilt between December, and the end of April, and it didn’t go to another show until Grand Rapids, in July.

I will admit I did what I usually do when a quilt comes back from a show.  I looked at a part of it to make sure it was mine, and then stuck it in a corner until it was time to get ready to send it somewhere again.  Fast forward two months, when I pulled it out ready to steam it and send it to the next show.

The quilt had yellow stains all over it!  Again, LET ME BE CLEAR nothing the show did caused this. This problem has happen before.  Not very often, but it has happened. Near as I can tell, it is a weird combination between the batting and the blue markers I use to mark the quilting designs.  Normally it happens relatively early, but for whatever reason, it didn’t this time.  So now I had a yellow quilt and a show it’s supposed to be at in a week.  Fortunately, I knew how to fix this problem.  You toss it in the washing machine with a ton of oxyclean.

Thinking about this time that maybe the quilt was not necessarily cursed, but definitely bad luck.  I was fairly sure that the initial point problem was fixed, and the batik washed enough that bleeding wasn’t going to be a problem.  So, I crossed my fingers and tossed it in the wash.  I hand agitated it and only used the spin cycle to wring out the excess water.

Now you should know that I had recently gotten back from vacation and  finished up almost seven loads of laundry with absolutely no problems.  So I had no reason to believe this load would be any different.  I  gently took the quilt out of the machine and went to lay it out flat to dry.  It was covered in MUD!!!!!! Not a little bit here and there, but big giant chunks all over the whole quilt. What the #$%$#.

I spent the next three hours cleaning my washing machine.  I’ll admit it wasn’t factory clean, but it wasn’t full of mud either.  I cleaned the tub, around the lid, the agitator, everything I could reach.  Then I ran a washing machine cleaner through it, twice!  I picked all the big pieces of mud I could off the quilt and tossed it back it in the washer.  Repeated the washing and rinsing and pulled it out super carefully, making sure not to touch the sides or the lid.  Again, covered in mud!!!!!  No, I have no freaking clue where it came from.  Yes, I have been wracking my brains trying to come up with an explanation.  Don’t have one.  Ran four more loads of laundry after and no mud.

I wasn’t going to push my luck a third time.  So, I laid out the quilt and used tape picking off as much mud as I could. I then spot cleaned the rest of it with a clean cloth and dawn detergent.  I got all the mud off and the quilt was now white again.  Maybe things are looking up.  It dried just in time to ship it off to Grand Rapids.

If you’re at the show, you’ll have to let me know if it’s still white. It’s going from there to Des Moines and I won’t see it until October.  If it comes home yellow, I am having a party.  I’m lighting a bonfire and burning it, because I will know for sure that this quilt was just not meant to be.  If you’re in the neighborhood, feel free to join me.

Sorry I don’t have any pictures of the mud or yellowing to show you.  I was too busy freaking out to remember to take any.
Copyright ©

The post My Quilt is Cursed first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.

I’m not suggesting that people who quilt for show should simplify their work.  Half the fun of show quilting for me is the challenge. Over the last 10 years the bar has been raised to ridiculous heights, and I love it.  Being constantly challenged to up my game inspires me to keep trying to perfect more and more difficult techniques and to design increasingly intricate quilts.  What I want people to consider is that nobody starts at this level we all start as a beginning quilter.

Quilts that are for show or even many of the posts that you see on Facebook are quilted by a professional or expert quilter (people who design patterns, quilt for hire, or make a large portion of their income entering shows, or even just those who have been quilting for decades).  Most of these people are not quilt savants. They did not start out making these gorgeous, intricate, complicated quilts.  I know I didn’t.

I started sewing when I was in grade school.  In 4H, during middle school, I making the obligatory dresses and skirts.  I continued sewing garments through high school and actually helped pay for college making custom suits and doing alterations for people, but I didn’t quilt.  I made the occasional “baby blankets” that I guess were technically quilts (i.e. top, batting, backing) but they were mostly straight-line piecing of squares and were generally tied.  Free motion quilting wasn’t even in my vocabulary let alone my skill set. 

I made my first “real” quilt after I got married.  At this time I was working as a nurse on the Navajo Reservation in Chinle, AZ.  I worked four on, three off, and then three on, four off; 12 hour shifts.  I need to explain a little about Chinle.  The closest town is Gallup, NM, 90 miles away. This was also the closest place to get your hair cut or even find a Walmart. Chinle has a gas station, a feed store, a couple of motels for the tourists, and a convenience store.  That’s it.  I grew up in rural Nebraska, so I thought I understood living in the middle of nowhere.  I was wrong. 

