Various & Sundry 2016 #10

Patterns and Projects

I added a free Craftsy pattern by “Alex Ledgerwood, who created the fabulous “Twiligig” pattern for Scraps Inc., Vol. 2, ” to my Craftsy account. “It’s a paper-pieced pumpkin block, and it’s simply adorable!” (from a Lucky Spools email)

Kristin Esser has just had her book, Sew Illustrated, published by C&T. They kicked off a blog tour earlier this week. The kickoff page has a  idea flip-through of the book, which we all do when we see a book we like, but is hard to do when shopping online. Frances had some info on her podcast about this book.

Other Artists

I saw an article, which turned out to be a video, about folded books sculptures. As you know I am interested in bookmaking and this was a completely different take on using books for art.

Doing Good

SFQG Blocks for Pulse
SFQG Blocks for Pulse

I am so excited about all of the ways quiltmakers and quilt guilds have made a basic design for the Pulse Quilts their own. I saw the blocks SFQG were making when I went to a guild meeting as a visitor. I am tempted to make one for them because I like the pattern so much. I found another great quilt example by Kristen Welsh the other day. Gorgeous! I also love the cheerfulness of the quilt by SonicStitches. There is so much love flowing out via these quilts. You can see more on Instagram by clicking on the #quiltsforpulse hashtag. Everyone is so creative, caring and giving.

Quilt World News

Generation Q magazine has reported that AQS will stop producing books next year. I wonder what will happen with the challenges that result in books. They also let me know that the International Machine Quilters’ Association is folding. This news follows hard on the heels of QNM closing down. The article mentions, of course, the MQG and the success there. There is no panacea, but the old ways don’t work. The existing shows and organizations need to take a page from QuiltCon and make their events about more than quilts and shopping. Yes, those get us in the door, but the passiveness of viewing and shopping don’t make people want to go back. I want to go back to QuiltCon, because of the excitement at the show, the app to answer quick questions, the activities and meeting people I ‘know’ on social media. This is a really good article and I hope you will read it and comment on it.

Well, it seems like dire times for the quiltmaking industry. Perhaps the industry is just right-sizing? Rachel from Stitched in color talks about changes to blogs.

City Quilter in NYC is closing their brick & mortar shop in the fall. I am sorry I never got there. They wrote in a recent email: “After almost 20 years and more than 20,000 students passing through our classrooms, we’re sad to announce the closing of The City Quilter in October.  We have enjoyed getting to know many wonderful people and have had an exhilarating time building up our business from scratch.   But Dale and I feel it is time for a change.  Our focus will be selling our exclusive New York fabric on-line, and, indeed, we intend to expand our offerings.

A huge thank-you to all our loyal customers and friends who have supported our presence in Chelsea at The City Quilter for the last 20 years.  We are so pleased to have helped grow and sustain the quilting community in New York, as well as having brought quilts and quilt-making in NYC to a greater national and international audience.

We are always amazed at the number of real and lasting friendships that have been made in our classroom.  In many ways, The City Quilter always felt like a family and we will truly miss our teachers, employees and customers.

We will be selling our Bernina 550 classroom machines as well as all our floor models of both Bernina and HandiQuilter machines.  Except for the HQ Avanté long arm machine.  That, I’m taking with me.  So there will be some good deals to be had.

Again, many thanks for the experience of a lifetime. We hope to see many of you between now and October.”

It isn’t all bad news. Pokey Bolton will be publishing her first book under the Crafting a Life LLC imprint. It will be a surface design book by Melanie Testa and Carol Soderlund. She is going to be choosy about her titles and hope they focus more on technique and less on patterns.

Housekeeping

I have added a few books to the Quilts in Print page.