Running time: 24:39 Size: 10.1MB

Quilting Stash, the First Podcast for Quilters – Program #8 for May 30, 2005

Program Notes:

Joining or starting a Quilt Group
Round Robin group – Ladies of the Lake
Interview with Paul and Rae Ann Merrill
Retreat at Camp Ocean Pines
RaeAnn’s Quilt

Running time: 29:41 Size: 13.6MB

Quilting Stash, the first Podcast for Quilters. Program #7 for May 24, 2005.

Program notes:
What My Mind Sees – the creative inspiration.
The Parallel View – further evidence for why design walls are important.
Santa Clara Valley Quilt Association show “East Meets West”

Program References:

John Locey – Featherweight Service and parts in San Juan Bautista, CA.
You can reach John at (831) 637-9120.

Horsefeathers Quilt Shop in Manteca, CA.
1360 1/2 E. Yosemite Avenue, Manteca, CA 95336
Marianne Machado is the owner. 209-823-1633

Laura Wasilowski’s website
Emily Parson’s website
QuiltArt website

Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns
Block Base Software

2005 Annie Smith All Rights Reserved

Running time: 44:35 Size: 23.2MB

Here it is – the long-awaited interview with Sue Nickels and Pat Holly! Sorry for the delay – but you know, all good things are worth waiting for.

A note about the interview and programs in general. It will be obvious to you that I’m still fairly new with the interview process and getting used to the technical aspects. I discovered after the interview that one of the microphones that I used during the interview wasn’t turned up high enough, so I sound louder than Sue and Pat. What a bummer! So the interview is here in it’s imperfect glory. I appreciate your patience with my learning curve and I promise to get it right.

As a matter of fact, I want to make sure you get to hear what Pat and Sue have to say, I’ve produced a written transcript of this program. Click here to download the PDF file.

References for places and items mentioned in the program:

Sue Nickels’ website

The Museum of the American Quilters Society

Fons and Porter’s “For the Love of Quilting” magazine

Quilter’s Newsletter magazine

Patchwork Tsushin magazine

As always, please remember to send me an email or register to this site and leave a comment by clicking the comment button below and let me know what you think, and what you would like to hear in a program. I value your comments and I love hearing from you!

Did you ever have one of those days that none of your seams seemed to be right, and therefore, all of your blocks were off?!

I think we all have days like this and no matter how long I’ve been quilting, I am no exception. I have been working on a quilt to be used as a class sample and I just can’t get it right. It must be something in the cosmic universe or just my plain stupidity. It makes me frustrated and feel like an amateur.

Here are the things that I should have done, which I didn’t do because I thought it would save me time:

I am piecing squares on a rectangle to make flying geese pieces. I should have drawn the diagonal line on the square, which would have made the stitching line absolutely accurate. I do know better.
I should have used the sewing machine that I have which has a 1/4″ foot that has a guide on the right-hand side of the foot, ensuring that all of my seams would be the exact same size — instead of using the sewing machine that was already set up in my sewing cabinet.

My blocks came out in slightly different sizes with uneven edges – they are very pieced. Some of the points aren’t pointy and they don’t exactly match each other across the sashing. Major frustration!
Each block came out at least 1/4 smaller than the 9 1/2″ they were supposed to measure. When putting the blocks together, each unit was a 1/2″ smaller than the recommended measurement, so I had to measure each unit before cutting the sashing and borders.

I can only hope that what I promise students, “the problems will get quilted out and you’ll never be able to see them” will be true with this quilt!

My point with this blog is that even if you have been quilting for years, you can still make mistakes if you don’t follow the rules. Sometimes I get driven by a time crunch, or just plain old thinking that I know how to do it and that it will come out ok. I have been dealt my come-upence.

The upside to this tragedy is that I will know exactly how to guide my students to make this quilt the right way.

I can hardly wait to have this quilt finished so I can move on to the next project on my list. I can assure you that I will not make this mistake with the next one, or the next – but because we are all human, I will probably forget in the future and repeat my mistake.

Ah, such is life. This quilt doesn’t just have a humility block – it’s a quilt of humility blocks! I think I just discovered its’ name.

I hope YOUR quilting day is happy. ; )

Intro to Podcast #5 Running time: 13:49 Size: 6.33MB

Program Notes
Asilomar, Refuge by the Sea… The thing that Asilomar means to quilting is that I can’t imagine being there without other quilters being there too.

