What and when was your first experience as an artist?

I discovered the collection of antique quilts at the American Museum in Bath, England while I was studying for a Masters Degree in Education. Seeing those quilts absolutely changed my life and I knew I had to become a quilter. My grandmother taught me to sew and my father’s ancestors were tailors in the east end of London. Sewing is in my fingers.

What inspired you to make a career of your art?

I started teaching other quilters, became editor of British Patchwork & Quilting magazine, started running international quilting events and then was asked to write my first book. I really enjoy my international engagements and I can’t imagine my life without my quilting career!

How has your artistry changed over the years?

This is hard to answer. I have always made geometric quilts and I think I’m more daring and better at it than when I started! I am a traditionalist and not afraid to say so. I love to teach and to develop creativity in my students, I hope I am an inspiration to them.

What is your favorite aspect of your artistry and your artistic community?

I really enjoy the research for new inspiration, the travelling all over the world looking for historic architecture and marveling at the artistry from centuries ago. In my community, I love the fact that I am part of a world-wide faculty and I can meet up with teaching colleagues from Dubai to Dallas and beyond!

What is your favorite design or completed project and why?

My favorite quilt at the moment is Venetian Rainbow which features in my new book Viva Venezia! I love the bright colors and the fact that it was inspired by the original floor tile quilt I made from designs from Venetian floor tiles. It was fun to make and a change to use bright colors when I usually work in subtle batiks

Do you have a process or ritual for starting new projects?

There’s a lot of thinking time first of all, then working out the dimensions, drafting the design and the best part id chosing the fabric!

What happens when you finish a project…do you celebrate?

My husband, a professional photographer, always photographs the new quilt, but I’m susually running to a deadline so tidy up the studio and move on to the next project!

What new projects are on the horizon for you?

I have two or three more books I would like to write in particular one on Roman floor tiles.

What would you like to create that you have not tried yet?

My work is very geometric, precise and exact. I would like to get out of my comfort zone from time to time. I really enjoy going to Asilomar and similar places to be a student and let my creative spirit develop.

What memorable moments can you share about your travels or teaching experience?

I enjoy travelling and seeing new landscapes and experiencing new cultures. Within the quilting world I especially like to meet new people and meet up with old friends. It is a privilege and a pleasure to be able to enjoy my work so much

What books are you reading?

Obama’s books, historic novels: The Boleyn Girl and similar. I have just read Two Rivers which I loved. I read about two books a week.

How would you describe your personality?

Friendly, outgoing, happy, I wish I were more organized!

What makes you happy?

My husband, my family, especially the grandchildren. Being creative in my studio, travel and being inspired by architecture in particular historic buildings and colors of floor tiles and paintings within them. I also love photography, gardening and music, both classical and contemporary.

Thanks for sharing, Christine. Visit Christine’s website at www.christineporterquilts.com

Fearless is a powerful word, but after reading my Q&A session with Lorraine Torrence, I think you will agree she is deserving of no less.

What and when was your first experience as an artist?

At the age of 7 I drew a picture I saw of Abraham Lincoln in a magazine. I decided then that I wanted to be an artist.

What inspired you to make a career of your art?

I’ve always wanted to be an artist in some capacity. I was an art major in college and went on to graduate school to receive an MFA in Sculpture at the University of Washington in 1971. Six months before I graduated, I made my first quilt. I have not made another sculpture since the day I graduated, but I have made quilts and wearable art consistently since 1971. It’s what I’m good at and makes me happy.

What is your favorite aspect of your artistry and your artistic community?

I love teaching and have been inspired and fulfilled by the long-term design class I’ve been teaching quilters since 1998. Seeing their growth and development as artists is thrilling and gratifying. Being surrounded and dependent on color and fabric in all I do is also how I get a perpetual “rush”. Of course, the community of quilters and textile artists I am immersed in is a great source of friendship and inspiration.

What is your favorite design or completed project and why?

Garment: My 2006 Bernina Fashion Show Garment, “Reigning Wool” because it was successful in color, unity, composition and impact and was done in yummy wool pastels.

Quilt: My 2006 Shifting Perspectives quilt, “Thunderclouds Approaching” because of its color, interest in the shifting of the image, interesting border and impact.

Thunderclouds Approaching

I’m starting a new garment pattern line in 2010 for young sewers (more hip, easier-to-sew, fashions) and this year starting a new product line of “Bright Ideas for Wearables”, technique leaflets as companions to my garment patterns.

What would you like to create that you have not tried yet?

I have always been interested in various surface design techniques – particularly airbrushing – but have not had the time to devote to exploring them fully. I will try to make the time to do this soon.

What memorable moments can you share about your travels or teaching experience?

