I did spend part of my time this past week, at the MQS show in Overland Park, Kansas as well as Market. We spent Friday night there for banquet and I was happy to have this:
There are things about Market, that you learn quickly.
1. The booths are GORGEOUS and entertaining:
2. You eat what you can to sustain you for the MILES and MILES of walking you will be doing:
3. Unlike a quilt show, you will likely want a rolling container of some sort. The second day of market, I left all of the clothes on my bed at the hotel and brought my luggage with to save my poor shoulders.
One of the most important factors for Market for me, was meeting people. I finally had the opportunity to meet Linda Lum DeBono in person, after being friends on Facebook for quite some time. First, she is so approachable and nice and second, she is REALLY funny! It was through Linda that I had the pleasure to meet Ebony Love of Love Bug Studios. She is the creator the Quiltspirations! Cards.
If you don't have these, go get them now before they are hard to get. I'm pretty sure these brilliant cards are going to start selling like hot cakes! There are forty cards in a deck, and each one is ready to inspire a new piece for you, guild challenge, or even some fun quick challenges at the next quilt retreat!
I also finally had the opportunity to meet in person Marianne Fons. (Can we say star struck? And I nearly fainted when she gave me a quick hug!) To top that off, I also got to meet her daughter Mary Fons. Mary's first issue of Quilty was available, and I got a signed copy! Yeehaw, this magazine is going to be fun and energetic!
Quilters can be such fabulous people!
I also spotted Jodie Davis several times, and, O.M.G. Pokey herself! (I'm pretty sure she might qualify as Elvis of the quilt world.) (Wait....do I need to quantify that with, young, healthy awesome Elvis?)
As a quilt maker for more than 30 years, I’ve had the pleasure of completing scores of projects—full size quilts, twin bed quilts, wall quilts, baby quilts, doll quilts, and miniatures.
Like every quilter, I love thinking about quilt designs, buying fabric, and starting new pieces. I hesitate to reveal to other quilters that I've finished every quilt I've ever started.
Honestly, I’m no more organized than anyone else—it’s just that my relationship with quilting has been professional rather than recreational. I'm usually designing for a purpose, whether for a book, a magazine issue, a class, an episode of "Love of Quilting" for public TV, or, these days, a Quilt of Valor for a combat veteran. See www.QOVF.org for more about Quilts of Valor.
The necessity of finishing has saved me from the guilt many quilters carry around, guilt that has spawned UFO (UnFinished Object) nights at club meetings as well as quilting community dialogs about whether one is a process person or a project person.
For me, finishing a quilt is not only a familiar stage in the process, but my very favorite part.
Generally, I make my quilts by machine rather than by hand, so they are machine pieced, machine appliqued, and machine quilted. I stitch the binding on by machine as well.
The final stage is turning the folded edge of the binding over from the front to the back and stitching it down by hand. If the weather is fine and I can do my hand stitching on my front porch rocker, I'm in heaven.
As I stitch, I bask in the joy of completion. If the quilt is intended for someone, I think about the pleasure of the upcoming reveal.
Generally as I stitch, I’m thinking about next quilt I will start.
Marianne Fons
The Fiber Nation would like to extend a huge thank you to Marianne for guest writing!
Earlier this year, I sneaked a little hint in about exciting things coming to The Fiber Nation this year. I wrote to Quilts of Valor, in hopes of getting information to do an article on the project. Imagine my surprise when I was at the gym on a machine, and saw an email come in that said it was from "Marianne Fons." I think I nearly fell off the machine I was on!
Marianne is what I would consider one of the founding mothers of the current quilt movement. She and Liz Porter gave the quilt world Fon's and Porter's Love of Quilting the PBS quilt show, as well as the Love of Quilting Magazine. How many new quilters can imagine a world without the rotary cutter and mat? These ladies started out like those that quilted generations ago - with templates and scissors - and quite frankly at the time fabrics were not at all what we know as quilt fabrics today!
