Interview with a Quilter

Can you first tell something about yourself as a quilter?

I'm a fourth generation quilter and grew up around fabric, color, prints, and design.The influence shows up in all my work, including my paintings and jewelry, and even in my wardrobe. My biggest love are bold colors, intense and unusual prints, using hint-of-a-print instead of solids, and invoking feelings when seeing the finished work. I love creating visual textures as well as texture you can feel with your hands.

How did you get into quilting and who taught you?

Until 2015 I was focused on jewelry and painting, but pain from an old injury (turned out to be a ligament tear in my wrist, had surgery in 2016 to repair it) was making it virtually impossible to make jewelry anymore. I grew up around quilters and decided, hey, why not pick up something I'm familiar with?; My mother bought a sewing machine for me, a very basic one, and I took a class at a craft store to learn how to use the machine. Then my mother sent me books and fabric cuts from her stash (she's a master quilter) and it sort of took off from there. I was so familiar with what I'd seen already that I need only learn the technical stuff. Turns out a lot of my jewelry and watercolor knowledge helped a lot too.

For the people who don’t know much about quilting: what are, according to you, the absolute basic things everybody should now to appreciate the art?

Think of a quilt as a painting you can touch.  It's both 2D and 3D. See it as a painting as well as a craft, and things will get a little simpler to understand from this point of view. Look at colors and how they play with each other, the balance and movement brought together with the overall design.Let your eyes move over the individual parts but also stand back and appreciate it as a whole. A sort of "see the leaves but also the forest".

Now keep in mind the work that goes into it. A quilter must cut each and every piece of fabric, and some quilts have thousands of pieces. We sew these pieces in a specific order, and some of this is done by hand not just by machine, into what are called "blocks". These blocks are then put together to create the overall pattern you see on the quilt-top. This can take anywhere from five to 300 hours in itself, all based on the style, technique, size, and pattern.Then the three layers of the quilt (top, batting, and backing) and put together and then quilted either by hand or machine, sometimes both. I do my quilting entirely by hand unless the finished piece is too small to put on a small frame. Hand-quilting can take THOUSANDS of hours, and it's done with just a needle and thread. A king size quilt (roughly 110 inches x 110 inches) can take YEARS to finish, especially if the work is done by hand.

Quilts take planning, time, materials, and a great deal of patience. When you look at a quilt see it as a work of art because it truly is.

What is your favourite part of the whole quilting process and why?

The hand-quilting! It takes the most time, yes, but it's also very relaxing. I can create art within art, a subtle touch that makes a huge impact. I have variegated threads that change color along the length of them, and often the thread itself isn't noticed until you see the close-ups or have the quilt in-hand. When I hand-quilt I put comfort, love, calm, contentment, ease, and safety into each stitch, as though sewing a spell, and my buyers have all told me they can feel it. One buyer has told me that when she has panic attacks she need only wrap herself in the quilt and immediately feels like she's being hugged, something she doesn't feel with her other blankets. I received a thank-you letter from another buyer for a baby quilt she purchased; when her baby cried for reasons she couldn't figure out she's simply put him on the little quilt and he'd calm down right away. I make no claims to miracles, that my quilts are a cure-all, but I do stitch wonderful feelings and thoughts into the quilts. When I'm done I feel...not empty or deflated, but lighter. Definitely exhausted, but in a good way.

Quilting is done with many different techniques. Also, there are many different patterns people use to make a quilt. Which are your favourites and why?

For piecing (that's what sewing the pieces together is called) I like doing chain piecing; it saves me time and thread. I press my seams open within blocks but when sewing blocks to each other I press them so the seams nest (one row is pressed in one direction, the next in the opposite, the seams match by nesting together). I use foundation paper piecing (sewing fabric to paper in a specific way to create something that cannot otherwise be made using traditional methods) for sharp points, dramatic effect, and illusions because it's just so...stunning. My favorite block is the log cabin; it's very flexible, forgiving, easily modified, and can be used to create so many different visual effects. I also love crazy quilting, and use this specifically for scrap quilts because it's a lot like the log cabin quilt.

What kind of things do you make from your quilts?

Because I suspect one can only use so many blankets. Oh, you can make so many different things! My mother makes blankets of all sizes as well as purses, bags, and wallets. I make blankets of all sizes as well as home decor like wall hangings, place mats, coasters, table runners, hot pads, and pillows. I have a friend who makes quilt rugs, small furniture, dog and cat beds, and even quilted clothes. If you look through historical clothing you'll find quilts were even worn. They were made into cloaks, petticoats, skirts, armor padding, and a great deal more.

You also sell your quilts, but often people devalue handmade objects because they do not see the skill that goes into it. How do you price your quilts and how do you convey the time and effort put into a piece?

Cost of fabric + complexity of pattern + size + cost of various materials (thread, batting, etc) + time = final price. I have a quilt listed for $1600 on my Etsy shop. Fellow quilters have told me to raise the price, as have several other crafters. When people tell me to lower the price because they "can buy the same thing at [department store] for way less" I tell them good luck.