Where I’m from free range meant everybody went out once a year and rounded up all the cattle to brand and then had a big party.  In Chinle, it meant the cattle had the right of way.  My husband’s job was to chase the cattle off the dirt runway so that we could land the medical transport plane.  Needless to say, there wasn’t a lot of things to do when you weren’t at work.  We put 100,000 miles on a dodge neon the year we were there, and I started sewing quilts.  Or, I should really say, I started piecing tops.  The concept of actually quilting them came later. 

When I first started piecing, I thought “no problem, I know how to sew.  I’ve been doing it for years”.  I figured quilting couldn’t be that much different from sewing clothes.  Boy was I wrong.  Turns out ¼” seam allowance is actually more than just a suggestion, and accurate cutting is really important.  Not that seam allowances and accurate cutting aren’t important in fabric making, but there is a lot more wiggle room when you are sewing clothes. I made a lot of mistakes as a beginning quilter, but I learned from everyone of them.

I pieced my first quilt top almost 20 years ago, and it was probably a little ambitious, but it was what I wanted to make. My husband looked through the quilting books I had bought and picked out the pattern. It was a combination of bear paw blocks and blocks that look like polar bears (not a pattern for a beginning quilter LOL).

My long seams are not particularly straight or even.  My seams don’t line up and we aren’t even going to talk about my points, but I was really proud of it.  I look at it now, and think how far I have come, but I’m still happy with it.  I wonder if I had started quilting today, if I would still feel that way.  Back then I didn’t have a guild or Facebook to share my project with, so I didn’t have anything to compare it too.  I also didn’t have any “helpful” people explaining to me how to “fix” my quilt.

Don’t get me wrong.  I think that the ability to share ideas and techniques with so many different people is totally awesome.  We just need to remember that not everybody is at the same level and sharing is not necessarily an invitation for critiques/criticism.  I have an awesome customer who makes t-shirt quilts for each of her kids/grandkids.  She is in her 80’s and almost blind.  The tops are not flat or straight, and her seams are occasionally a little wonky, but she’s having fun and her family absolutely love them.  Who am I to “teach” her the “correct” way to quilt. 

The same goes for a lot of my customers.  When I ask what their quilting/thread preferences are they say “whatever you think.  You’re the expert”.  I always tell them that I’m happy to suggest, but it’s their quilt.  If someone wants me to quilt purple variegated thread all over their hand applique, I will probably gently suggest it wouldn’t be my first choice.  But ultimately, it’s their quilt.  I’m never going to see it again.  If it makes them happy, that’s all that counts.

Back to that first quilt top.  I will admit it was another 10 years before I got around to quilting it.  At first, I toyed with the idea of hand quilting it, but I don’t have the patience.  I have hand quilted a total of two quilts in my entire career and I have nothing but respect for hand quilters, but it’s not for me.  My hand quilting looks a lot like Morse code you know dot, dot, dot…. dash, dash, dash.  It wasn’t until I got my long arm that I actually started quilting my tops.  I already knew I didn’t have the patience to hand quilt and I never seemed to have the coordination to quilt on my domestic.  When I got my longarm, I knew this was the only way to quilt, for me.  This doesn’t mean there wasn’t a learning curve, however. 

I was very fortunate that several of my first longarmed quilts were juried into major shows.  Don’t think that this had very much to do with my quilting skills.  It didn’t.  It had everything to do with my photography skills.  Anything will lie flat and hang straight if you nail it to the wall before you photograph it. 

 My quilt “Passionately Purple” was one of these quilts. Note the cross hatching which is not even remotely straight or even.  Also, I learned it is a good idea when you have been piecing together purple blocks to remember to switch to white thread when you add the white setting blocks. Who knew?

I decided with the next quilt that I would do a whole cloth so I didn’t have to mess with piecing.  Still hadn’t quite figure out how to do straight cross hatching, but I was getting better.

The only real difference between me and a beginning quilter is several thousand hours of practice.

When I teach  classes people frequently tell me they will never be able to quilt like me.  I always tell them that’s not true.  Anyone can learn to quilt like I do.  Just spend the next 5 years quilting 40-50 hours a week, and you can do it too.

In the meantime, if you are a beginner, enjoy yourself.  Have fun with your creations and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks.  Remember they all started where you are once too, and if you are a more accomplished quilter, try to remember what it was like to be a newbie.  Enjoy the process.  Remember it’s all about the journey.

The post Everyone’s a beginning quilter…. once. first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.

