Episode 169: Say Goodbye to Summer

Welcome to Episode No. 169 of the Off-Kilter Quilt Podcast (Where a Straight Line’s a State of Mind). My name is Frances, and I’m your hostess.

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Two quilt finishes to report:

  1. Quilt for our friend David, who’s in hospice care:

davesquiltdone1

2. Artsy shot of quilt for my mom:

momsquilt1

Less artsy shot:

mom'squiltdone2

Fun article about podcasts:http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/better-living-through-podcasts

Victoria Findlay Wolfe on Crafty Planner podcast:http://craftyplanner.com/2015/08/24/victoria-findlay-wolfe/

 

Don’t forget to join the Twilters on Facebook! The page is called Twilters! and you have to ask to be invited. It’s been super-active and lots of fun.

17 Replies to “Episode 169: Say Goodbye to Summer”

  1. Were you talking about EDITA SITAR … she is a quilter and fabric designer from MIDLAND MI about 50-60 miles north of my home. Our guild had her as a guest several times.

    I will be back later after I re listen to the podcast … but right now I am editing pictures and posting new blogs about AQS quilt show GRAND RAPIDS…. catch later.

  2. I just finished listening to your intro and before I forget I wanted to say, “Don’t change!!” I love the slices of life presented in your podcast regarding family and NC. The East Coast is so different than the West Coast. I feel like I am on vacation when you podcast. Quilty talk is secondary, at least to me. I also love hearing about the writer’s life. I, too, love the first few seasons of GG. Hearing your perspective as a writer is the best. So ramble on Missy.

  3. Hello – I am a long time listener, but this is my first time commenting. Today, Frances, you were keeping me company as I was painting the fence – I guess I should say painting ON the fence- since I only did about 96 feet of what feels like 5 miles- around our acreage . I am determined that this job shall be completed by the end of August, and so listening to your podcast just makes things go a bit better. As I was listening I kept having these “me too!” moments. and so I decided to comment. I too, made my mother , a very experienced sewist and quilter, a quilt for her 80th birthday- after having the same “d-oh!- it is obvious what I should do as a gift” thought. It IS intimidating sewing something for my mom who has spent her life sewing- but I am glad I did it because she likes it so much. My comfort shows are the Miss Marple mysteries with Geraldine McEwan as Marple- in my opinion, the best portrayal of the Marple character- pretty much silly “who-dunnit” drivel, but okay to watch with children in the room. I also like the story “Enchanted April”- I think I first listened to it on a book-on-tape from my public library in the ’90’s- I will look for it on Netflix- although sometimes what we get on Canadian Netflix is different from the US.(We have a standing joke in our family that it is sort of like having a super power if you know how to get American Netflix-which my sons can do but we don’t talk about it much…) I also have “comfort” reading- books I head to when I just want to be entertained. As you were talking about the idea of making the binding before you do the quilting, it put a thought into my head- my worst part is putting on the label- I am okay with the binding part- but am terrible at getting that label on the finished quilt- why!? -you’d think I’d be glad to take credit for the finished work- but it just sometimes seems like too much effort. So my idea is that when the quilt top is done, I will DRAFT the label then, that is, get the piece of fabric made and decorated, and on a piece of paper write down what will go on the label and pin both to my design board. Then when the quilt is all done, I just have to fill in the writing and all the thinking has been done. Yay! thanks for the nudge in the right direction!
    I laughed when you expressed your frustration at the school supplies list- 1 inch, white, with racing stripes on the front binder- yes that pretty much sums up how silly it sometimes is and was for my own children. I am a retired high school teacher and I hope I did not inflict that kind of torture!
    So anyway, thanks for the great company and insight you provide, and know that you have a fan here in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada

  4. I am currently listening to “The Enchanted April” via http://classictales.libsyn.com/. The movie version would be one of my comfort viewings.
    Great quilts above.
    Do not change a thing. Listening to your podcast is having a visit with you. If you did not ramble it would not be your podcast.