In 2001 I taught for the New Zealand Quilt Symposium. In one of the classes, I had planned to teach the students a nifty cutting method using tape on the ruler as a reference. The method was quick and convenient, but used large amounts of fabric and usually produced lots of left overs. Just before I started the demonstration, I realized that all of the students had brought only fat quarters and I remembered that all the quilt shops I had visited displayed half bolts of only 3 meters of fabric. Fabric in New Zealand was almost all imported and was very costly. I realized at that moment that this technique was not appropriate in a country where these students, albeit avid, had to use techniques that were highly efficient in their use of fabric. I scrapped that part of the class and showed them how to do my design idea using templates that made use of every single bit of the fabric.

To learn more about Lorraine, visit her website at www.lorrainetorrence.com

What was your career prior to being an artist? Waitress, bartender, surveyors assistant and most importantly mom of my six children.

What and when was your first experience as an artist? I was a coloring contest winner in grade school.

What inspired you to make a career of your art? I have always loved art. As a child, pencils, paper and crayons would keep me occupied for hours. My children were my inspiration to make art a career; When they were young, I wanted more than anything to be able to stay at home with them and have a career that would allow me to do just that. It has been a dream come true to make a career out of doing what I love.

How has your artistry changed over the years? In high school and college I concentrated on batiks and weaving. It wasn’t until my daughter was born, in 1983, that I started quilting. I began designing fabric for the quilting industry in 1999. I hand paint all my fabric designs using watercolors and watercolor dyes, which give me another creative outlet.

What is your favorite design or completed project and why?

My favorite is a quilt I made in a class with my mom and sister. The hand quilting is not yet complete, it is faded and still has pins in it and it’s my favorite because it is my first.

What new projects are on the horizon for you?

I have several ideas for new books and fabric lines.

What would you like to create that you have not tried yet?

I would someday like to make a “show quilt” – one that I deem worthy of entry into a show, using hand dyed or hand painted fabrics.

What books are you reading?

At the moment, “Marley and Me” by John Grogan.

What makes you happy?

My life. And chocolates

Thanks for sharing Kim. To learn more about Kim Schaefer visit www.littlequiltcompany.com

Wendy Mathson owned a printing and graphic design business, then became a freelance editor and illustrator before starting to design quilts. She also founded Prayers and Squares, an international prayer quilt ministry that now has 800 chapters around the world. Her new book, A New Light on Storm at Sea Quilts, and its coordinating trimming templates, fast2cut® Quilter’s TRIMplates, are out this month.

We asked her to tell us a little more about herself and how she works.

What and when was your first experience as an artist?
When I was about seven, I saw a design in a magazine and realized that I did not need to follow their pattern. I could create my own design in colors that I wanted to work with. I think of this as the difference between making crafts and creating art.

How has your artistry changed over the years?
I’ve gone through major shifts in working with color and fabrics. I went through a “dark” period and right now am more attracted to bright, clear colors. I’m interested in exploring new or different color schemes that are more unexpected or that challenge me.

What is your favorite completed project?

Cover quilt from Wendy's book, A New Light on Storm at Sea Quilts

I designed a Storm at Sea variation and pieced it in “safe colors”: blue & yellows. Then I pulled fabrics to make the same design in a more daring color scheme of magenta, orange, blue-violet & gold. When my daughter, Chellee, came for a visit I taught her my TRIMplate piecing method and she made the wallhanging in one day. We took it to show my friend Faith, who does all my long-arm quilting, and she quilted it the next day. C&T chose that quilt, “Red Sky at Morning,” for the cover of my book. It’s special to me because all three of us had a hand in creating it together.

Do you have a ritual for starting new projects?
Clean up the mess from the last project, take three deep breaths, then dive in. (It doesn’t take long to create a new mess with the new project.)

Do you celebrate when you finish a project?
Finish? Finish? Are you kidding? No, even I will eventually finish a project, then I email a photo to my best friend, who usually asks me what took me so long.

What new projects are on the horizon for you?
I have ideas for more TRIMplates to simplify cutting & piecing of challenging traditional patterns.

What would you like to create that you haven’t tried yet?
A hand-appliquéd quilt of my own design. Then maybe, just maybe, someday, a real bed quilt for my own bed. My husband keeps asking, but… would you believe we’ve never had a quilt on our own bed?

Do you have any memorable moments to share from your teaching experience?
I was to teach a guild workshop in a church meeting room, which also housed a large freezer used to store turkeys for a food distribution. The freezer had apparently become unplugged earlier in the week, and the smell was, shall we say, not exactly pleasant. With open windows and some borrowed fans, things were improving when a church handyman arrived to “help”, and he OPENED the freezer door. Class was a bit delayed after that.

Visit Wendy at her website, www.quiltsbywendy.com.

What was your career before you became an artist?
I was a full-time military wife, homemaker and mother. We have lived in Texas, several locations in California, northern Virginia, Tennessee and Japan. My role as home manager was supplemented with quilting presentations and workshops.

