You Have Questions, I Have Answers (and a Temperature)

Here’s the scene.  Technically this is almost my last blog for 2024, but I’m writing it on November 14.  The holidays are upon me and all the responsibilities they entail.  Since November is also my birthday month, this is the time of year I spend a lot of time with my wonderful family and friends.  I like to finish up my yearly blogging (except for the last round of editing before I hit the publish button) so I can enjoy my time with them as well as allow myself to take a break from writing. This lets me come back creatively strong in the New Year.  The last few blogs of the year are usually somewhat reflective, somewhat encouraging, and can edge on the side of technical if I allow it.

They’re usually not written under the influence of drugs.   Allow me to explain.

I’m rarely sick.  Ever.  Even if I do catch a cold or anything slightly worse, if I can allow myself a day in bed, generally I’m good.  Even my fibromyalgia is a lot milder than some folks I know who have it.  But this week was different.  I’m not sure it’s because I am getting older or my body has decided to make up for lost time, but last week, I began to have a few issues.  On Friday I woke up with a sinus headache.  I got up, got dressed, ate breakfast, took some Sudafed, and galivanted off to Janet’s for our weekly Grilled Cheese and Wine Club meeting.  By Friday night, I felt worse, but no fever. Saturday was no better.  I took a Covid test just to be safe, and it yielded strong negative results.  By Monday morning I was short of breath and felt so poorly I let Bill drive me to the doctor.  The diagnosis was bronchitis, a sinus infection, and asthma. 

Bummer.  Was my childhood asthma making a repeat appearance?  The doctor wasn’t sure, but it does happen with some former asthma patients as they get older.  I’m prescribed Amoxicillin, Prednisone, and an Albuterol inhaler.  I slept the remainder of Monday away, determined by Tuesday to be back to normal.

No dice.  I knew enough about myself to know I probably wouldn’t make it to Guild Meeting on Thursday.  Sure enough, by Wednesday evening I still didn’t feel right and found myself back in the doctor’s office for chest x-rays and another doctor’s appointment Thursday afternoon.  This new diagnosis included two strains of pneumonia and I’m now on so many drugs I had to make a chart to make sure I took the right ones at the right time.  Currently I have eight medications I’m responsible for taking at different intervals.  Some with food.  Some without.  And I had to buy a nebulizer for albuterol breathing treatments.

Thus this 2024 blog is written under the influence of drugs.  I’m feeling a bit woozy and still am coughing at times.  Therefore, I’m taking the easy way out of this last blog.  I’ve collected some questions my readers have sent me this year and will proceed to answer them (under the influence of said drugs).  I just hope this whole thing makes sense.

Question One:  You have probably said a thousand times “There are no hard rules in quilting.”  If you had to make one absolute quilting rule, what would it be?

Have fun.

Yup.  That’s it.  And I know at this point a good number of you may be rolling your eyes.  But hear me out.  Yes, there are some important guidelines in quilting.  However, none of them are do-or-die-if-you-don’t-follow-this-you’re-quilt-is-ruined rules.  But I do believe that each and every time you sit down to work on a quilt, you should have fun.  It should be something you look forward to and not something you dread.  It should delight your soul and relax your mind.  Otherwise, you don’t want to quilt or be a quilter.  And life is just too short for that.

With that said, let me also add, the whole “Keep a consistent ¼-inch seam allowance” actually is pretty darned important.  May want to keep that guideline front and center.

Question Two:  Do you have a quilting pet peeve?  And if you do, what is it?

Yes, I do: Inaccurate patterns, incomplete patterns, and poorly written patterns.  There are two types of quilters.  There are those who rely on a pattern the same way I rely on my recipe for Angel Food Cake – as long as I follow the recipe, my cake turns out great.  But deviate the slightest bit from it – miscount the egg whites or don’t add the Cream of Tartar – and I have a hot mess.  These quilters follow the patterns to the letter.  They trust the instructions to allow them to make a great quilt.

Then there are those quilters for whom the pattern is the starting point… the suggestion.  They quilt the same way I make spaghetti sauce – I throw in what I have and alter and season it to suit my taste at the moment.    The recipe is a jumping off spot only.  For quilters who are like this, it’s a bit easier for them to take an incomplete, inaccurate, or poorly written pattern and make some sense out of it.  But for quilters who religiously follow the directions, a poorly written pattern can be the death knell of a quilt or possibly their hobby (see Question One). 

There are a couple of ways to avoid bad patterns.  First, if you know other quilters, ask them what their favorite quilt patterns are or who is their favorite quilt designer.  Along with this answer will usually come some key information – such as this person writes really good quilt patterns.  If you don’t know other quilters, Google the pattern.  This information will give you lots of answers.  Read the reviews about the patterns — both good and bad.  See if you can work with the bad.   But the kiss of death my quilting friends is this:  If no one but the designer has made the quilt, put the pattern down, and run.  This means either the designer or the pattern is so new that no one else except the designer has made the quilt or the pattern is so poorly written, incomplete, or inaccurate no one else wants to make the quilt.

Question Three:  What’s Your Favorite Thing About Quilting?

Quilters.  Hands down, no punches pulled, it’s the people.  I met and talked with quilters several years before I started quilting.  It was the quilters who led me down the beginning of my quilting journey, not quilts.  I interviewed several in conjunction with a research project I worked on and decided I still wanted to have a relationship with these marvelous women.  The easiest way to do so was to have them teach me to quilt.  Nearly forty years later, I’m still quilting, and I still love quilters.

