Quilt As You Go, Simply Done

Simply Done

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Pat’s Simply Charming Quilt

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Pat Minich is a professional quilt designer and purse designer and she helped me with the text of one of my books and then gave me the treat of sharing a photo of her beautiful finished quilt! Called Simply Charming, from our book Quilt As You Go {reimagined} this quilt is made from just two fabrics, one framing center squares of the other. The joining strips are hidden in the framing fabric. I am deeply grateful to Pat for helping me with the text of the book and for our fun conversations. I’m really looking forward to seeing her next quilt! Here’s Pat and a portion of her quilt, and below the whole quilt. It really is simply charming 🙂

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Teresa’s Road To Oklahoma Quilt

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I was lucky enough to meet Teresa Rush at the Pahrump, Nevada quilt show in March this year. She follows my travels on this blog and on Facebook, and she saw me post that I’d be in Pahrump, so she drove 60+ miles to come to the quilt show and say “hi”! That just made my day! 🙂 I’m looking forward to returning to Pahrump in March 2015 and I’m going to try to meet up with Teresa again – either in Las Vegas or Pahrump.

Here’s her note and her quilt pics – Thank you Teresa for coming all the way to Pahrump and for sending me pics to share, especially for the close up on your quilting. Just like the quilts in my book Finish (almost) Any Quilt you can’t even tell that this is a quilt-as-you-go quilt!

I just wanted to share my first quilt with you. I am so pleased and know it would had never been possible without your book and personal demo at Parhump. Thank you!

I would love it if you let me know when you come back to Vegas! I have enclosed some more pics of my quilt and please feel free to use any of them…

Quilt block is Road to Oklahoma. (Curtains are my next project now that the quilt is done.) Quilting was done on my embroidery machine and even though it is a queen size quilt it was no problem using your quilt as you go technique.

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Ricki’s Finished Quilts

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Check out these cuties by Ricki Cohn! Here’s the note she so generously sent, along with pics of her quilts:

Just finished my 6th quilt using your quilt as you go method, along with other quilt as you go techniques, including making a reversible quilt. Thanks! You were the inspiration for getting me started on this relatively new hobby.

Here are some of my latest endeavors:

Owl quilt
I quilted the squares first with wavy lines, then learned how to applique using freezer paper and starch for the pieces of the owls. The back does have the outline of the owl and wings, but I used Sulky thread in the color of the backing, and it looks fine.

My 2-sided quilt…

Below is a baby quilt for my niece’s baby. I added the yellow borders that I quilted first to the 4 squares that were extras from a larger crazy quilt that ended up too big for a crib. The yellow and brown quilts are the back and front of the same quilt!

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Owls

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Curves By Jean

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Jean Knapp send me these photos of her Drunkard’s Path quilt blocks that she put together using quilt-as-you-go, isn’t it gorgeous? There are a lot of patterns and tutorials for doing curved piecing, and I believe there are even templates for making the Drunkard’s Path block. Here she combined 4 blocks and then quilted and joined them using the same methods we use in all of our books.

Thank you Jean for sharing your quilt and your adaptations!

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Rosie’s Quilts

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Another quilt show!! I LOVE getting photos of finished quilts and Rosie sent me this message, along with pics of her quilts …

I’ve just looked at your web site and would like to say how much I’ve enjoyed your book. I’ve attached a couple of photos of quilts I’ve made. The pastel coloured one is a suduko themed pattern and the other was made for a cat lover – all the fabrics are cat themed.

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Lori’s Quilt

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Lori sent me this message and a short video!

My sister had her 40th birthday party on Saturday in Pennsylvania. I couldn’t be there, but her good friend shot the video for me. I did free hand quilting on each block, writing in meaningful words and images. (Names of childhood pets, favorite teachers, etc). I am including a clip that shows her reaction after looking over the quilt. I had no particular pattern or plan…other than your book telling me how to finish any quilt. I had to make peace with my imperfections (I am a brand new quilter) and remind myself not to stress. In the end, it was Forever a lesson for me…it was perfect….crooked seams, puckers and all!!

Quilting has come to my life at a perfect time for me and your videos gave me the courage to jump in! I have my sewing room set up with Costco tables, styrofoam insulation and vinyl sheets!! I love it!

Lori Z

Click to watch —-> QuiltGift


Alane’s Quilt Story

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Alane was working from my book “Finish (almost) Any Quilt” when she wrote to me. She was working on a quilt for her dad, sitting by his side in the hospital. Alane was hand piecing her blocks but she wanted to quilt them (and bring the quilt together) with a quilt-as-you-go method. She updated me recently with this note and pics of her quilt.

This quilt will always be special to me. I hand pieced it while sitting in the hospital with my dad, and the decorative stitches I used over my seams made me feel confident that my hand stitches would never rip out. I am still working on what to say on my label, but I’ll figure that out in time.

I did learn that you have great tips in the book, and if you don’t do it, you regret it….My quilt is not perfect by any means, I made a lot of errors when I didn’t follow your directions exactly.

I’ve started another quilt using dad’s dress shirts, and will attempt quilting again using your method. Thanks so much!

You might want to add that the entire quilt was free except for thread. Along with calling it my Ugly hospital quilt, I call it my “Green” quilt. I used scrap fabric, an old mis-shaped fleece blanket for the batting and and some old flat sheets for the backing.

