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Lee Fletcher

Monday, October 18th, 2010

Lee Fletcher

Lee is teaching class 6032.

Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting?

Lee: I am the daughter of a seamstress and “free motion” embroidery artist. Sewing has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I started with garment sewing and alterations and have added from there. We had a Meistergram embroidery machine with no foot, no feed dog. The width of the stitch was controlled with your knee. We used it for embroidery, but that skill has come in handy for quilting.

M: Do you have a quilting studio? How big and is there anything unique that you keep in your studio?

L: I do all kinds of sewing including machine embroidery, free motion, serger work, etc. I have three machines set up all of the time. I keep one machine set up for embroidery, one for general sewing and the serger is always ready to go. I have a small machine that travels. There is a cutting table, two computers and a ton of books, etc. The room is only about 12’ x 14’, but it functions as my studio and office. I love it!

M: What do you consider your quilting “specialty” or what makes you unique in the quilting world?

L: I like small, quick projects. My projects are practical items with piecing, quilting and free motion art. My association with Sulky and their products has expanded and refined both my techniques and my projects. I love teaching free motion work and thread painting.

M: What is your favorite color scheme to work with?

L: Personally, I wear bright jewel tones so I naturally gravitate to them.

M: What books or articles have you written?

L: I have several projects published in Sulky books including and have contributed projects to the Sulky Teacher Certification programs. In addition, I publish patterns under the Pat-e-Patterns brand.

M: What do you do while you quilt? Do you listen to music?

L: I love to listen to music when I am working. If I am doing repetitive work, I will watch some HGTV, but when I need to concentrate, it is music.

M: What is your quilting inspiration?

L: When I am working on a small project, cosmetic bag, organizer, wallet, purse, etc., I love to try to invent a new twist to a block that works with odd shapes. I am also beginning to offer more free motion work into my projects.

M: What is your funniest moment you have had happen while you were teaching?

L: This is tough! I try to add humor into all of my classes. In my very first Sulky event, I was criticized for being too serious. Hopefully all of my classes have some humor, usually at my expense!

M: What was the best class you have ever taken?

L: My first training class for Sulky was their Teacher Certification which was fabulous. Teaching them has been fabulous! I am grateful to Sulky for everything that they have taught me.

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Lisa Bongean

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

Lisa Bongean

Lisa is teaching classes 4031 & 5036

Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting?

Lisa: I started quilting in 1995. I saw a woman hand quilting at the YMCA. I asked her how she know how to cut all those pieces and put them back together…She said..You just need to take a class….I went to that shop the next day…

M: Do you have a quilting studio? How big and is there anything unique that you keep in your studio?

L: Yes…about 700 square feet. Just all my treasures….

M: What do you consider your quilting “specialty” or what makes you unique in the quilting world?

L: This is a simple one for me…I love working with hand dyed wools.

M: What is your favorite color schemes to work with?

L: Red, Tan and Black.

M: What books or articles have you written?

L: Several Pattern books…I think I am on number 8. I hate writing I have lots of typos and I really stink at grammar, I always tell everyone I am a professional quilter, not English major…hopefully they understand.

M: What do you do while you quilt? Do you listen to music?

L: Most of the time I watch the Food Network.

M: What is your quilting inspiration?

L: I find a lot of inspiration in antique quilts and my garden.

M: What is the funniest moment you have had happen while you were teaching?

L: I think the funniest or weirdest thing that has happen while teaching was having one of my grade school teachers taking my class….it really was weird and it was hard for me to get over it at the beginning…but it all turned out great…she told lots of stories about me that I will not be repeating here…

M: What was the best class you have ever taken?

L: Jeana Kimball-a design class…she showed you how easy it really is!

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Heather Thomas

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Heather is teaching classes:

Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting?

Heather: I have been quilting for 24 years. I made my first quilt when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. My Grandmother was a scrap quilter and she taught me how to appliqué that first quilt using a template cut from a cereal box and the starch from a potato. I wanted to make a quilt for my new baby as well as spend some quality time with my grandmother, I never finished that first quilt but the time with Opal was wonderful.