I'm very excited to say that Marianne Fons has put together a post about Quilts of Valor. Even more excited, that she will be a guest writer on The Fiber Nation throughout the year, sharing some of her personal writing on her thoughts about quilting. Enjoy, and watch for future articles by Marianne!
Thanks, Stephanie, for inviting me to contribute to The Fiber Nation. BTW, your interview with my daughter, “Quilty” host Mary Fons, February 11 was terrific. I applaud Mary for creating a quilting product specifically for new, young quilters and delivering it in exactly the packaging they want (YouTube), and I applaud you for connecting her with your readers! I look forward to writing about some of my favorite locations on the quilting planet and sharing a little quilting philosophy over the next few months with The Fiber Nation readers. Our first stop is the Quilts of Valor Foundation. Marianne Fons Quilting = National Service by Marianne Fons
Long ago, during overseas armed conflicts that occurred before any of us were born, women did things like roll bandages and knit scarves to send to military hospitals abroad. During World Wars I and II, Americans were encouraged to grow “Victory Gardens” in their back yards to reduce pressure on the public food supply, as well as boost their own morale. National service in time of war was an everyday activity.
National Service is being revived and updated by American quilters who make comforting, lap-size quilts for combat veterans. To date, the Quilts of Valor Foundation,www.QOVF.org, has coordinated the presentation of almost 40,000 of these quilts. I met QOVF founder Catherine Roberts at Houston Quilt Festival in 2009. The foundation which she chairs was born in 2003 during her son Nat’s deployment in Iraq. Catherine, a retired nurse-midwife (and quilter), remembered the terrible treatment many Viet Nam war vets received when they came home. She wanted service members like Nat to experience a different reception. In a dream, she saw a soldier awake in the middle of the night, battling unspeakable war demons, but comforted by a quilt draped around him. Catherine made a quilt and gave it to a soldier. One quilt led to another, and another. A chaplain at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC worked with her as the Quilts of Valor project grew. His own teenage daughter volunteered during several summers, rolling a cart stacked with quilts through hospital wards, allowing recuperating injured soldiers to choose a Quilt of Valor. The red, white, and blue ones always went first. Now, Quilts of Valor Foundation is a 501C-3 charitable foundation with a board of directors, regional coordinators, and volunteer longarm quilters who turn quilt tops into comforting quilts that say “Thank you for your service” to service members touched by war. Presentations have expanded to include soldiers from previous conflicts, including Viet Nam. To see with your own eyes what receiving a QOV means to a person who has served under fire, watch an interview with Dorsey Winfrey athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J13UBp8-Yyw I don’t know why the Quilts of Valor movement in particular grabbed my heart. Maybe it allows me to balance my distrust of war with my love of country. As a basic pacifist, I appreciate the message on the QOVF web site: “It’s not about politics, it’s about people.”
So far, I’ve made two Quilts of Valor, and I’ve succeeded in mobilizing a group of quilt industry vendors to support QOVF. Nine top fabric companies (Andover, Clothworks, Marcus, Moda, P&B, Quilting Treasures, Red Rooster, Timeless Treasures, and Windham) each recently launched collections of American Valor Fabrics. Shop owners at Fall Quilt Market 2010 bought the fabric groups like crazy. Actual fabrics ship this spring. The Quilts of Valor web site information will be on the selvage of each print. Info about the fabrics is at http://www.qovf.org/content/uowfabric-companies.html. With Catherine Roberts and other QOVF volunteers, I’m helping craft a program called Under Our Wings which allows anyone, whether they know how to sew patchwork or not, to participate in national service by making just one quilt, a Quilt of Valor. I’ll be sharing more information about Under Our Wings in a future guest post right here at The Fiber Nation.
In the mean time, happy stitching!