Cindy started quilting when her mom signed her up for a quilting class at the local community college in 1992. She is best known for her machine quilting. Cindy likes to take traditional patterns and enhance them, creating a style all her own. She has an impressive list of awards to her credit, including winning Best of Show with her quilt, SIMPLY SANTA FE, at the 2011 AQS QuiltWeek in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Cindy is an instructor with the AQS School of Quiltmaking. I’m sure you will find this post as interesting and informative as I did.

For more of Cindy’s work or to subscribe to her blog go to https://www.quintessentialquilting.com/blog.html

Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad….QUILT JUDGE?  by Cindy Seitz-Krug

Have you ever noticed that quilt show judges sometimes get a bad rap?  For some reason, many quilters have a preconceived notion that all quilt show judges are MEAN!  Well, I’m here to dispel that notion with an in-depth discussion about quilt show judging and the people behind the scenes.

I’ve been involved with quilt show judging in various ways for nearly twenty years.  Since 1998, I’ve entered my quilts for judging in local, regional, national and international quilt show competitions.  So I’ve read a few “comment sheets” (also known as critique sheets) in my day!

I also was the judging chairperson for twelve years at my local guild when I lived in California.  About eight years ago, I took a two-day judging short course at the NQA show in Columbus, Ohio. Since then, I’ve judged and co-judged quite a few quilt shows, large and small, throughout the country.

I vividly remember back in 2001 going to my local quilt guild board meeting wanting to bring up the subject of judging our quilt show.  They greeted the idea with much negativity!   Up until that point, our quilt show only awarded one ribbon: “Viewer’s Choice”.

I have no idea why I felt it  important our guild have our shows judged, but I just did!  I think I mainly felt that it would bring credibility and standing to our show.   Well, the meeting ended with the board members telling me that if I would volunteer to be in charge of the judging, and more importantly, convince our guild that having our shows judged was a good idea (we’d have to let the membership vote on it), then we could go ahead with the proposal.

So, I began my research into everything involved with the “quilt show judging” process.  I also met some judges (with whom I formed lasting friendships) who helped me to understand the process better.  In the end, I convince my guild to allow us to judge our shows. I conveyed this through three major concepts:

1)          Quilt show judges aren’t there to be mean or criticize; they help you to become a better quilter.

2)          Having your quilts judged will ALWAYS make you a better quilter. because if you know judging is taking place, you will go above and beyond to perfect your workmanship.  For instance, if you’re piecing and you notice that some of your points aren’t great,  you will probably go back and fix them, or better yet, do them correctly the first time.  You’ll also pay much more attention to those applique stitches, smooth curves and sharp points.

3)          The last thing I used as an example to convince the guild membership was this analogy:

If your child or grandchild told you, “Grandma, I don’t want to play in my soccer game this Saturday because we’re just going to lose anyway”, you wouldn’t just say, “OK honey, then don’t play.”  No, you’d say, “Winning isn’t everything; you just have to get out there and do the best you can whether you win or lose.” 

Well, needless to say, that point hit home.  Having your quilts judged isn’t always about winning ribbons; it’s about giving it your best shot.

Happily I can report that the membership voted to implement judging at all of our future shows. From that point on, people repeatedly said the quality of the quilts at the shows just got better every year.  And it’s sooooo true!

Now, back to the so-called “mean judges”.  That’s definitely a misconception.  I’ve met many judges over the past 20 years. They’ve all been exceptionally nice and genuinely interested in helping quilters improve their skills.  I’ve also had hundreds of comment sheets from nearly a hundred different judges around the country. About 99% of those comment sheets have been helpful.

I will admit, there have been a couple of comment sheets that were a bit abusive.  Of those few “mean” ones, one was down-right comical!  I almost laughed when I read it. I knew that that particular quilt was a good quilt (having won several major awards at other shows). That judge, however,  (someone I’d never even heard of, nor did I recognize her when I Googled her) apparently had issues with it!  Well, to heck with her!  I shrugged it off and tried not to dwell on it.

This brings me to the subject of “certified” and “non-certified” judges.  A certified judge (CJ) has gone through a long, rigorous certification process through the National Association of Certified Quilt Judges. (Formerly the National Quilting Association)  That process takes two to three years, and is at the expense of the judging candidates themselves.  I think it’s a wonderful program, and the judges that come out of that program are some of the best!