Currently I'm working on a lap quilt (roughly 42 x 47 inches) and will be pricing it at $300 because cost of fabric + size + cost of various materials + time. Sure, it took me a single day to cut, piece, and sew the quilt top, and that took me 10 hours. So let's put that at livable minimum wage, shall week?  10 x $15/hour = $150 right there.  The fabric, thread, and batting weren't cheap and totaled $90, so already we're at $240, and we haven't even gotten to my hand-quilting.  So far I've done 30 hours of hand-quilting, so 30 x $15/hour = $450.  Let's add that to the materials and time already spent, and we're at $690.  I haven't even added the binding, which will add at least two hours to this so let's throw $30 on that price, shall we?  If I were to price TRUE VALUE it'd be $720.  I'm cutting that price to $300 to make it more affordable.

The $1600 quilt isn't even priced at true value; it'd be twice that if I did.  I'm keeping my prices down to make these more affordable, but not so low that I undervalue my work.  We're not even taking into consideration the amount of time I've taken to learn all this, the years of being surrounded and experiencing quilting (I did a lot of the hand-quilting for my mother's quilts when I was growing up), and if we did I can tell you right now the price would be even higher.  When people think of handmade objects they're thinking of children with glitter, glue, and cheap felt making things for a project in first grade, they think of cheap supplies and "wasted time", but never consider anything beyond that.

Thank you for the interview. And now we’ve made everybody enthusiastic about quilting: where would you suggest people to start making their own beautiful quilts (besides my tutorial of course)?

If serious about learning go to a local fabric or craft store and ask about sewing or quilting classes, mention you want to learn quilting. If you go to a quilt shop I can tell you right now the people working there will be squealing with love and joy because someone new is joining in on the fun.  We LOVE talking shop, we LOVE sharing and teaching, and we LOVE when new people participate in this ancient craft.  Take a class, and don't balk at the price of the class (the class I took to learn how to use my machine was $30 for three hours of learning, and it came with sewing supplies I took home with me).  

If you really got into it, just fell in love with it, but don't know what machine to buy go to a secondhand store and look for a basic sewing machine that has a straight stitch (something you'll learn about in a sewing class).  Machines from the 60s and 70s work just fine, they just don't do fancy things.  If still uncertain do a little research online regarding the make and model (I use a Brother XR3700).  I have a friend who has just started learning how to quilt, who was REALLY intimidated, and after a couple classes fell in love with sewing; she bought a 1970s sewing machine at a secondhand store for $20 (and took it to a shop to have it looked at, fine tuned, and cleaned, which cost about $100); she got her first batch of fabric from a local quilting guild for free because OH A NEWBIE; she's nearly finished her first quilt, a 50 x 50 inch log cabin lap quilt, and is doing all the quilting by hand.  Another, who has been making quilts for YEARS, never considered foundation paper piecing until she saw some of my work, and has since fallen in love with the technique.  

You can get THOUSANDS of patterns online for FREE.  My favorite quilting blog offers patterns and video tutorials for free and you can see all that here: mypatchwork.wordpress.com/ She got me into foundation paper piecing and was thrilled to see the results of what she taught me.  If you need help finding free patterns send me a note; I'll happily provide links.  Some patterns are available by purchase only, and I've purchased quite a few myself, including the stained glass quilt pattern (and made a lot of changes because I can).  I also sell tutorials and patterns of my own.

One major piece of advice my mother and grandmother shared with me, passed down through the ages, is this: there is no one single way to do things.  There are quilters who firmly believe you can do things only one way and one way only.  Ignore them.  They're inflexible and not people you want to be around.  Binding a quilt can be done SO MANY different ways, but so many are obsessed with mitered corners and see that kind of binding as being the ONLY sort to do.  Myself, my mother, grandmother, her mother, none of us use that method; when I showed a fellow quilter how I bind my quilts he (yes, men can quilt too) was stunned.  Never in his 15 years of quilting had he considered using any other technique or style because it never occurred to him to do so.  

I change the patterns I use ALL THE TIME.  Want the quilt bigger but don't want to make more blocks?  Use borders.  Make one or a few, don't be shy about it.  Not sure what fabric to use for the border?  Take your quilt top to the fabric store, and if possible a quilt shop.  The people at the quilt shop will be DELIGHTED to help you find what you're looking for!  Oftentimes they have color specialists there to help you find things that work.  What about backing?  My mother uses ALL the scraps to make a pieced backing.  The fabric on the quilt top is used for the backing, creating a two-sided quilt.  Don't want to do that?  Remember, no one sees the backing unless the quilt is folded or flipped over.  What about quilting?  There a lot of different ways to do that.  I hand-quilt using thread and needle, but that's my preference.  It can be done by pulling thread through the layers and tying it off at regular intervals.  If not concerned about a choking hazard you can sew buttons in place of thread or yarn.  Don't want to do any work by hand?  Use your machine or take the quilt to a quilt shop to talk to a machine quilter.  You can find machine quilters online as well to compare rates, options, and time.  My mother gets hers machine quilted by a local quilt shop because her eyes can't take the strain and because she wants to make LOTS of quilts.  Machine quilting is the fastest, and may be the best option if you want to make a lot.  Not sure but want to make a lot?  Make a bunch of quilt tops, hang them gently in your closet (on a plastic hanger and not folded too many times) and work on the next one.  I'm working on two right now, a quilt top and hand-quilting a nearly finished quilt.  After I finish this current top I'll hang it in my closet and work on the next one because I don't have the funds to purchase backing right now.  I have lots of fabric in my stash, but none I want to use for the backing.  That means I'll work on another quilt top while I save some money.  I know a quilter who spends March-September making quilt tops and September-March she then finishes them either by hand or machine.

Variety is the spice of life, and quilting has a lot of variety.