I would like to offer a special thank you to Marianne for taking the time to share information on this very worthwhile cause. I hope many of you readers will get involved. I've done three quilts for QOV - will you do some? -- Stephanie Forsyth
Many of you have seen Mary Fons on the Love of Quilting show with her mom - Marianne Fons. But, did you know that Mary has her own show, Quilty? It's is a very informative, chic show that runs in ten minute episodes available online! Perfect for the beginner quilter, and even for those of us more advanced - but looking for eye candy! (Personally I Have found the colors in this show to be outstanding so far! Very fresh!) Mary's personality is bubbly, friendly and welcoming - and her smile is infectious!
Photograph by Johnny Knight
I had the opportunity to have an email interview/conversation with Mary:
You are definitely filling a niche here - newbie quilters! What made you decide to do a show for new quilters?
When the producers of Love Of Quilting were looking to fill the spot left by Liz Porter, who was ready to retire, I was among their options. I had guest-hosted with my mom before and people seemed to like me. My mother and I love each other so much and have so much fun when we're together, we knew the working relationship would be no problem. So we all went for it and I value the experience more than I can say. I love doing the show.
But at Quilt Market last spring ('10) I was walking the aisles and researching for ideas for LOQ and getting inspired for my own projects -- I'm a devoted, slavishly dedicated quilter myself these days -- and I realized something that stopped me in my tracks. There is a lot of great quilting how-to content online, but there really wasn't anything cool and awesome and modern and fresh for true beginners.
I asked my friends who don't quilt but who talk about wanting to try, "What's the first thing you'd do if you wanted to make a quilt?" And every single one of them said, "I'd call you." I told them that wasn't fair. "Okay," they said. "I'd YouTube it."
So I knew that if newer quilters were going to be reached, they were going to be reached online. But I knew that if my friends googled "quilting for beginners" or "how to make an easy quilt" they weren't going to get a show that would speak to them in their language. So that's why I developed and pitched Quilty and why it's happening today.
Quilty is me learning, too. I am a new quilter. I don't pretend to know everything and I don't pretend to be my mom, Liz, or anyone else who has been quilting longer than I've been alive on the planet -- there are a lot of people who have been doing just that and they have all my respect.
My sister, who co-produces the show, is great at reminding me to tell the camera, "Hey, I'm learning here, too!" because I can get bogged down in "This has to be perfect, this has to be 100% amazing." I love, love, love working with my sister Rebecca. She's a big part of the success of the show. When she reminds me to let viewers know that I'm a rookie too, it relaxes everyone. Quilting is a skill. Who can do something perfectly right out of the gate? Who can do anything perfectly ever? Do we even want to? Relax! Have fun. Quilting should be pleasurable. If it stops being that way, that's like the ONLY time you know you're doing something wrong.
Do you find that most quilters our age are self taught?
Hm. That's a great question. Yes. They are. My friend Chloe and my friend Dina have both made quilts, but neither one of them have taken a class. It's all figuring it out as they go. This is a GOOD THING. It means that they want to quilt so much, they're just going to dive in. Our job in the industry is to help them out and encourage them to learn and grow in the craft so that they'll love it more all the time. And, you know, buy a pattern, a sewing machine, and a few spools of thread. Making a quilt is warm and fuzzy, but we must remember that the business side of things keeps it running.
So far, the shows seem to run around ten minutes long. Will this continue? Was this planned - given how busy the younger quilter likely is, between work and family?
Yes, the show will always be around 10 minutes -- as long as it's online, anyway. This is the YouTube generation, baby. We learn things in bites -- or bytes. Whatever. Great online content/videos are short by design. It's not a full-length show format, which is great when you're teaching basics. Talking about presser feet is super, super important for a rookie quilter but 30 minutes on presser feet? Big yawn. About 10 minutes is all you need to impart the important information and keep them interested.
Photograph by Johnny Knight
Looking at the episode guide so far, it appears you will be instructing on some traditional blocks to learn. Will you be sticking with traditional quilting for the show - or throwing in some art and contemporary aspects of quilting?