However, there aren’t very many certified judges in this country. Because of this, some shows hire non-certified judges (like myself).  Usually, non-certified judges gained their knowledge of quilt show judging through the school of hard knocks. (Making award-winning quilts and seeing and analyzing many award-winning quilts).  Little by little, these types of judges get more experience through actual quilt show judging, and become quite expert at it.

As a person who competes in many shows each year with my quilts, I would rather have my quilts judged by certified judges because there is much more consistency when CJs are doing the judging.  However, I do realize there is a dearth of CJs in our country, so not all shows can go that route consistently.

So, back to the original question:  “Who’s afraid of the Big, Bad, Quilt Judge”?  Well, after reading this, I hope it’s NOT YOU!  Now you know that quilt judges LOVE quilts (just like we all do), and their main objective is to help each and every one of us to become better quilters.

So next time you get the opportunity to enter one of your quilts in a judged show, just do it!  I can almost guarantee that you will gain some valuable information about how you can improve your quilting techniques on your future projects.

Sometimes a judge will make comments about things you already know.  One of my favorite comments that I regularly hear from a judge is, “Strive for more consistent stitch length.”  Whenever I read that, I laugh and say out-loud, “I’m striving, I’m striving!”  Well of course I’m striving for consistent stitch length, but I’m not perfect, and I don’t use a stitch regulator, so it’s just something that a judge may observe on one of my quilts.  I’m not bothered or insulted by it.  Most of us already know the weak points on our quilts before they’re judged.  But every now and then a judge will say something that you really had no idea you were doing wrong.  So if that comment prompts you to take a class or watch a YouTube video so that you can improve your technique, then that’s a great thing!

The last thing I want to mention for this portion of my article on quilt show judging is about winning ribbons at quilt shows.  If you’re new to the “judging” world, I would suggest you start out by entering a quilt at a local show.  You may or may not win a ribbon on your first try.  But if you do win a ribbon, I can almost guarantee that it will hook you on entering your quilts for judging.  There’s something about winning ribbons that is completely addicting!  But we don’t always win ribbons, so just remember, it’s also very gratifying to see your quilt(s) hanging at a show and having people admire them for their beauty.

That’s the most important thing in my opinion; sharing your work with others.  You may not have created a masterpiece this time around, but you never know who is going to see your quilt hanging there and feel some kind of connection to it.  And you don’t know who you may have inspired. So be brave and enter those shows and share your lovely work!

*If you enjoyed this blog, my next two articles will also deal with quilt show judging.  The next blog will discuss some of the things judges look for in award-winning quilts.  The last blog in this series will discuss all the things involved in entering quilts in national shows (entry forms, fees, photos, shipping, etc).

**If your quilt guild is considering moving from a “Viewer’s Choice” type show to a “Judged Show”, the best resource for you to check out is this book:

Guide to Judged Quilt Shows published by the National Quilting Association, 2008

(Some free copies of this book are available but need to be tracked down.  Contact me if you’re interested and I’ll work to get a copy into your hands.)

The post Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad….QUILT JUDGE?  first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.

To try to put the race in some context, if you have never seen it, you need a little history.  The Bay to Breakers Race started in 1912, to lift the city of San Francisco’s spirits after the 1906, earthquake. Run for more consecutive years over the same course and distance than any other foot race, it has become known more for the costumes the runner’s wear, or in a lot of cases don’t wear (this is San Francisco after all), than the actual race.

People line the streets and throw parties at the houses along the course complete with local bands. This attracts people from all over the world to partake in the race.  This year people from 48 states and 42 different countries competed. The average number of participants is 70-80 thousand; only about half of those actually registering for the race.  Making it more a party than a race for most of the participants.

These are just a few of the tamer costumes I saw.  I wanted to keep it more to the PG side than the R.  Tony found the banana suits were particularly interesting.  Tony and I talked about the people who chose not to run in costume, but I don’t think he really believed me.  I think he originally thought I was kidding because he was sure this had to be illegal. He couldn’t believe that the police along the route didn’t seem fazed at all by the nudity.

He’s traveled a lot, even visited several foreign countries.  This wasn’t even his first visit to San Francisco. It was still, however, an eye opener for a young man that’s spent most of his life in Nebraska.  He originally planned to run in front of all us slow old people (typical 14-year-old thinking, anyone over 30 is ancient), and meet us at the finish line.  After the third or fourth naked dude, however, he changed his mind deciding to run by mom.  It didn’t bother me as much as it did him.  I just want to know why it’s never Thor or Captain America running around in the buff.  Instead, it’s always the Penguin or the Blob.