M: Do you have a quilting studio? How big and is there anything unique that you keep in your studio?

H: I have a studio that is located in the Santa Fe Arts District here in Denver, CO. It is about 400 sq ft, has painted, white exposed brick walls and two, huge, east facing windows that let in amazing natural light. I have a cutting/painting table that is 6’ x 4’. It is my favorite studio possession. Most of my current work is painted and that table is where all the magic happens. I also have a doll (I hate to call him a doll, he’s so much more) that was made by one of my students, Joanne Pinto. He is called the Reluctant Knight. He’s about 3’ tall and he sits on top of one of my shelving units with his eye on the door. I feel like he is my studio protector. I spend between 30- 40 hours a week working there.

M: What do you consider your quilting “specialty” or what makes you unique in the quilting world?

H: Color. I consider myself a colorist first and foremost. I’ve been teaching color and design for more than a decade and find it the most fascinating, engaging, thing I’ve ever been involved with. My quilting style has changed in many ways over the years. When I first started designing and publishing my patterns 16 years ago I was into dimensional appliqué and paper piecing Mariner’s Compasses. Now I wet sculpt my wall art then paint it then heavily machine quilt it. Most people are hard pressed to figure out how I do what I do and what my art work is made from. I’m also very involved with surface design and embellishment. I like to explore and investigate new and unusual techniques and products to see if and how I can use them in my art work.

M: What is your favorite color scheme to work with?

H: I enjoy so many color combinations. I like working with contrasts, seeing how the colors interact with each other. I really like the dynamic of direct complements. Managing the power and reluctance of complementary colors is exhilarating and a great challenge. Now that I paint most of my own fabrics, the challenge is all new again and I’ve fallen back in love with my craft.

M: What books or articles have you written?

H: My first book, Fabric Embellishment; the Basics & Beyond came out last October. I wrote it with three of the teachers I had working for me at my store (which I have since closed). It is published by Landauer. I’m finishing up my second book, Color and Design; the Basics & Beyond which will be out this October and am working on a third book on free style machine quilting. I’ve written several articles for magazines, Quiltmaker and McCall’s Quilting and I’ve self published more than 100 quilt patterns.

M: What do you do while you quilt? Do you listen to music?

H: I have a great, little stereo system in my studio and listen to music the whole time I’m there. I match the music to my mood as well as the task I’m working on. If I’m doing something intricate I might listen to Bill Frisell play his beautiful Jazz guitar. If I’m painting I listen to something less relaxing like Lyle Lovitt or Keb Mo. When I’m machine quilting I usually listen to things that are more raucous such as Alanis Morrisette, the Beatles or the Stones. I wouldn’t want to work without music in the background. It’s great company.

M: What is your quilting inspiration?

H: It’s two fold. This is what I do for a living; make, teach and sell art and quilting is my medium. I’m in such a great space right now since developing the technique that I’m now using which incorporates my two favorite things; painting and machine quilting. What keeps me intrigued is the constant learning. I enter my studio and think, What can I come up with today?

M: What is the funniest moment you have had happen while you were teaching?

H: This is a tough one, for a while there I was teaching about 5-6 classes a week, with classes offered at 9 different stores/locations across the Front Range of Colorado and Santa Fe NM. One night I walked into a store in Boulder to teach a color class and no one was there. The store employee informed me that I was there on the wrong night just as my cell phone rang. It was a store in Colorado Springs, 90 miles away, wondering where I was. The students conducted their own show and tell and when I finally got there, I taught that months lesson then bought them all a round (a fat quarter) as an apology. I was so embarrassed! That has NEVER happened again.

M: What was the best class you have ever taken?

