First, Angela told us about her beginnings in quilting - she was inspired and taught by her husband's grandfather. In fact, her next fabric line, Legacy (see below), is dedicated to him. You can read more about her story in the "About" section of her blog, right here. She also showed us several of her quilts and explained her thought process for quilting them.
I tried not to get too many embarrassing pictures of her while she was moving around :)
She hopes that you'll see the quilt first, and then, a split second later, see the quilting. That's why she uses thread that blends - so it doesn't distract.
She hopes that you'll see the quilt first, and then, a split second later, see the quilting. That's why she uses thread that blends - so it doesn't distract.
Angela had some pretty funny sayings. One guild member asked if she stitched in the ditched and she said, "Stitching in the ditch if like putting on makeup. Nobody can tell you've done it, but your face looks a lot better." She also kept insulting herself about backings: if it's just one piece, or a couple of pieces, chances are she made that. Anything more complex and it wasn't her :) Hey, we all have things we like a bit less about the quilting process than others, am I right?
Angela was so encouraging; she suggests that if you're having trouble deciding how to quilt, you should pick your favorite part of the quilt and enhance that. She makes it easy to think you can jump in and quilt like she does :) She suggests quilting faster, rather than slower! There's less of a chance of you messing up; you have to train your brain to think about the next step, rather than the line you are already quilting. Finally, Angela also encourages making mistakes. I think that was something we all needed to hear; we all have a bit of "perfectionist quilter" in us, and sometimes, it needs to be tamed a bit ;)
Can you believe the detail in this quilting? She assured us that she doesn't do this for every quilt ;) This one recently hung at Quilt Market and it was so neat to see it in person, after seeing all the blog posts about it at home (by the way, it's positively enormous!). By the way, those letters were PAINTED ON after the quilting!
Oh, and here's the back! One picture you didn't see from Quilt Market! Check out that quilt detail. Oh, my eyes.
Overall, I think it's safe to say that Angela was the perfect addition to our 2013 lineup of guild activities. She was inspiring and humorous at the same time. While we do a lot with color combining, technique, and challenges, we haven't done too much with quilting yet (ironically :) ). I would love to hear about the workshop from those who went! Thank you SO much, Angela!!
-Jess S.
