ABC's of Quilting

A- Artist? My favorite artists are Ruth McDowell and Jane Sassman. Do I consider myself an artist? Yes, but not quite in their league.
B- Best Blogging Buddies? I love blogs and enjoy posting in mine. Haven’t done a lot recently due to colds, holiday travel, and general craziness!
C- Crazy or Sane Quilting? I prefer medium to dense quilting with variegated threads. Love crazy quilting, but don’t have the time for it now.
D- Dyeing or Stamping? Stamping…dyeing makes too much of a mess and requires too many supplies. I just don’t have the room or the inclination. I’d rather buy beautiful dyed fabrics.
E- Essential Item(s)? Sewing machine, good scissors and thimble. Most of my recent work doesn’t require fancy gadgets. My new sewing machine only sews straight! Oh, and a good stash!
F- Favorite Fabrics? Batiks and hand-dyes, though I also love small scale printed commercial fabrics.
G- Great Quilt Design? How can you choose? I have too many favorites to list.
H- Hand or Machine Quilt? Machine mostly, but I miss hand quilting.
I- Indispensable Notion? My thimble, which I’ve had since my first quilting class.
J- Janome or Bernina? Both, Ha Ha! I have a Janome 1600 and a Bernina 160 – if the Bernina dies, I will become a full time Janome girl.
K- Kits or Original Designs? Original designs. I’ve never been a kit girl, although cut and sold tons when I had my quilt shop. I prefer choosing my own fabrics.
L- Life in the Studio is? The worst day in the studio is better than the best day at a day job.
M- Most Projects Made in One Year? I’ve never counted, but when I had my quilt shop I’ll bet they numbered in the 100’s (if you counted all the quilts I quilted for hire).
N- Number of Gadgets? I have pretty simple tastes. I have a Shape Cut from June Tailor that’s great for strip cutting, and Olfa rotary cutters and Omnigrid rulers in almost every size.
O- OH, I wish I hadn’t. . . . .? Sold my longarm. And I wish I HAD kept better track of all the quilts I’ve made over the years.
P- Pet Peeves about Quilting? A few little irks here and there about guilds, but nothing I need to go into detail about.
Q- Quilt Show? Pacific International Quilt Festival and Road to California, because they are geographically close and I don’t have to worry about shipping my quilts so far.
R- Reason to Rip Out? Rarely. Most of my designs are forgiving and can be altered. Only if it really, really bothers me.
S- Sewing or Knitting? Sewing, hands down. I admire the knitting others do, but there is little use for knitted things in the tropics and I don’t have the time to spare. Can’t say it won’t come calling me years from now, though.
T- Tag, You're It! consider yourself tagged
U- UFOs? I’ve tried to pare down. I think I have about 5 or 6, but they continue to languish because I’ve lost interest in them – they are mostly traditional scrap quilts.
V- Vexing Quilt Pattern? Foundation paper piecing – because I like the precision but hate pulling the paper off at the end.
W- Wishlist Item? APQS Millenium long arm.
X- Xtra Fabric you will never use? Old calico prints in dated colors that I keep hoping will turn up in some of my quilts.
Y- Your Biggest Goof? Washing my queen size Hawaiian quilt that has wool batting (that was SUPPOSED to be washable), that shrunk to twin size and needed to be pulled and stretched and cajoled back into shape. UGH! I’ll never use wool batting again!
Z- Zip! Still have a small zippered canvas pouch that was a give-away from Quilt Hawaii in 1995 (?) that I use to carry my hand-sewing kit (scissors, thimble, needles and thread – mostly for sewing on bindings or doing hand appliqué).