Simply Done
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.
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 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.
Kelly is not just a great quilter, swho sends me pics of her quilts, she makes videos about them!! She also made a video about how she machine quilts feathers into the borders and sashing areas of her quilts – take a look.
Lorraine and I have been email chatting for weeks. She’s had some issues with her sewing machine, and a few questions. But early in January she sent the first pic and said
“Please enjoy with me my latest project made for my first born, Kevin”
Then later in January she sent this note and pic:
Had to share my first free motion quilt, not perfect but in my grandaughter’s eyes it was.
and in the same email, she was planning her next quilt. She said “I purchased about 12 all cotton blouses from a local thrift store recently with plans of making two scrappy quilts, one for my sister’s birthday in May and the other for a neighbor bedridden with cancer.”
In early February, she sent this pic and note:
Yesterday I delivered a new lap quilt to my neighbor. When I called to let her know I was coming over, she was blown away that I had made her a quilt. That made me so happy.
Lorraine’s still busy, now planning a quilt for her other granddaughter.
From Linda P. via Facebook “Thank you. You gave me the confidence to free motion my blocks successfully and finish my quilt I started 5 years ago. I love this method!”
Judy has sent me many pics of her quilts and this one is a real stunner. I would never have thought of doing a Trip Around the World quilt with our quilt-as-you-go techniques, but now I want to make one too!!
Read more about Judy’s quilt on her blog, Judysquiltsandthings 🙂
… a new website to help connect quilters, guilds and quilting teachers. It’s a searchable calendar of quilting events (mostly guild hosted) that all quilters will find useful.
Quilters can easily find events happening in their own (or nearby) states.
Quilters who travel can find events in the locations that they are going to – shows, retreats, guild hosted classes and shop hosted classes.
Quilt guilds will find teachers who are already booked in their states, making it easier to arrange “piggy back” bookings with that teacher and sharing the travel expenses between guilds – saving both guilds money!
Quilt Teachers will have greater exposure for their teaching events, increasing attendance.
It’s a win-win situation for all quilters!
Here’s a short video on how to use the site. Let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions to make it better.
Hi Quilters, my friend Wenonah posted several photos of her quilts on our Facebook page, including her “Honorable Mention” quilt from the Alaska State Fair! Take a peek …
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,