H: I’ve only taken two quilt classes in my whole life, one with Sally Collins about 20 years ago and one with Jodi Barrows about 14 years ago. Though both were good classes, I realized that I’m not into perfection or repeat designs. I’m pretty much an autodidact. I’m entirely self taught and I love to learn what I want to learn, when I want to learn it and how I want to learn it- so I’m not a very good student. I think this is what makes me a great teacher though. I understand that each student is in my class for her own reasons. In the first few minutes of my encounter with each student I try to discern what their desires and needs are from the class and provide that for them to the best of my ability. Some gals are there for the companionship, some come to learn while others come for the fun. I want my classes to always include fun!

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David Taylor

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

David Taylor

David is teaching classes 3008, 4501, 6011, 7009

Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting?

David: I started quilting in 1999. I was encouraged to assist my friend Madeleine Vail in creating a charity quilt for our local chamber music festival. When the quilt sold for $25,000 at a silent auction, I was hooked. Nothing “made” me begin quilting. I have had a love affair with fabric since childhood. It just took me 40 years to figure out what to do with it. In July of 2009, I shifted my career as a graphic artist into a full-time quilter and quilt instructor.

M: Do you have quilting studio? How big and is there anything unique that you keep in your studio?

D: Quilting has taken over my life and my house. I live in a small apartment and my fabric stash dominates the entire space. I love keeping my fabrics on open shelves so I can always see them. And, yes, they are out of direct sunlight.

M: What do you consider your quilting “specialty” or what makes you unique in the quilting world?

D: The most appealing aspect of my work is my use of fabric and thread to create art quilts that appear to be paintings. I use hundreds of fabrics in my quilts and miles of variegated cotton threads.

M: What is your favorite color scheme to work with?

D: As my work is pictorial in nature, (pun intended) there’s not really a ‘color’ scheme chosen. I work from photographs and painstakingly recreate the color in the photos from hundreds of fabric choices. I do gravitate toward the colors provided by Mother Nature.

M: What books or articles have you written?

D: My first book is still being written, but I wrote an article about my technique for Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine in 2008.

M: What do you do while you work? Do you listen to music?

D: I am not a good multi-tasker. I can only work on one quilt at a time. And if I am quilting (which I enjoy doing more than anything else), then that is what I am doing. I love getting so involved in my work, that nothing else matters. All I’ve ever wanted is to live in the mountains and be surrounded by peace and quiet. I’m fortunate to have that now. Since the secret to machine quilting is finding your rhythm and relaxing into your design, I find music very distracting. As the tempo changes, so does your quilting speed. The words “background noise” is an inane concept to me.

M: What is your quilting inspiration?

D: I am inspired by my environment, living in Northwest Colorado. My actual quilting is inspired by the image I am creating.

M: What is the funniest moment you have had happen while you were teaching?

D: I am not sure I’ve had a ‘funniest moment” during my teaching. I do want my students to have ‘fun’ and enjoy what they are doing. As I’ve only been teaching for three years, I am learning more, I think, than my students are. I can only hope that with every workshop, I get better. It troubles me to think I have had students who have not enjoyed my classes or who were disappointed in my efforts. That is very hard for me to get past.

M: What was the best class you have ever taken?

D: I’m not a very good student and have only taken three workshops since I started my quilting journey. I can say I have learned something in every one of them. So, in that sense, they were all my best class. It’s hard to measure one experience against another. Learn something new as often as you can, and thank every teacher for the time they’ve shared with you.

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Debbie Busby

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Debbie Busby

Debbie is teaching class 5033

Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting?

Debbie: I started sewing small wall quilts about 15 years ago but mostly love to work with wool!!!

M: Do you have quilting studio? How big and is there anything unique that you keep in your studio?

Debbie: I have a studio in my home basement that has a fireplace and an office. We are currently turning one of our garages into a wool dying room.

M: What do you consider your quilting “specialty” or what makes you unique in the quilting world?

Debbie: Beside working with wool I don’t consider myself to have a quilting specialty….but I would love to appliqué a quilt someday.

M: What is your favorite color scheme to work with?

Debbie: I love RED!!

M: What do you do while you work? Do you listen to music?

Debbie: I like to watch a good movie that I have seen before or watch the cooking channel.

M: Where do your inspirations come from?

