Our News

Apologies! We missed publishing our newsletter in January because life was so busy for our family. We had a baby shower for one of our daughters, we welcomed a darling new grandson, we started planning a bridal shower for another daughter, and I started making bridesmaids' dresses, to name just a few of the happy events. Because the wedding will take place in May, our next newsletter is planned for the end of May or the beginning of June.

I was recently profiled in The Quintessential Quilter, the newsletter of the Quinte Quilters Guild. One of the topics is how I developed my interest in quilting. Click here if you would like to read the article.

During all of this excitement, we also had an idea for, and set up, a new, second web site which is mentioned below.

Hope you enjoy this issue!

Maria

Quilts for Sale.ca - Created with Quilters in Mind

Quilters often mention that they would like to earn money by doing what they love, which is making quilts and/or quilted items and selling them. However, too often, finding a place to sell them has been difficult.

Quilts for Sale now provides the opportunity quilters are looking for!

For a $10 listing fee per item plus a small 10% commission of sales, Quilts for Sale will create a web page individually tailored for you which includes your photos and all of the necessary information to sell your personally made quilt items.

Quilts for Sale provides the web pages. You handle the transactions.

Quilts for Sale will show you how to sell quilted items quickly and easily. We are happy to answer any questions you may have, and are just an email or phone call away.

Logo Votes

In our last issue, we asked readers to vote on the logo they liked best, our original, which is a photograph of Michael's work, or the newer version, which is a graphic image of that same work. A special thank you to all of our readers who took the time to vote and send their comments as well. Here are some samples:

"I think Michael's talent should shine on your web site. They are incredible designs." - B.S.

A Lovely Letter from One of Our Reader-Winners

Needless to say, receiving beautiful messages like this one gives me great joy! A special thank you to you, Susan, and to everyone who writes to me. Maria

Featured Quilters - Alice Walter and Deb Hopkins

Featured Quilt Tools - Wonder Cut Rulers

Meet Alice Walter and Deb Hopkins, a quilting duo with a delightful and inspirational mother-daughter relationship. Together with Alice’s husband, Stan, they have developed tools quilters will not want to be without – the Wonder Cut Ruler, the Wonder Cut Triangle Ruler, and a set of Read Easy Rulers. They are now working on their second book.

Alice does not remember any particular quilts from her childhood but recalls that she needed a lot of them to keep warm in the winter time. The first quilt Alice made was a bedspread-sized Trip Around the World made with 2-1/2 inch squares. Her grandmother cut out each

of them with a cardboard template and scissors, and Alice used her old Singer to piece and quilt them. It was something she needed to prove to herself that she could do. Her second quilt was not made until quite a few years afterwards.

Although Deb does not recall quilts being a part of her childhood, she does remember the quilts at her grandmother’s house. Also, for many years Deb had the pleasure of eating lunch with her aunt, an avid quilter. After each meal, they sat, talked about quilts, and looked through quilting magazines. Deb explains, "I was very financially challenged at that time, and could not afford fabric. I scrimped and saved until I could purchase an old Singer sewing machine. Then I had the machine, but no fabric. Having seen quilts that my grandmother had made from old jeans, I scrounged them from anyone and everyone and started to make utility quilts for those in need. This experience taught me basic quilting skills, for example, how to sew a straight seam and how to use a rotary cutter and ruler."

Alice: " When Deb was younger we spent hours and hours in the sewing room making clothes. She would cut and press and I would sew. I was the seamstress and she was the quilter. We are very competitive so if she could make a quilt, I could, too! I guess she did inspire me."

Deb: "My mom was a seamstress through and through. I would do the grunt work (serging edges, pressing, cutting out the patterns) and mom would do the construction of the garment. Trust me, there were many garments done this way. She made almost all of my clothes from when I was a small child until my teen years."

Over the years, mother and daughter have spent many hours together in the sewing room. As a result, they work as a cohesive team. They
know one another so well that when dining out, before anything is
decided or said, each knows what the other is going to order.

Their tastes are similar in just about everything. They make joint decisions and do not commit until the other has added her input. Usually, when one voices an idea, the other has already been thinking about the same thing. Alice says, "We are so alike, it’s scary sometimes. We remain mother and daughter and are best friends as well. In order to have an arrangement like ours, one has to respect the other and give them their space."

In their early quilt making years, as they started on a new quilt, Alice and Deb would find themselves asking, "What would happen if I did this?" Those questions are what started them designing their own patterns.

Alice and Deb live in a very rural area where County Fairs are queens of their quilting world.

Deb: "We are very competitive between ourselves. Come fair time, it’s a battle for who gets bragging rights for the year. I take a back seat to my mom this year, but wait for it! She hasn’t seen any of my fair quilts for this year."