It's tricky, because I would be happy doing traditional blocks forever -- I'm a big fan. But of course, we'll teach whatever makes sense for the audience and the show. That said, the show has a very specific mission statement. It states that the show is about *quilting* -- and I'm pretty firm on sticking to quilting. There may come a day when Quilty does a show on a quilted bag or a quilted craft of some kind, but that won't happen for some time.
There are plenty of shows online and on cable that show you how to make crafts, cupcakes, home dec items, etc. Those are all great things! Believe me, I'm a sucker for cupcakes and home dec. But Quilty strives to be THE first place you go when you want to learn how to make a quilt. My mom and Liz built a successful business on the back of a very simple concept: Great quilting instruction. I want to follow in my mother's footsteps and focus the show and the content on quiltmaking. Other people can tackle handbags and raincoats. On Quilty, we quilt.
I would be remiss if I didn't ask for my readers - What is it like to have quilt star Marianne Fons for a Mom?
The lasagna is incredible, I'll tell you that much.
Seriously, my mother is an amazing woman. What you don't know from watching the show or reading the magazine or the books is that my mom was a single mother raising three daughters on her own as she and Liz were building the F&P brand and business. I remember when The Quilter's Complete Guide was in manuscript form, stacked on the washing machine, the dryer, the dining room table, etc.
Part of the reason I'm making Quilty is because after turning 30 and going through some pretty crazy life stuff, I realized "the family business" was really important to me. I had always valued and respected quilts -- I've been working as an artist professionally for many years, now -- but up until several years ago, I hadn't internalized the fact that I'm the daughter of a woman who put food on the table via quilts. It's unheard of. It's beautiful. It's up to me to keep that business and that legacy alive. So I'm going to try.
Which day of the week does Quilty Air each week?
New episodes are up every Wednesday. We're available for free at FonsandPorter.com now, too!
Will you be having guests on show often? And teasers about who might be on future episodes?
Well, I'd love to have you as a guest, Steph. [Okay, how awesome is Mary? I'm honored and would love to!]Seriously! Ever come through Chicago? Let me know. We love having guests. We're filming a batch on Sunday and some skaters from Chicago's Windy City Rollers -- that's the roller derby organization -- are guests. My friend Caitlyn, who I work with in the theater company we're both a part of will be a guest, and we're also going to hang out and film and episode with Shauna Smith, a really lovely crafter I happened to meet at the DIY Trunkshow a few months ago.
We "cast" Quilty guests very specifically because we want them to look like the people who are watching the show -- or who we hope watches the show, of course... :) Seeing a person go, "Huh? WTF did you just do there?" is so great! The casual nature and friendly atmosphere of Quilty means that guests are at ease and actually learn stuff on the show. If they do, there's a good chance viewers will, too.
Obviously you don't do this all on your own, what about the rest of the Quilty crew?
The Quilty team is amazing. I mentioned my sister above. Oh, I love her so much. Quilty is a part-time project for her right now, but one of my goals is to grow the show so that we have a budget to make her an offer she can't refuse and she'll leave her very cool Chicago job to make Quilty full-time.
But Jack C. Newell, the show's director, is the one who is credited with making Quilty look much more expensive than it really is. He and his crew make the whole thing look so awesome -- and those close ups are unbelievable! I cannot thank the production team enough -- Josh, Ceasar, Brian -- for all their hard work. We're really becoming good friends.
Anything else?
Please be a fan of Quilty on Facebook and follow us at HeyQuilty on Twitter. We'd love to have you.
Thank you Mary for taking the time to chat! I can't wait to see more episodes of Quilty!
I did spend part of my time this past week, at the MQS show in Overland Park, Kansas as well as Market. We spent Friday night there for banquet and I was happy to have this:
One of the most important factors for Market for me, was meeting people. I finally had the opportunity to meet Linda Lum DeBono in person, after being friends on Facebook for quite some time. First, she is so approachable and nice and second, she is REALLY funny! It was through Linda that I had the pleasure to meet Ebony Love of Love Bug Studios. She is the creator the Quiltspirations! Cards.