  5. I enjoyed listening to your commentary last night on anything and everything. When you talked about decorating your hallway stairs with quilts, I just had to share with you my stairway. Recently we had painting done and I asked if they could hang some of my quilts. Look how well it turned out. Darn, I can’t figure out how to post the pix. I’ll look for your email address. Kitty

  6. Don’t fancy up your podcast – it’s great just the way it is. I like the quilty podcasts that are just real people, chatting.

    Your finished quilts look great. I’m sure your mom will love it. After all, she knows how much work goes into a quilt!

  7. Please don’t change your podcast! The format of quilt diaries and coming back around to do the introduction just seems perfect and you are such a good story teller. I’ve been so enjoying all the information about quilting history and folk knowledge.
    Thank you for the Enchanted April recommendation. It’s not really similar, except that it is set in the 1920’s, but have you ever watched Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries? They are based on the books by Kerry Greenwood and the actors and costumes are wonderful – and they have Australian accents!
    Beautiful quilts!

  8. As you may have noticed my YM went off to college and it was sad not to go back to school shopping for him. He only asked for one college ruled spiral notebook and said he would use his iPad for everything else. The fabulous Marie Bostwick gave me permission [ 😉 ] to go and buy some stationery (does anyone use that word anymore?) for myself so I bought myself a new gridded journal. Perhaps your fine school is preparing you for Jack going off to college by weaning you from buying school supplies?

    Your podcast is well organized and I encourage you to not to change it. Some music would be great and you could add a book section where you answer questions or talk about your quilt book series, but it is great the way it is and I don’t think you should feel bad about the way it is organized. I also like the rambling. Your rambling really has purpose and it gives great insight into a lot of things.

    First Frost was not my favorite Sarah Addison Allen book either. I wonder, though, after reading the Girl Who Chased the Moon for the 3rd time (it is a comfort book for me because the characters are so dense and well described) if some plotlines don’t become clear until you have read the book a few times. There was something about the moon in TGWCTM that I didn’t put together until this last reading. I do listen to her books and think I will listen to First Frost (read the book with my eyes) and see if I get a different perspective.

    I downloaded Pam’s podcast for the first time and listened on my phone last week as I was driving around Portland. I don’t like to be being (#podcastdeliquent), but I haven’t found a good Android podcatcher and I have been super busy lately. I also enjoy listening to audiobooks and listening on Audible is sooooo easy on my phone. I should look for a review of podcatchers. If I do that I will let you know.

    I think guilds have a hard time getting people to write for newsletters. In my library association we have trouble getting people to write. Volunteer organizations really have a hard time getting volunteers. It is complicated: busy lives, introverted personalities, no good organization for “many hands make light work”.

    I make my binding as soon as I finish the quilt top. I don’t do it before that because I don’t know what size the top will end up. I like having the binding done before the quilting, because I feel exhausted by the whole project and the quilt languishes. Glad the tip worked for you!

    Love the two quilts on which you are working!!!

    Well, that was a great podcast! Mostly I know that from how much I had to say about everything you talked about. Sorry about the delay in listening!

  9. Long time listener who seldom comments. I listen in my car so usually in 20 minute segments. By the time I get to the computer I’ve forgotten what I was going yo say. 🙂

    Two things from this podcast
    Find a real publisher for your quilting books. The only libraries that might buy a self published quilting novel set in NC would be the one(s) in the county it is set in and the state library which probably exhaustively collects any thing about NC. If Jennifer Chaiverini could fond a publisher for her books which in my opinion are barely better than a Silhoutte romance you should be able to find a publisher.

    Really enjoyed your discussion of celebrity designers, etc. I live in a rural area a nd have many quilting friends but an intellectual discussion like this would just glaze their eyes.