First, it is a singularly lovely place and second, it is the home of Empty Spools Seminars. I hope you have heard of these amazing Quilt Seminars, maybe on “Simply Quilts”? Or maybe you heard about it from a friend who has been encouraging you to go?

Empty Spools does several seminars per year. You can go to their website www.emptyspoolsseminars.com to get information about Seminar #5, which will be held in August. They offer topnotch teachers with innovative classes — not to be missed!

I visited the seminar during the fourth session to interview the Empty Spools gals, students and teachers. I offer them to you as separate interviews -sort of 5 podcasts in one show. I had the time of my life visiting with Diana, Gayle and Suzanne of Empty Spools Seminars. Since I began attending the seminar, they have become friends, for which I am grateful. I am in awe of their talent, singular and combined.

Intro to Program #5 – Asilomar
Diana McClun – Empty Spools Organizer Running time: 37:20 Size: 14.96MB
Suzanne Cox – Empty Spools Organizer Running time: 14:19 Size: 5.74MB
Gayle Wells – Empty Spools Organizer Running time: 14:23 Size: 5.77M
Priscilla Albright – Seminar Attendee Running time: 10:20 Size:4.7M

Remember, after listening, please comment by clicking on the “leave a comment” button below. And, tell your friends about Annie’s Quilting Stash PodCast!

Next Show: A very special interview with quilting sisters and collaborators, Sue Nickels and Pat Holly. Stay tuned!

On my recent trip to Utah, I visited a few quilt shops that I want to tell you about.

As you know, I have already told you about the Corn Wagon Quilt Co. in Springville, Utah, complete with a Podcast (#4) Soundseeing tour.
Two other notable stores that I visited are Mormon Handicraft in Salt Lake City and the Village Dry Goods in Brigham City.

Mormon Handicraft was organized in 1937 by Louise Y. Robison, general president of the Relief Society – a women’s organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During the depression of the thirties, a committee was formed to study the possibilities of a consignment shop to serve as an outlet for handwork done by women in the home to supplement the family income.
Mormon Handicraft began as a nonprofit organization under the direction of the Relief Society. The store encouraged home industry and allowed women to earn money while still tending to the home and family.
It has had several locations of the years and almost became extinct in 1986, but hundreds of customers begged them to keep in open. In 2004, Mormon Handicraft moved to its current location at This Is The Place Heritage Park. The new and larger store has continued its tradition of featuring consignment items, handmade gifts, home decor, quilting fabrics and supplies. The store also carries Lion House baked goods – the yummiest on the earth!
One of the reasons that I love Mormon Handicraft is because of their innovative quilt patterns. They have several quilt designers that are first class, such as Jodi G. Warner, who has won several distinguished awards for her impeccable hand applique.
Go to www.mormonhandicraft.com for more information.

Village Dry Goods is a cute and quaint store in the heart of downtown Main Street. It has old wood floors that creak when you walk, that gives you a reverence for the past. They have a hearty selection of beautiful fabrics, needlework items and home decor gifts. I went nuts in the store, personally. I only had 15 minutes and managed to make a sizable dent in my Debit card. If I had more time, my purchase would have been larger.

For basic info on the shop, go to http://www.quilt.com/Stores/SouthWest/Utah.html and scroll down until you get to Brigham City. Village Dry Goods is one of the shops included in Utah’s Shop Hop, June 22-25, 2005. To find out more about the particpating shops, go to http://www.utahshophop.com/. The three shops that I featured from my trip are Shop Hop participants.

Utah, itself, is absolutely infused with significant American history. Each of the places mentioned below embody that history.

Points of interest in Salt Lake City:

I’ve been so busy the last few weeks that I have been swept along with the tide of busy-ness.

The business of the “busy-ness” isn’t bad; it’s just so time consuming that it consumes Me. I actually try to plan the running around that I have to do for myself, my family and others so I can navigate in a circle. I get the best use of my time that way and I try very hard to never be without a hand-project, a magazine, or something to sketch on.

Wednesdays are my son’s late day at school. Once a month, I take him to Denny’s for breakfast as a treat. While we were waiting for the waitress, I noticed the design in the upholstery and how perfect it would be, done in machine applique. I reached in to my purse and the only thing I could find to sketch on was the schedule from Empty Spools Seminars that I picked up last week.

Hmmm, that means that I haven’t cleaned my purse out for a week :^/ Well, I HAVE been busy!

I made a list yesterday of household things that needed to be done, like getting all of the clothes out of my closet that I can’t wear anymore (this is a good thing — they are all too big for me). I ran out of time yesterday, so I woke up with the conviction that I was going to finish today.

