Pannay Guigley and her girls

by: Pannay Guigley

Did you ever notice, the attitudes around you are infectious? If you find a group of friends who are in love with what they do, that radiates and enraptures you, and soon it is your new love.

That is how I feel about the Quilt Shop I found when we moved from Ohio to Franklin, TN.

Our move to Franklin was very sudden. We had been in Ohio for 6 years, our whole married life, moving there from our home state of Pennsylvania after we finished graduate school. Both our daughters were born in Ohio, all my friends were there, it seemed I was leaving everything behind, which was hard for me.

On our way down for the final move, we stopped at the Tennessee welcome center just over the Kentucky border on 65. There I found a flyer advertising The Quilting Squares Quilt Shop in Franklin. I thought it was odd that a shop would advertise at a rest stop, but since we were moving there I grabbed the flyer. Maybe it was an omen.

The front of the shop, I loved the Danger Women Shopping sign.

I kept the flyer on the fridge for the first month, and when I was about to throw it away, I instead took it to the computer and checked the online calendar. I saw there were classes, and more importantly, an open sew night two Friday nights a month. I called, figuring my husband could watch the girls and I could finally meet local people who loved to sew, even if I had only had one quilt class in Ohio and only knew the basics.

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By: Wayne Kollinger

My wife tells me that it takes an elephant two years to give birth and that it takes me longer. I may have been slow, but I got there. I gave birth to a book. It’s called Designing Quilts is Easy! and it’s available from C&T Publishing.

The book I ended up writing is not the book I started out to write. Maybe that’s why it took so long. I ended up writing a book about designing quilts but I started to write one about Ninepatch Pinwheel quilts.

Sometime in 2005 I began designing Ninepatch Pinwheel quilts. While designing them I had an “aha” moment, a sudden flash of insight. I wasn’t doing this because I had to. I was doing it because I wanted to. I was doing it because it was fun. I was playing a game – the Ninepatch Pinwheel quilt design game.

Every game has rules. I hadn’t consciously created rules for the Ninepatch Pinwheel quilt game but it had rules nevertheless. So I asked myself what they were and was surprised to find out how few rules there were and how simple they were. It occurred to me that if I wrote the rules down, other quilters could play the game too.

If you’ve ever tried playing a new game, you know there’s more to it than learning the rules. It’s a lot easier if someone shows you how to play first. I decided to include an explanation of how the Ninepatch Pinwheel design game is played, with lots of step-by-step examples.

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The Threadbare Heart is novel is about, among other things, the way that fabric can speak so powerfully about our lives – about the things we love, the things we lose, and the things we may regret never doing.

The main character, Lily Gilbert, loses a lifetime of fabric in a Santa Barbara wildfire. When she ventures into a fabric store for the first time after the tragedy, she imagines a quilt she never made:

Quilt Contest

Keepsake Quilting has specially selected a fabric Medley™ of 5 fat quarters that evoke the beach on a clear summer day. The challenge is to use at least 3 of the Medley fabrics, and at least 3 fabrics from your own stash to make the quilt Lily never made. In addition, we’d like you to write up to 500 words about the fabrics you use from your stash – where they came from, what they mean to you, why you chose them for this project—and we’d like you to name your quilt. The finished quilt should be 30″ x 30″.

Quilts will be judged by members of the Keepsake Quilting staff and me in early July. All entries must arrive at Keepsake Quilting by July 1, 2010. You can get all the details about where to ship when you purchase your "Fiction Comes to Life" Fat Quarters – and you are not required to purchase or even read The Threadbare Heart to enter the contest, although I think you might just like it :)

The maker of the winning quilt will receive a $150 gift certificate from Keepsake Quilting, and a "Book Club in a Box" kit, featuring 10 signed copies of The Threadbare Heart; an hour-long phone chat with author Jennie Nash so that you can gather your friends together to discuss the book and bring Jennie into the conversation; and a gift certificate for a delicious "Rum Cake by Kelli" to serve at your book reading event. The winning quilt will be displayed at the Keepsake Quilting shop in Center Harbor, New Hampshire, and on The Story of My Stash blog at the Quilting Club of America, AND IF THE DESIGN IS ORIGINAL, MAY BE CONSIDERED FOR A KEEPSAKE QUILTING QUILT KIT. Five runners up will each receive $25 gift certificates from Keepsake Quilting and a signed copy of The Threadbare Heart.

In addition, I am hosting a blog for Keepsake on the Quilting Club of American website, called The Story of my Stash. The idea is to get quilters talking about – and telling – their stories. I would love it if you wanted to contribute a few words in response to one of my prompts. This week’s question is about your first ever sewing memory. Who was present? Where did it occur? What do you recall?

Cheers!
Jennie Nash
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As founder of “A Way to Women’s Wellness, Inc.”, I began the non-profit foundation in 2003, when I began to invite friends to create embellished bras. The term ArtBra was born and we continue to create ArtBras for our annual WTWW ArtBra calendar and exhibitions. 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of the ArtBra calendars are donated to different breast cancer centers.

Our group also designs a crazy quilt every year, which we donate to a breast cancer center.

This year the WTWW ArtBra Exhibit will appear at the Houston Quilt Festival and at national conferences of the American Sewing Guild and Embroidery Guild of America.

This year’s deadline for ArtBra entries is June 5th. Bras should arrive at the RibbonSmyth Studio no later than June 5th to be considered for inclusion in the 2011 ArtBra Calendar. Area photographers and quilt book editors will select the 2011 Calendar ArtBras. All bras submitted will appear at this year’s exhibitions.

Complete submission guidelines may be downloaded at www.artbra.org. There is also a gallery featuring the latest ArtBra arrivals.

For additional information please contact Victoria Brown at info@artbra.org.

Just like any other quilter, it started someplace, somewhere and somehow. I started sewing when I was in high school and my first “real job” was working in a fabric store. As time went on, I worked for a drapery company and then did tailoring for a local men’s wear shop.

After a few years, I came to realize that “doing alterations” wasn’t my cup of tea. I cannot even begin to guess how many pants I hemmed or suits that I altered during my stint. I also came to the realization that I would never make a huge living doing alterations and decided to return to school and was accepted into a nursing program. So needless to say, the sewing took a back burner while I was studying and going to school.

There had been so many times that I would travel through the town of Elmira, Ontario and always noticed the quilt shop “Reichard’s” since they had the most intriguing quilts displayed in their front windows. More than once while gawking and driving at the same time, I would often think to myself “I wish I could do that”. I decided to take the plunge and go in.

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