Alice: "Deb wins the Best Baby Quilt year after year. Last year I happened to have the Best of Show Quilt. Once is probably all I have in me, but who can tell. She hasn’t seen my fair quilts for this year either."

One of the quilts Alice made was composed entirely of HSTs (half square triangles) which took many hours to complete. She decided there had to be an easier way to make these triangles. While laying the pieces out, the idea for their Wonder Cut Ruler came to her. Alice’s husband, Stan, is the mathematician in her family, so he figured out all of the measurements she would need and made several prototypes for Alice and Deb to try. They tested them and knew they would work. Deb then developed what they call the three-part and four-part squares as well.

Alice contacted Jim Simons at Quilter’s Rule and told him about their new ruler and, as she says, "The rest is history."

Alice and Deb listen when quilters tell them what they want in rulers. That is how their Read Easy Rulers were developed.

Alice: "If you can understand getting older and not seeing as well as you once could, you will know the reason for our Read Easy Rulers. They have fewer lines and larger numbers. Even quilters with good eyesight will appreciate this ruler."

The numbers are larger and positioned so that quilters can easily see which line they are using to cut by. They come in three convenient sizes: Mini (4-1/2″ x 14-1/2″ ) Junior (6-1/2″ x 14-1/2″) Big (6-1/2″ x 24″).

A little over four years ago, Alice and Deb started the Wonder Cut Ruler List as a way of communicating with their new-found quilting friends. “We find that the list is a great way to disperse information quickly. Quilters are so great in sharing their knowledge,” Alice says. They share ideas, techniques, patterns, answer questions, and more, with about 365 Wonder Cut Ruler fans, of which I am one. It is a very nice, sharing, caring group of quilters.

Deb: "Virtual Retreats started as a way for quilters to come together and work on the same project. We realized that traveling across the country or across international borders was not possible for everyone. By creating the Virtual Retreats, everyone has a chance to know each other better and to create something that is common in foundation, but uniquely their own creation."

Their first and second Wonder Cut Ruler Retreats took place at the Marsh Creek Event Centre in Albion Valley, Idaho . Their next retreat is scheduled for May 6 to 8, 2005 .

Alice: "A quilt retreat starts with the ringing of a school bell. Quilters are introduced and the fun begins. We precut all the kits. They just
choose the one they like and start sewing. They have pressers at their fingertips. Before long completed projects start to emerge. While at

the retreat they will make two Wonder Cut quilts and a table runner and we always have a fun little project for them to make as well.They are amazed to see that most of the quilts will be finished before they leave. Meals are provided and sitting around the tables gives one time to get to know each other."

Alice and Deb also teach quilting. They have taught at the well-known International Quilt Market in Houston as well as for Guilds and Quilt Shops. They enjoy teaching together, which they have been doing for about six years.

Alice: "There is a moment when you are teaching that you can literally see the light go on. Your student finally breaks through the old boundaries and sees things in a new light."

Their patterns are sold through their book, Back to Basics: The Wonder Cut Ruler Way and they are busy working on a second book which should become available by the end of this summer. Bookmark their site and keep a watch for it.

Back to Basics is a 44 page book with 13 patterns, complete with diagrams, step-by-step directions and samples of quilts done in a variety of fabrics. The patterns range from simple quilts for the beginner to advanced designs for quilters who enjoy a challenge. It includes 8 pages in colour and three special quilt stories. Speed cutting tips and assembly line sewing techniques are also included.

Typical of their close mother-daughter relationship, both Alice and

Deb spent many hours thinking of a book idea before either had the courage to mention it to the other. Since they both had already mentally planned a book, they were able to work non-stop until the book was finished. They each worked on different quilts, then showed it to the other for approval. One would write a pattern and the other would test it. They started in May and had the printed book in their hands by the middle of September of the same year.

There is another aspect of quilting that is near and dear to the hearts of both Alice and Deb.

Deb: “Mom and I feel strongly about our work for those in need. Every chance we get, we try to encourage quilters to use their talents to benefit others. Each year, we pick a different charity. In the past, organizations such as Project Linus, the Shriner's Hospital for Children, and a children's orphanage in Mexico have been the recipients of our quilts. This year, our charity is the women and children's domestic violence shelter in our local area. We received a grant in January of this year from the Getting More Fund. With this grant, we were able to purchase fabric to make quilts for the shelter. Our quilts will have a fish theme. Why fish? Click here to read the story. We end every presentation with the Fishy Quilt Story. After we tell this story, we say "Won't you please join us in making the world a better place, one quilt at a time?"  

Be sure to visit their web site to learn more about Alice and Deb and to see all of their quilt tools, quilts, and much more.

If you have enjoyed this newsletter please share it with your friends by sending them this link: http://mariamichaelsdesigns.com/newslettermarch05.htm

To contact Maria Michaels Designs, click here.

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