Debbie: My inspiration comes from the outdoors and the things around me.

M: What is the funniest moment you have had happen while you were teaching?

Debbie: It is always just fun to sew in a group and share laughter with the group!! One time a student sewed a chicks bead on top of it’s head pointing the wrong direction and we had a good hardy laugh with her.

M: What was the best class you have ever taken?

Debbie: Primitive Primer Class

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Karen Brow

Sunday, October 10th, 2010

Karen Brow

Karen is teaching class 7003

Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting?

Karen: Fourteen years ago I was astonished by the workmanship and beauty at a regional quilt show. I walked away with my mouth and mind wide open.

M: Do you have a quilting studio? How big and is there anything unique that you keep in your studio?

K: My quilting studio is a 15” x 20” room with three walls of windows and a small neurotic dog.

M: What do you consider your quilting ‘specialty” or what makes you unique in the quilting world?

K: My sense of humor and the combination of colors (fabrics) are most commented on by students and pattern customers. I’m know for animals who steal squares or leap off the edges of quilts and for a patters with toilet paper themed blocks.

M: What is your favorite color schemes to work with?

K: I like cool-colored quilts with warm accents or warm-colored quilts with cool accents. There is a lovely sensitivity to the balance of these two and the concept can add vitality when understood.

M: What books or articles have you written?

K: I have authored and illustrated over 60 patterns.

M: What do you do while you quilt? Do you listen to music?

K: NPR radio is my constant companion as is a cup of dark-roast coffee.

M: What is your quilting inspiration?

K: Animals and color inspire me most, as does nearly any clever idea.

M: What is the funniest moment you have had happen while you were teaching?

K: The slide projector never showed up so I had to “wing it”. Students were completely supportive and took turns being my assistants. I bought them all chocolate.

M: What was the best class you have ever taken?

K: A Ricky Tims class on piecing curves completely freed my concept of construction.

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Jodi Barrows

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

Jodi Barrows

Jodi is teaching classes 4030, 5032, and 6031

Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting?

Jodi: My family was instrumental in starting me quilting 40 years ago.

M: Do you have a quilting studio? How big and is there anything unique that you keep in your studio?

Jodi: Yes I have a 1600 square foot studio.

M: What do you consider your quilting “specialty” or what makes you unique in the quilting world.

Jodi: I love to put many (21 or more) fabrics together in a quilt. Also the technique of Square in a Square plus speed and accuracy.

M: What is your favorite color schemes to work with?

Jodi: Muddy colors – tan and red.

M: What do you do while you quilt? Do you listen to music?

Jodi: I listen to music, tv or just the quiet.

M: What books or articles have your written?

Jodi: 20 books and many articles.

M: What is your quilting inspiration?

Jodi: Colors, feel and just all of life.

M: What is the funniest moment you have had happen while you were teaching?

Jodi: I was teaching in Vegas, it was my last lecture and then flying right out. So all my luggage was with me, personal and work. I pop open a quilt to show and a pair of panties flies out. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! They all thought it was a hoot.

M: What was the best class you have ever taken?

Jodi: 30 years ago I took a rotary class.

