The Sky is Falling in the Quilt Universe

Is this the beginning of the end for Quilting?

If you follow any of the things published lately on social media you certainly might think so. 


People are talking about the fact that several giants in the industry are closing or streamlining their operations, iconic quilt shops are closing their brick and motor stores (The City Quilter in NYC is but one example) and magazines are shutting down as well.

Quilters Newsletter Magazine is without a doubt the longest operating quilt magazine in America and sadly it will cease operations after the October/November issue. The magazine has been published since 1969 and Bonnie Leman the founder, certainly was a pioneer in the industry when she published her very first issue written on a manual typewriter on her kitchen table. For me the news was a huge shock - I have been a loyal subscriber for most of my 40+ years as a quilter.  I liked that it covered all the news; shows and historical quilts and new products like no other magazine out there.  Granted the revolving door of editors and the constantly changing direction had me questioning my renewal the past few years but I could not let it go. It will be missed.

Earlier this year I published my first ever quilt book with AQS!  I was so excited to share my quilts with the public and it's first outing after being published was Paducah and by all accounts sales were good. 

Imagine my shock when AQS announced just a few short weeks ago that they were getting out of publishing altogether and going to focus on shows and their magazine. Many authors, myself included are caught in the crossfire and may never see much financial reward for their efforts as AQS tries to sell off every book in their warehouse by whatever means they can as quickly as they can. 





Quilt shops all over the country are closing, many owners say they want to retire but if the business was good and sales supported it then why not sell it and the inventory to the next generation of ownership?  So many just go out and very few find new owners which I find telling.  There is a lot of competition from online sellers who have less overhead and don't offer any of the resources or classes that your local quilt shop provides.

So you may be asking yourself "Linda what is the point of your post today?  Well you can bet there is one and it's big!!!

First some facts....

Many quilters are middle age and older - much older in fact. Many have more disposable income and more time as they may be retired or done raising a family than younger quilters.  Some are dedicated quilters who are constantly working on quilts or some aspect of quilting and others used to be but now other life interests or health issues have gotten in the way of being hyper focused on creating quilts.  

Another factor is that quilting is not an inexpensive hobby - you can easily spend $300 or more on a bed size quilt just on the fabric.  If you are raising a family buying quilt fabric and supplies may not be in the budget. 

Still another factor is that we have more than one generation now that was not taught sewing in school.  No Home Ec classes in many schools across the country means that young people are not exposed to sewing or quilting to the degree that the current largest group of quilters was. For example my grandmother was a quilter, my mother was not but she was an amazing seamstress and taught me to sew garments as a young child. I sewed my first skirt at 9 years of age. 


And that ladies and gentlemen brings me to the point of this blog post!!! 

In April of last year I attended MQX East in Manchester NH. They have a cool program where they provide a starter kit of supplies as door prizes specifically with the goal of a seasoned quilter mentoring a young person.  At the banquet on Friday night a table mate won one of the kits and said she didn't know anyone to mentor, she gave it to me. At the same event, my friend Cathy Wiggins won a Janome Gem sewing machine from SewVac Direct and upon learning that I was going to look for a child to mentor, gifted it to me.  I got home from the show and posted on Facebook what had happened and asked if any of my local friends had a child that wanted to learn to sew.  My cycling pal Erik and his wife Susie reached out to me and said their daughter Georgia was very interested and would I be willing to take her on.  Of course I agreed and we met to figure out a calendar.  School got out and Georgia who also goes by G to those that know and love her; started sewing. The first day we made a book bag out of a pair of jeans I had retired and we continued to meet once a week to work on projects. 

Of course the best part of the day is when the cats come to help out.  Georgia loves cats and we spend almost as much time petting them and playing with them as we do sewing. Here she is with her completed book bag - it has two pockets on the outside and one on the inside and is fully lined.  Not bad for a first project.

Summer progressed and Georgia got to the point where she could do the pedal by herself - this was a big step. She made a place mat for her mom who loves baseball and we used some of the decorative stitches on my machine that she picked. 

She does not use the rotary cutter and the iron only with help and supervision.  But each week her skills improve and she is loving it. 