They divide the runners into “corrals” based on your mile times.  We were in corral F. By the time it was our turn to run, the elite runners who started first had already finished the race.  The waiting wasn’t too bad. We had plenty of thing to keep us busy waiting our turn.  Not only did we entertain ourselves with all the different costumes, but they have a tradition of “Flying Tortillas”.  Apparently they used to use Frisbees, but switched to tortillas for safety.  People actually bring tortillas and there are hundreds of them being thrown around like Frisbees.  Tony got a big kick out of this.

When it was finally our turn, it wasn’t really possible to start off running.  There were just too many people.  Tony and I ran probably a third of the course; walking when we had to and weaving in and out of the crowd running when we could.  Still we managed to average 15 minute miles, so I’m pretty pleased. It was definitely an adventure running past the parties and watching the people.

There was one group dressed as wood cutters with one of their number in a tree costume. They ran down the street after him pretending to chop him down.  Another guy was dressed as a sumo wrestler.  When another group of guys saw him, they yelled “sumo dance party”. Then they all started boogying with him. Tony kept pointing out different things as we went, and it was lots of fun watching him take in the experience.

I’m really glad that I went, and I enjoyed sharing this with my son and other members of my family.  I know from all the training and prep work that I did that I could have run the whole thing (well maybe not the Hayes street hill, it’s 2/3 of a mile with an average grade of 5.5, and 11% grade at the steepest).  So, while I still can’t say I am a huge fan of running,

I’m thinking that maybe I want to run another race. One that is more of an actual race than a party.  Just so that I can see how I would do.  I’m open to suggestions if anyone knows of a good 10K.  I’d like it to be somewhere interesting.  If I’m going to run, I want it to be someplace fun, preferably flat. I don’t enjoy running enough that continuing to run in Nebraska is motivating.  Maybe someday, but not today.

The post The Race first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.

Also, how do you get past worrying about what other people think or might think about you? With my usual aplomb, I imparted my motherly wisdom (lol). Telling him that it gets better with time; that everyone else is just as anxious; sure that everyone is judging them. The reality being most teenagers are so self-absorbed they don’t have time to spend on what someone else is doing.

He wanted to know how I was sure, not being able to believe that “mom” was ever a teenager. I told him that mostly it came with experience and getting older. Later I got to thinking about it, and I’m not so sure that’s true. His world is totally different from the one in which I grew up. Not that we didn’t have bullies and mean girls, (high school was not my idea of a good time), but they didn’t surround us 24/7. I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like to be a teenager in today’s world. It doesn’t just affect teenagers; it affects everyone.

When I graduated from high school and headed off to college, I thought all the drama was behind me. It was, for the next 15-20 years. Now, social media has changed all that (Enter the quilt police). People say things and judge people in ways they would never do in person, and that behavior is spilling over into the real world. I’m sure you’re thinking, if I’m not a fan of social media, why don’t I just stop using it? Unfortunately, as I’m sure a lot of you know, it’s not that simple. My son’s schools, sports teams, scouts, etc. all use social media to disseminate information, not to mention all the reasons myself as a small business owner needs to be online.

I’ve been working on submitting book proposals, and all most of the publishers want to know is how many followers, likes, and subscribers do I have? Never mind if my content is any good. When did we become a society measuring our worth in “likes” on a platform famous for posting cat videos? But I digress.

This social media phenomenon has also affected quilting. There’s many great things that happened in the quilt community because of social media but there are some not so great things as well. Most notably the “Quilt Police”. You know the kind of people I’m talking about. The ones who always have to correct, tear down, or bad mouth a quilt/quilter. These people are not new to the quilting community, but can now be considerably more vocal, and critique a lot more people/quilts.

I keep coming back to the old adage, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. I quilt for a dear, sweet, little old lady who is making t-shirt quilts for all her family members. She has arthritis, and is losing her eye sight. Needless to say, her quilts are neither flat nor square, but they are loved. No one in her family cares if her points are sharp, her seams meet, or her colors are complimentary, so, why should we?

Half the fun of quilting for me is the socialization. When I share a quilt, it’s because I love it, not because I want a critique. I get plenty of these when I enter shows. You don’t have to like my or anyone else’s quilt, but please don’t tear it down. I had a quilt in the National Quilt Museum’s 25th anniversary gala, and I remember looking online at the quilt that won. It was very avant-garde and not particularly my style, but the comments went beyond criticism to downright mean and nasty. Totally ignoring the challenge of the contest was to make a nontraditional quilt using unconventional materials.