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Christal Carter

Friday, October 8th, 2010

Christal Carter
Christal is teaching class 6005 Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting? Christal: My “Kansas” grandmother taught be to hand-piece a ninepatch when I was a teenager, and I was hooked. I didn’t actually complete a quilt until 1971 for the birth of my second daughter, Catrina. By 1980 I had begun designing and teaching. I still LOVE it! M: Do you have a quilting studio? How big and is there anything unique that you keep in your studio? C: I have a lovely country studio in Calley Center, CA. It is about 600 Sq. feet and has 2 decks outside among the giant oak trees. The floor below is a quest house and art studio. We included built in bunk beds for overnighters… the grandchildren love it! M: What do you consider your quilting “specialty” or what makes you unique in the quilting world? C: I am known primarily as a designer of the ‘log cabin’ block picture quilts, including the traditional squares as well as diamonds, triangles and hexagons. I also design appliquéd pictorial quilts and geometric quilts. I use many techniques, often combining hand & machine work. M: What is your favorite color schemes to work with? C: My favorite color schemes tend to be the warmer colors; I love reds, pinks, oranges and purples. I love all colors, however, and am able to experiment with color blending when I do my oil paintings. M: What books or articles have you written? C: Books: Holiday Happenings, Quilts for All Seasons, A Child’s Garden of Quilts, The Log Cabin Design Workbook. I am a contributor in these books: Decorating with Quilts and Decorating with Quilts and Collections. My quilts have appeared in numerous periodical publications since 1983. M: What do you do while you quilt? C: When I am quilting, I am usually very focused, so music is a great background for that. I sometimes do hand appliqué while watching television. M: What is your quilting inspiration? C: Everything! It doesn’t take much… a comment by a grandchild, a flower in the garden, memories from childhood, just a swatch of fabric can send me spinning. M: What is the funniest moment you have had happen while you were teaching? C: While teaching in Washington State one year, my husband was invited along. A well-known national teacher invited us to stay in her vacation guesthouse. When we arrived back at the house after giving the lecture, we found that the key did not work in the lock. Since our hostess lived some miles away, we borrowed a ladder from the neighbor and climbed into an open second story window with quilts in tow! That was great for so many laughs and wonderful memories! M: What was the best class you have ever taken? C: I loved learning from some of the men in quilting. My favorite was Michael James.. quite the artist! And Geoffrey Gutcheon, quite the quilt rebel at the time. They were both great teachers and very different.]]>

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Bonnie Hunter

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

Bonnie Hunter

Bonnie is teaching classes 3006, 4006, 5006, 6008, 7007 and 8404 Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting? Bonnie: I started quilting in a high school home economics class my senior year of high school in 1980. I have that teacher to thank for giving me the bug early! I love all things geometric and piecing with shapes just lit a fire in me from early on. M: Do you have a quilting studio? How big and is there anything unique that you keep in your studio? B: My studio is in the basement of my house. It’s large enough to house my long arm machine, my corner area where I sew and do my piecing. I love being down here. I have a fireplace with a wood stove insert for cozy winter days, and window view out to my 1/5 acres of woods in rural North Carolina. I also have my collection of antique toy machines and other vintage machines down here. I’m not a neat freak, so it is usually a “creative mess in progress” in between bouts of “clean and straighten.” M: What do you consider your quilting “specialty” or what makes you unique in the quilting world? B: I have a dear friend who says I take the “Trash Can Approach to Quilting!” And I think this is true. I am a scrap quilter from way back because scraps are what I started with. When I got married my scraps came with me! I love scrappy vintage quilts, and I was always bored with quilts that used a limited amount of 2 to 5 fabrics. Just not enough going on in them to hold my interest! I like making the most of my fabrics, getting them to go as far as they can. As far as I’m concerned, fabric does NOT have an expiration date! If it’s still ugly, you just didn’t cut it small enough!