We decided that she was ready to tackle a quilt. Her mom does not sew and would not have the first idea about choosing fabric for a quilt so my vast-will-not-be-used-up-in-my-lifetime-stash came into play.  We went shopping in my stash for the fabrics for the quilt and I will never even miss the fabric and it made it a whole lot easier for G to make her first quilt.  Many of you have a similar stash so mentoring a child can be easy on the parents of the child as they won't have to buy a thing and you probably won't miss it either!!!
We have a mascot - Hello Kitty!  Here is G with her first row of blocks sewn together.  She did all the sewing by herself. Each week we worked on the quilt and it started to come together one block at a time. Georgia was excited with each step of the way and especially as it grew.   



She told me just a week ago as we were sewing blocks together for her first quilt that she did not like quilting.  I said "well I think it's a little late to be telling me this."  She replied "I don't like quilting, I love it!" and that is the reason for this blog post. 

And here she is with the very first quilt she ever made.  She named it Colorful Confetti and we have entered it into the MQX Springfield show in the Kids category.  Next up we have to quilt it.


The bottom line of this conversation is this:

We as seasoned, dedicated quilters have to mentor our youth. We have to help them fall in love with quilting and sewing as we have or yes indeed this quilt industry will die out and the sky will fall. We dedicated quilters are getting older and many make fewer and fewer quilts every year.

We have to discover ways to involve them in projects they can use and that will spark their interest.  Georgia made a book bag, a dress (you know those pre-shirred ones where you sew one seam and add straps), and a place mat all before we even talked about making a quilt.  They were easy projects completed in one day.  She is excited about sewing and wants to try everything.  My big quilting machine is a bit intimidating to her right now but if I know anything about G she will tackle that with gusto as soon as she learns how to use it.


We have the power to interest kids in one of the greatest hobbies and vocations out there.  It teaches them math and perseverance and lets them be creative and is just down right fun to have something you made with your own hands.  Is it easy being the mentor? No.  While G is a delight, she is only 8 and often loses focus, she often gets off track and forgets what she is doing and quite honestly is just a typical 8 year old girl who some days would rather pet my cats.  

Could I do something creative for myself every Monday afternoon? Yes.  Could I spend time on one of my projects versus coming up with something she can do in one session that I think would be fun for her - yes.  But in my opinion that is not what life is supposed to be all about.  We quilters have been given a gift and many of us have had a lot of success and made money from that gift.  For me the gift would be wasted if I kept it to myself.  So for me the verse in Luke is being applied every Monday afternoon as I mentor Georgia and fall a little more in love with this bright little girl that loves to sew and wants to make everything...."To whom much is given, much is required." 


So my friends, save a quilt shop or a book publisher or a magazine of the future by mentoring a child today!  I can tell you first hand - it will be worth it!

~ Blessings,

Linda T.

 

On My Way to Baltimore

On My Way to Baltimore has hit the streets!

What had been a long time dream has now become reality - I'm an author of a book! What a journey this has been and quite frankly, I still can't believe it and I'm thrilled at the response so far. I have written many articles for magazines over the years and before that a lot of words for brochures and ads and newsletters but writing a quilt book is different. 

For starters you have to make sure you keep track of every aspect of the design. When I started on this journey I was not thinking that my original designs would become a book so my notes and measurements were sketchy and not always complete. After about the third quilt I thought "hey, this may become a book or a pattern series so I had better take better notes."  On several of the early quilts I had to re-make certain aspects to double check my notes as to the size due to the fact that in a couple of cases the quilt was already quilted.  

 

 

My design process for the book quilts is the same method that I have always used since I made my first quilt over 40 years ago.  Paper and pencil.  I hand drew all the applique pieces for the book and used EQ7 for much of the layout just to make sure the math was correct.

 

I find it ironic that my very first quilt was applique.  Here it is. The letters were cats I drew and then use the satin stitch on my machine to applique them to the background fabric.  I didn't know how to quilt so I tied it using embroidery floss. I was 13. I made two more of this same quilt for other family members and this is the only one that survived. I still have the original hand drawn patterns of these cats.  Little did I know the love affair that was unfolding would last this long. I'm still a quilter 42 years after making my first quilt and I still love applique.

The quilts in the book are not "typical" Baltimore album quilts.  They are a lot simpler and the blocks are a lot larger but the style of the elements is to some degree evocative of the late 1800's and since I don't have time to make a Baltimore Album quilt this is a  nice option.  Which is why we are on our way to Baltimore and not likely to get there.