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Meeting Friends

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This is a long story that started with trying to get caught up on my ‘not related to quilting’ list.

I’ve always admired well put together newsletters that I receive, mostly from quilters and shops but also from other businesses that I like or use often, and I’ve wanted to create my own for years. Since I started publishing (talk about tearing your hair out!) I’ve come to enjoy putting together articles, short books, magazine-like stories, brochures and also books. So, after putting it off for years, I tackled learning MailChimp for sending out newsletters. I mean, I learned how to publish books, how hard could it be, right?

Seriously, I was in tears.

It was like reading a foreign language. No, it was worse. I could have Googled a foreign language and translated it piece by piece, but when software people write about their products, they forget that humans might decide to use it.

But ‘Perseverance’ might as well be my middle name. Or ‘Stubborn’. I wanted to check that thing off my “To Do” list.

I think I clicked everything twice, and I finally sent out a bare bones newsletter, after begging for people to sign up for it. I may never send another one again. Seriously.

But the upside? Because of the newsletter I met Wenonah.

Arteria, Alice, Wenonah (in front), Kathleen and Marguerita

Well, actually I already knew Wenonah, we had just never met in person before. Wenonah was one of the very first people to upload a photo of her ‘Crazy Shortcut Quilt’ to Flickr years and years ago.

When I designed the newsletter, I put in a box that said something like “do you need help with your quilting” or something to that effect.

After a couple of busy weeks, I went back to look at what people wrote, and started sending out emails to answer questions or make suggestions. Then I got to Wenonah. She had written “need help with joining” or something close to that. I sat back and thought “Wenonah? She’s been making these quilts for years! I wonder why she feels like she needs help?” Then I wrote her an email. The good thing about that newsletter was that I got her new email address – YAY!

She replied that she could use a refresher and she had a couple of questions and could we meetup sometime? I said sure, if you ever get to Seward, let me know (she lives 150 miles away) and I said I’d do the same when I get to Anchorage.

Little did I know! Wenonah loves to travel! She organized a little “quilting excursion” with a couple of friends and they said they would be here Saturday. Since our house is in a never-ending state of retrofitting, I imposed upon my friend Kathleen, who owns the Alaska Saltwater Lodge (a heavenly place for a quilt retreat!), to let us meet in her lodge’s common room. She said sure, if she could invite a few quilting friends too.

What a ton of laughs we had!

I re-met some quilters from Seward that I had not seen for years; met new quilting friends; got to laugh with Alice, Arteria and Wenonah; and discovered that Wenonah and I have a LOT in common. She’s the group ‘travel agent-motivator’ – something I used to do when I worked in Anchorage. I used to organize trips to Cordova, McCarthy, Kennicott, Valdez, and twenty five other places too. Driving, camping, kayaking, hiking, berry picking or just hanging out. Wenonah is a gal after my own heart and I know that we’re going to enjoy many more meetups in the future.

So, we had an impromptu trunk show. I brought every finished quilt that I could find (I had NO idea that I had that many quilts) and she brought her book. We chatted, talked about techniques, I showed off quilts and told their stories.

And I had more fun than I’ve had in years with adults.

Hehehe. I’ve been ‘head down’ into this publishing business, taking time only to spend with my granddaughter, because if I’ve only learned one lesson in life, it is this: “enjoy the kids today”.

But now I’m ready for a little more “enjoy meeting some new quilters” too. Thanks to Wenonah.

This winter I’ll be doing two things I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. Travel and collect my retirement. The retirement is small, and the travel will be limited to the west coast, but it’s a start in a new direction.

So far I’ve arranged to meet up with some traveling friends, Shirley and Donna, and they are they are going to introduce me to their quilting friends Sharon, Cherylin and Leanne in Fort Nelson, BC, Canada (along our drive south) and I’ve looked up quilt guilds that I can visit along the way and emailed a few friends in the Seattle area. While I loved presenting the Trunk Show, I am not just looking for work, I’m just looking to say “hi” and chat a bit about quilting, travel, grandkids, and maybe make some new quilting friends along the way 🙂

I’ve posted our tentative travel schedule on a page here called Classes. If I get a chance to teach, that’s great, but if I just get half an hour to meet a new quilter, I’ll be even happier. Let me know if you’d like to meetup, okay? You can leave a comment here or drop me a note at MMQuilts @ gmail.com I hope to meet you soon,



Quilt As You Go Quilt Retreat!

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If you are in (or coming to) Alaska and want to take an exclusive class with me, here’s your chance! Only 10 people will be able to sign up for this weekend retreat, which is a fundraiser for a friend. I’ll be bringing quilts from my first 2 books plus quilts I have made for the next two books – a little exclusive sneak peek!

We’ll spend the weekend making a Shortcake Quilt – 36″ x 45″ – and covering the basics of quilt-as-you-go and then jump into adapting the QAYG techniques to work for other quilt blocks – not just the Crazy Shortcut Quilt style.

It will be a little bit of everything 🙂 June 8, 9, 10th, 2012 in Palmer, Alaska — $100 per person — email me to sign up — MMQuilts @ gmail.com

If you are (or know of) a quilt shop owner in the area of Anchorage to Palmer, and you want to host the Trunk Show, please let me know. I am looking for either Thursday June 7th or Friday, June 8th, from about 7-9pm.

Crazy Shortcut Quilt Retreat