The problem was going to Denny’s and seeing the pattern and having to make a note of that pattern so I can make a quilt out of it. My day started with an intense need to create, rather than yesterday’s conviction for organization.

I came home and immediately went to my sewing area and chose to begin the quilt that needed to be finished a month ago. (I know that you’re either laughing now or rolling your eyes — no one else has that problem, right?!) So I have been sitting in quilting bliss all day, creating to my heart’s content. The house has even tried beckoning to me several times, as I walk down the hall to where I keep the ironing board. But, I have turned my back on the house today.

I think we need to do that some times. Creating keeps me sane and allows my family to “live” with me. It helps me re-set myself to neutral.

I only have one more hour to stitch before we have to run off to an “under the lights” baseball game. It’s raining now so maybe I’ll have a reprieve so I can keep stitching. Whenever I think that, I always jinx myself.

My words of wisdom for today: Go, create!

Forget about the mountain of laundry, the phone calls you need to return, and have pizza delivered for dinner (delivery is the key, if you have to leave the house, you’ll re-set yourself and you won’t have time to quilt).

Well? What are you waiting for?!

Running time: 42:36 Size: 19.5MB

I know the file size is the biggest yet, but the length of the show increased this time. Please let me know if files this size are bothersome and I’ll either cut down the length of the show or reduce the quality of the audio.

On my recent trip to Utah, I made sure that I had time to go to the Corn Wagon Quilt shop – my favorite shop in Utah. It is nestled in the quaint farm community of Springville, ten minutes from the Brigham Young University campus in Provo.
The Corn Wagon was featured in Better Homes and Gardens “Quilt Sampler” magazine, 2003. If you want to see what the store looks like, so you can compare my narrative with the magazine, turn to page 14.

Corn Wagon Quilt Shop
303 East 400 South
Springville, Utah 84663
801-491-3551

The owner, Marsha Harward, made me feel welcome and at home there. It is a magnificent store that I wish were closer to home!

I spoke about several items that caught my eye while I was visiting the store. Here are the references for them:

I talked about a shelf that has a quilt hanger attached. To view a picture, look that the Quilt Sampler issue from 2003 — on page 15. You will see wall shelves that have a Thimbleberries sign on it. There is a quilt hanging above the sign and it is that shelf hanger that I am talking about. The drawers actually pull out and can be used for storage or display.
The Corn Wagon has a few other styles of hangers. All are the best pieces I have ever seen for hanging quilts on the wall. You can order these directly from the Corn Wagon.

The pattern for the quilt that I get and choose fabric for is Harriet Hargraves’ “1840′s Sawtooth Quilt” by P&B Textiles. It is a free pattern that is available at your local shop or through the Corn Wagon. The pattern features Harriet’s new fabric line, “Birds and Basics” reproduction fabrics.

Click here to go to Nancy Halvorsen’s website.

In the area surrounding the Corn Wagon Quilt Shop, you can find:

Refreshment is just next-door at the Pioneer Bakery.

Just one block away is the Springville Art Museum – also a favorite of my family. They are currently beginning their Spring Salon and the display is incredible. Check out their website to see a preview of their Spring Salon.

Some of my favorite art pieces and artists are on display in the museum. We always stop in to see what is new. They have art that even a 13-year-old boy will be fascinated with. Every summer, they have a quilt show. Past shows have displayed quilts by such quilting notables as Charlotte Warr Anderson and Sharon Schamber.
The museum is a cool little find off the beaten path.

I hope you enjoy the Sound-seeing tour! Remember, let me know what you think!

Happy Quilting!

p.s. I was asked what the opening song to the PodCast is. It is Sounds of Wood and Steel 3 CD “Sleep on it Tonight” by T.J. Baden with Jim Messina and Chris Pelonis and can be found on the “Sounds of Wood and Steel #3″.

And, I almost forgot tell you about another Gem located a short distance away from the Corn Wagon — the Brigham Young University campus. They have a marvelous Museum of Art, which hosted the Masada exhibit several years ago.

The Gem of BYU that I am referring to, though, is the BYU Creamery, which has the BEST ice cream ever. They have three locations in Provo and some of the grocery stores in Utah sell it by the half-gallon. My favorite flavor is Raspberry Cheesecake, mmmmmmm! The price is ridiculously inexpensive and their portions are huge — the size of a softball! If you’re in the area, don’t miss it. You can also have the ice cream overnighted to you – another technology wonder ; )