M: What is your favorite color schemes to work with? B: Definitely scrappy, not paying attention to fabric genre, mixing 30’s prints with civil war, batiks, old vips, solids, everything goes. There are no rules as to what fabrics can be put next to each other. M: What books or articles have you written? B: For the past several years I have been featured in Quiltmaker magazine. I currently have a column in each issue dedicated to using our fabric to its true potential! The column is called “Addicted to Scraps”. My first book, “Scraps & Shirttails” was published by Kansas City Star in Fall of 2008. My second book “Adventures with Leaders and Enders” was released in January 2010, and a third book the sequel to Scraps & Shirttails, more quilting with recycled fabrics ids due to be released in February of 2011. My website, Quiltville.com has loads of free patterns, tips and techniques for all thing quilty! M: What do you do while you quilt? B: I always have music on. It’s the first thing that goes on in the morning when I wake up! The other thing I love to do while piecing, machine quilting or hand quilting is listen to books on my mp3 player. I don’t often get hours just to sit and READ a book but I love to listen while my hands are busy with a needle. M: What is your quilting inspiration? B: My inspiration comes through my love of antique quilts. I can’t get enough of them, especially the quirky ones. I wonder about the maker, and what her/his life was like. Where did their fabric come from, where did they get their design inspiration. Most of these questions will never be answered, and I am drawn to the mystery in that. I love quilts with no rules, but still have a very traditional approach. M: What is the funniest moment you have had happen while you were teaching? B: Oh, this is easy! I was teaching for the Gulf States Quilting Association symposium weekend in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When we break for lunch we have to tell the students they can stay in the room and sew as long a there are two people in the room for safety measures. One older lady got a puzzled look on her face and asked….. “You mean they don’t trust us to stay by ourselves? They think we will steal something?” And the response was “No, it’s for you protection, what is someone came in here and molested you?” She got a very silly girlish look on her face and said “REALLY?????” Like that was the best offer she’d had in a long time! We all cracked up laughing because she was maybe 80 years old. It was SO FUNNY. I’ll never forget that. M: What was the best class you have ever taken? B: I’m basically a self-taught quilter. I haven’t taken many classes, but I did get the opportunity to attend one of Gwen Marston’s retreats in Michigan last year. It was such a great week, and lots of inspiration.

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Marilyn Badger

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

St George, UT
Visit Marilyn’s Website!
Marilyn will be teaching classes 1001, 1007, 2001 & 2007. Matt: How long have you been quilting? What made you begin quilting? Marilyn: Over 30 years. I picked up a copy of “Quilter’s Newsletter” in the late 1970’s and I was hooked. Matt: Do you have a quilting studio? Marilyn: Yes, we built a special room onto our house to house all my quilting stuff.

Matt: How big is your studio, and is there anything unique you keep in your studio?

M: Well, I have 12′ longarm machine, huge bins of thread, bobbins and industrial racks filled with fabric in the main room, then I have my two sewing machines, serger, cutting table, taptop computer and ironing board in a separate room attached to the longarm room. The unique thing I have hanging in my longarm room is a ceremonial kimono that I received as a gift from the President of Bernina Japan on one of my trips there to teach and work the Tokyo and Yokohama quilt shows. Matt: What do you consider your quilting specialty or what makes you unique in the quilting world? M: I was in the 1st class of longarm quilters, along with Linda Taylor, Marcia Stevens and Pam Clarke, who pushed the envelope and made longarm quilting acceptable in the quilting world back in the late ’80s and early ’90s. When we all purchased our machines they were mostly used to quilt bedspreads with edge to edge quilting all over them. We all saw no reason for that to be the case and each of us independently came up with out own way of dealing with our machines to make our quilting not only acceptable but competitive as well. Matt: What is your favorite color schemes to work with? M:I love color, period! All colors! Right now I seem to be doing lots of red/rust/green/blue combinations. Matt: What books or articles have you written? M: No books – not enough time to quilt and write books. I have written several articles for “Love of Quilting” magazine and contributed to articles about my quilts in other magazines. Matt: What do you do while you quilt? Do you listen to music? M:At one time I listen to lots of music but now I seem to like the silence when I quilt. I do listen to the radio sometimes when I’m pinning a quilt on or during one of my ripping sessions that can take quite a while. Matt: What is your quilting inspiration? M: I would say my partner, Claudia Myers, is a big inspiration to me. She comes up with fabulous designs just one after another. There are so many of them up there in her head and they are all so totally different. That keeps me on my toes because I want to have my quilting original on them all as well. Of course, there are some other big names in quilting who have been truly an inspiration to me as well as thousands of other quilters. Two that I can come up with from my early days of quilting are Charlotte Warr Andersen, and Caryl Bryer Fallert. Their work is perfection!! Matt: What was the best class you ave ever taken? M: I have not taken very many classes, but the ones that stand out to me were classes I took in Oregon in the early 90s from Moneca Calvert, Margaret Miller, Nancy Pearson and Marilyn Doheny and a 2-day class at Houston from Charlotte Warr Andersen.

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