Next to quilters, it would have to be all the colors – but not necessarily the fabrics.  I tend to fall hard for certain color schematics, and then seek out the appropriate fabrics, not the other way around.  The pictures of quilts I’ve saved on my phone are not necessarily because I particularly like the pattern, but because I like the colors.  This is one I am particularly interested in:

I’m not sure why, I just think it kind of makes my heart remember Christmases past. 

I wonder if the reason I am attracted first to color and then search for fabric is due to the fact I’m primarily an applique quilter?  More often than not I look at a piece of fabric and consider if it could be used for vines or leaves or the part of a flower petal the sunlight drapes itself over.  My stash is even organized differently.  Yes, I have focus fabrics and blenders sorted by color, but the rest tends to be categorized by texture. 

Question Four:  Big or Small Blocks? 

Totally depends on the quilt and the technique.  I’m not a super fan of heavily pieced blocks (but then again, I am that quilter who sewed 72 pieces in a  6-inch block, so I have that going for me).  If there are a lot of pieces involved, I prefer the block to be a larger one.  For instance, Bonnie Hunters new pattern Moonflower is lovely, and I adore it.  The best thing for me is the block size.  The blocks have lots of pieces, but they are large.  I think I’ll have a great time making this quilt.  If the pieced block is small (anything 6-inches or less) I prefer fewer pieces or have a paper pieced pattern to go by. 

With applique, I don’t mind so much about the block sizes or number of pieces.  Applique is one of the most forgiving quilting techniques out there.  It’s really kind of fun to challenge yourself to see how small you can get.

Question Five:  How Long Have You Quilted?

I made my first quilt when I was pregnant with my daughter and my second quilt when I was expecting my son – and those kids are three years apart in age.  After they were born, I made their clothes and my own for a number of years until they began growing too fast for me to keep up with.  So somewhere around 1995, I turned to quilting as a hobby and by 2000 I was seriously making quilts as well as researching them. So in total, I’ve quilted nearly forty years, with almost 25 of those years of sewing exclusively quilts.

Question Six:  Do You Make Quilts Exclusively Now?

For the most part, yes.  Occasionally I will dally with the other sewing arts, but primarily quilts are my heart-song.  But I do have this super-cute gnome kit on my ironing board that just happened to arrive in the mail….

Question Seven:  Any Chances Your Blogs Will Turn Into a Book?

I get asked this question a lot.  And I would absolutely love to write a how-to-quilt book for beginners and another one covering the esoteric quilt topics not covered in other quilt how-to books. 

So what’s holding me back?  First, time.  I still work full time at my “other” job, am actively involved in a couple of guilds and The Applique Society, have an aging parent, etc., etc. – a lot of the same things many quilters my age deal with.  Once I retire, I hope the “time” issue readjusts itself and I have the book possibility in front of me. 

Second, book publishing has changed a great deal.  Many of the responsibilities (such as photography and graphics) fall squarely on the shoulders of the writers.  And there is no guarantee you’ll even break even with your contract.  So if I do ever publish, I will self-publish.

Question Eight:  What’s On Your Cutting Table and Under Your Needle?

Currently, I’m putting in the last stitches of the third T-shirt quilt I’m making for my Aunt and her family.  I am prepping the raw-edge applique borders for The Colors of Spring.  I’m sewing the two pieces of my Grandmother’s Flower Garden together, so the center will be complete and I can begin drafting the borders.  And I’m hand appliqueing Birds in the Garden. 

Blooming Bouquet is on my cutting table.  This quilt uses  Jodi Barrow’s Square-in-a-Square technique and I began the kit at quilt retreat.  I can’t wait to re-start this one.

Question Nine:  Any Ideas of What’s Coming in 2025?

Nothing firm yet, but keep a sharp eye out for the first couple of January blogs.  Some good decisions need to be made.  I just need to make sure I make the right ones.

Question Ten:  I heard you say that each quilt you make is unique and should be approached in the way which best suits the construction method chosen.  Is there one thing you do consistently with all quilts, regardless of the type?  And if there is, what is it?

Yes, there is one thing I do across the board with all my quilts: I starch my fabric.  Regardless of if I’ve pre-washed the fabric or not, each piece of fabric gets starched with regular spray starch (although I do not starch my applique fabric as heavily as I do the fabric I piece with).  I find this extra bit of stiffness in the fabric helps with my cutting accuracy.  And if I have any bias cutting to do, I starch the fabric until it feels like paper, so I know the bias is stabilized. 

How you starch is just as important as the starch itself.  Instead of soaking the fabric with starch, I find it more effective to lightly spray the wrong side of the fabric, press the starch in, and repeat if necessary.

Some other things you may be interested in:

I’m an avid reader.  Currently I am reading through Romans as part of a Bible study.  I am also reading Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear and listening on Audible to Eleanor Roosevelt:  The War Years and  After by Blanch Wiesen Cook.

I also knit and crochet.

This year has quickly come to an end.  I hope you’ve enjoyed our trip around the sun together and I’m looking forward to sharing with you even more next year.

Until Next Week, From My Studio to Yours,

Love and Stitches,

Sherri and Felix