    Jane in East Texas

  10. I had posted a LONG reply and then forgot I did that before closing my windows browser. So I lost all the wonderful, insightful, fabulous words I had written! hahahaha

    I think there were two things that I wrote about, regarding this podcast. First off, yes, the Dresden Plate Project didn’t get off the ground. Do I blame you? Of course not!!! It was MY idea to run with it. I think I will take down the Flickr group page, since no one else posted pictures and we can just go on our merry ways. Of course, taking the pressure of MYSELF, has NOTHING to do with this decision. 🙂

    I still look forward to seeing what yours looks like when it is done and will share mine, IF I ever get it done. Right now, though it has a holiday theme and it is only September, I doubt I will get my plates finished, much less quilted.

    I adore your ramblings, whether they are quilty related or not. Your podcast is just a nice easy listening podcast. I liken it to sitting down with you across the table and having a conversation. It might seem one sided to you, but believe me, I am talking back to you during your podcasts. Don’t change, unless you did MORE podcasts. I might be alright with you doing that.

    I think you were talking about school stuff. If it was about school supplies, I was going to share that I had to hunt down a package (undefined by how many sheets in a package) of black only, construction paper. This was for Art Class in the 9th grade. I also had to find those squishy artist erasers. Once my young man started school, I noticed his schedule didn’t show an Art Class. It also did not show Gym Class. I contacted the school to ask about it and was told that 9th graders do not have art or gym. What the heck??? WHY was it on their list of school supplies to get?

    I think this is mostly what my first posting was going to say. I hope to get caught up on the next podcast today too. Again, please don’t worry about the Dresden Plate Project. We tried. I am not displeased. You’re too lovable to be upset with. 😀

  11. Ummm…was this the episode in which you talked about people knowing designers and whether that marked you as part of the club or not? Sorry–I listened to both this and the next episode on the same road trip. I think this was the right one for this comment, though. When you were talking about that question, though, I got to thinking about when my Mom was quilting–well before I started, in fact–and to a degree, I think what made you part of the club was knowing the names of blocks. I remember being so proud of myself (again, well before I started quilting) because I could recognize a small handful of blocks just by my Mom being a quilter. It made me feel a bit like part of the gang by osmosis. But back then (late 70s/early 80s), it was mostly about traditional quilting, so it was pretty block-based. That being said, I do also remember Mom and her friends in the 80s and early 90s talking about this quilt designer or that quilt designer or people with techniques and such–the “celebrity quilters” of that time period: Marti Michell, Michael Cunningham, Jinny Beyer, Caryl Bryer Fallert (whatever her name is now because I’ve had way too many years of thinking of her as CBF and can’t ever remember her new one), and so forth. But those are quilt designers, not fabric designers–maybe you were really only asking about fabric designers. So–that being said… What I think is different now is two things: Far less emphasis on block names due to the advent of Modern Quilting and a whole different attitude towards blocks, and the fact that *fabric* designers are now actually known names. In the earlier years of the quilting comeback, it took awhile to get into a period where fabrics were actually designed for quilting–not just using clothing fabric. In my own humble, only-vaguely-educated-in-history-through-Mom’s-experience opinion, I don’t think fabric designers were known because there was really very little fabric being designed with quilting in mind. Now that it is, it becomes more important for people to feel they know the names–like you said, it also helps make selections. (How do we choose books to read? Often similar criteria.) But, back to your original question, I do think the role that knowing block names filled in the past has most likely been replaced now by knowing designers or quilt celebrity names. It does mean you’re part of the gang, in the know, etc. It’s also probably easier to learn designer’s names because they don’t tend to go by four or five completely different names the way blocks do. 🙂

  12. Aww, both quilts look great Frances! I confess I never made a rail fence quilt in my life! Maybe one day 🙂
    And Happy Belated Birthday to your Mom, her quilt looks awesome! Great job with the artsy shot, I like it a lot!
    Edyta Sitar is such a great designer! I love both her fabrics, and her quilt designs, she totally has her own style. I watched the episode of the Quilt Show when she was on, a total delight.

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