Tulip Splendor on my design wall.

The cover quilt!  Ah yes, the cover quilt Tulip Splendor. To be honest I was less than thrilled that one of my least favorite quilts in the book was chosen by my publisher/editor as the cover. It was not one I would have chosen and yet now I see why they picked it.  It's colorful and fun and flirty and just catches the eye with the rainbow of colors against the white background. After living with it for several months now I have to say I love it. It's still not my favorite quilt in the book but as I cover I think it was a great choice and I do love how the quilting came out on this one.

Tulip Splendor center block

What is unique about the book is that in all but two quilts there are two colorways of the quilt.  The featured one and then an alternate.  I thought it would be helpful for people buying the book to see the quilts in different colors.  Of course to be honest I didn't take into account the fact that it would be twice as much work but luckily I had a couple of willing friends who made a few of the alternates.  I have had so much positive feedback about this aspect of the book that I'm glad I went that route. I've seen it done in magazines but never in a book.

 

My favorite quilt in the book is "Midnight In Baltimore" and I have to say I just love every aspect of this quilt.  The colors, the blocks and the quilting.  I think this is some of my best work from a design standpoint and looking at it just makes me smile. The feathers in the border are my original design and are available as a pattern from  Legacy Quilting. Currently this quilt does not have an alternate but I do have plans to make one in red and white - stay tuned.

All the applique work in the book was done by machine with the exception of the ric rack on this quilt.  I love the speed and the look of machine applique. I've tried all the methods and I always come back to fusible (using Wonder Under) and the button hole stitch on my machine using matching thread.

 

Two of the quilts I had made for the book did not make the cut. I figured one would not due to page count limitations so I was not surprised.  With all the applique patterns and the pages they took up one more had to go.  They may find themselves into another book, a pattern or a magazine.

 

This is Carnivale.  

  This is the quilt that AQS (my publisher) is displaying at all their shows in the author showcase, it will be well traveled by the time it comes back to me a year from now. This is a fun and funky quilt and I love the mix of applique with string piecing. This one currently does not have an alternate but I'm working on one done all in blue - might be interesting.

 

For many of the quilts in the book I decided to go "old school" and use muslin for the backing.  On this quilt "Maryland Rose" you can really see the quilting.  When I first started quilting we always used muslin for the back and would not dream of using a pretty quilt fabric for the back of the quilt.  I like the look and find I'm doing this more and more. Here is a view of the same quilt still in the machine quilt quilting underway.

Quilting Maryland Rose

 
The quilting on the quilts in the book is

not what I would call show quilting, but rather just regular everyday custom quilting.  In this still in the machine view of Chatham County you can see the relaxed crosshatching and a nifty cable I did in the very busy border.  On two of the applique quilts in the book I did an all over edge to edge design and while you might not think doing that on an applique quilt, it worked really well.

On this alternate version of Seville I think the all over quilting was just the ticket for this quilt and the paisley design blended well with the paisley border fabric.

In the original version of Seville I did custom quilting and I love how the feathers look on the different shades of green fabric. I have a thing for purple and green together and want to use these two colors in another quilt soon. The quilting designs used in this quilt are my own and available from Legacy Quilting.

Of course the quilts are the star of any how to quilt book but there is a lot of time and effort put forth by many people to make certain that the math is correct and that the cutting instructions are accurate and I so appreciate all the hard work of the talented staff at AQS. I'm thrilled at how the book "looks" and I am thankful to have worked with such talent especially the photographer - capturing the detail on the quilting on some of the quilts is no easy task and yet you can see it clearly in the photos throughout the book.   

 

Throughout the book I found ready and willing helpers. My sweet boy Zach (who has since crossed over the rainbow bridge) helping me with applique and Winnie with book edits. 

After all the focus, planning, quilt making and quilting time that went into this book I find that I'm a tad at loose ends.  What to work on?  Or better yet what to work on just for fun and without a deadline?  I'm enjoying these post release days and doing some creating just for the fun of it.  If you joined me on this journey I would love to; a) hear what you thought of the book and; b) see any photos of quilts you were inspired to make.  

 

 Enjoy your journey On You Way to Baltimore. Hopefully I will meet up with you on the road.

~Blessings
           Linda