There’s nothing wrong with an art quilt provoking a spirited discourse, in fact I believe that is one of the cool things about art. How the same piece can affect different people in different ways. What I don’t understand is when we as a society started losing the ability to disagree with someone without tearing them down.

Which brings me back to the so-called quilt police. I like to think of quilting as being kind of like jazz. There is a set frame-work that needs to be adhered to (in the case of quilting; a top, batting and backing held together by thread), but otherwise you have total freedom. I find that some of the coolest quilts I have ever made started with a mistake. We need to start actively encouraging new quilters and stop worrying so much about the rules. Technique can be refined with gentle guidance, but it’s really hard to rebuild confidence and passion. So, the next time you sit down to piece or quilt something don’t worry about what someone else might think, just have fun. As long as you are enjoying yourself, whatever you make is going to be fantastic, even if it’s not quite flat or square.

The post Let’s Arrest The Quilt Police first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.

I freely admit it.  I am an Arlo Guthrie FANatic!  For those of you who don’t know who Arlo is (sacrilege), he is a folk singer from the 60’s. Best known for his song Alice’s Restaurant.  Why am I such a big Arlo fan? To be honest, I really don’t know.  I first saw Arlo in concert with Pete Seeger at Pershing Auditorium in Lincoln, NE, when I was around 7 years old.  Even at that young age, I had been to a lot of concerts, but never one quite like this.  His concerts are kind of a cross between a feel good sing along and a stand-up comedy routine.  I loved it.

After the show, we went out to Tico’s Mexican restaurant for dinner, and Arlo was there.  It had never occurred to me to want someone’s autograph before, but I wanted his.  He was eating dinner after a long performance and many days on the road, and I am sure that he didn’t want some little kid bothering him, but he was nothing but kind to me.  Between that and the concert, I was hooked.

Now I should explain, I come from a very musically inclined family.  My Dad makes musical instruments for a living, exposing me to all kinds of musicians from a very young age.  Peggy Seeger even stayed at the house.  I have had the opportunity to attend concerts from everyone from Garth Brooks, and Reba, to Arrowsmith and Whitesnake.  I even helped out as a Roadie on part of the New Mexico leg of Warrant’s Blood, Sweat and Beers tour.

Through Dad, I have met many different artists; Peter, Paul, and Mary, Kathy Mattea, and Van Halen to name a few.  (I think I am probably the only 16-year-old girl who did succumb to temptation and fall all over themselves begging for Van Halen’s autograph.)  I’m mentioning these people not to brag so much as to explain that I am not easily star struck.  I just love Arlo.

Since that first concert, I have been to see Arlo anytime he played anywhere near where I was living, and sometimes even not near where I was living.  I have easily seen him in concert almost two dozen times, and every time was just as much fun as the last.  I even have an Alice’s Restaurant 50^th anniversary jacket.  So, imagine my delight to find out that he was coming to Lincoln, for the first time in several years.

I found out when the presale was going to be, planning to get myself front row seats, and called up Mom to see if she wanted to go too.  She said “sure, when is it?”  I told her May 19^th.  There was a long pause and then she said “that’s the same weekend as the race.”  Well, #@#$!.  I had just told the world that I was going to run a 12K, I couldn’t very well back out now, but I wasn’t ready to give up on seeing Arlo either.  I got online to see if he would be playing anywhere else in the area.  Eureka, he was going to be in Kansas City the night before, all might not be lost.

I spent the next several months trying all kinds of different airline combinations.  Flying out of Kansas City; back to Omaha; Omaha to San Fran the day before the race, etc., etc., etc.  Finally, last week I had to admit defeat.  There was just no good, affordable way to fit in the concert and the race.

I know that not everyone will understand this, but it really bums me out to miss him for the first time in almost four decades. Not only that, but to add insult to injury, my favorite radio station has been giving away free tickets to the concert all week. (Talk about temptation) My mom asked me yesterday if I would have gone to the concert instead of running the race, if I had known about it before I signed up to run.  I have to truthfully say, ABSOLUTELY!  That being said, I am really glad I am going to run this race.  I have gotten so much encouragement from everybody, and I have really enjoyed training with my youngest.

Sometimes you just have to face temptation head on, so, I bit the bullet and bought my airline tickets. I also got on Arlonet.com and ordered me a tour t-shirt from his aptly named Running Down the Road Tour.  The day of the race I plan to be wearing my tour shirt and listening to every Arlo song I have on my MP3 player (and I have pretty much all of them), as I do some Running Down the Road myself

The post Running Down The Road first appeared on Stress Free Sewing.