What and when was your first experience as an artist?
I have enjoyed sewing, needlework and crafting since early childhood. In high school I was actively sewing clothing and created my first quilts in the early 1970s. I earned a degree in Textiles, Clothing & Design at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in 1977.

What inspired you to make a career of your art?
Quilt making and instruction was a natural progression of the various needlework and creative textiles I was creating in the early 1970s. The quilt revival in the seventies brought enthusiastic interest in quilts, and a demand for quilt workshops and presentations.

I have been involved in the quilting industry on many levels: student, teacher, judge, author, designer, product developer, guild founder, guild officer, and program chairman.

How has your artistry changed over the years?
I began with the basic skills and classic, traditional patterns. When I started to make quilts, there were limited resources, publications and tools—the introduction of the rotary cutter, an explosion in publications, and improvements in domestic sewing machines created a thriving industry.

Quilt designs, textile arts of all genres fascinate me! Although I am primarily known for traditional designs with a contemporary flair, I enjoy all aspects of quilt making and surface embellishment.

What is your favorite aspect of your artistry and your artistic community?
The quilting community is unique. Quilt makers are not trained in the art form, but come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Each gathering of quilters worldwide features exciting fellowship, creative sharing and inspiration from various artistic backgrounds.

Do you have a process or ritual for starting new projects?
The past decade has trained me to document every new idea and design inspiration, from fabric selection through design layout and construction. I photograph the processes, step-by-step, in the event that I write the pattern for publication, or teach the pattern in the future. Frequently the current design inspires another related project, and I begin working in a series of related patterns until I exhaust the inspirations!

What happens when you finish a project? Do you celebrate?
I’m lucky because I enjoy all aspects of designing and making a quilt. My teaching schedule restricts the amount of creative time in my studio, and therefore I treasure the creative outlet whenever I can sew! It’s always wonderful to finish a project! These days my projects are usually created to meet a deadline—the pressure of finishing on time is a major motivation!

What new projects are on the horizon for you?
I’m fond of embellishments, lettering and layers in textile design and plan to explore these techniques in future projects.

“It all started with my grandmother, Adele McBurney Stubblefield. She was an incredibly talented, creative and resourceful woman who spent most of every day involved in some aspect of a sewing or needlework project. I spent countless hours perched by her side, with her stopping patiently to give me scraps of fabric to play with, while encouraging me to create for my little dolls miniature versions of the clothes she was making for us.

Felted bulletin board from A Touch of Felt

Those magical hours of fun and the gift of patient attention from my grandmother instilled in me a love of fabric, color and texture, confidence in my own creative instincts, and the curiosity to pursue fabric art throughout a very satisfying and multi-faceted career as an art teacher, toy and costume designer, author and fabric artist.

After graduate school, I taught art and design for several years, both on the college and secondary levels. I became involved in puppetry while creating puppets for a theatrical production at the school where I taught.  I loved seeing the puppets come to life on stage so much that I decided to pursue puppet-making professionally.  That eventually led to a really fun stint as an in-house designer for a toy company, creating prototype stuffed animals for the gift and toy markets. I learned a lot about drafting patterns and simplifying my designs so that they could be mass-produced.

When the toy company closed several years later, I returned to freelance design, taking on ever-larger commissions for puppets, props and costume characters. I also created life-size fabric sculptures of trees, plants and exotic flowers that became the basis for my book, Fresh Felt Flowers.”

What’s your most outrageous project ever?

“I was asked to turn a golf cart into a whale for an advertising promotion. It was quite an undertaking and one I will never forget! My friend Mary and I worked fast and furiously to cover the golf cart with upholstery foam, then we used an electric knife to carve away all the extra “whale blubber”. The final stage was to upholster the whole thing in sweatshirt fleece! I have some hilarious photos of the whale being hoisted onto the back of a tow truck and riding off into the sunset while my neighbors and I cheered.”

What inspires you?

I keep sketchbooks and idea files I’ve collected for inspiration, so I have a long list of project ideas waiting in the wings. When I start an assigned project, I might flip through my sketchbooks with the specific project in mind to remind myself of ideas that I’ve meant to pursue. Bringing together seemingly unrelated ideas can spark creative connections that give me a fresh approach to problem solving.”

What’s next on the horizon?

“I always have several things going on at once. I’m working on a series of needle-felted projects and I’ve recently written a children’s book that I’m in the process of illustrating.”

New Skills to Help Former Slaves Become Self-Supporting
The program’s goal is to teach girls a skill that will enable them to earn money by making and selling hand-quilted pillows made with Cambodian silk fabrics. These girls also receive medical and emotional support to help them recover from their ordeal.

Judy first learned about the Agape Center at her church in Rocklin, CA, the Adventure Christian Church. She leads a group at the church called “Stitching With Love”, and they made quilts for the girls of the first “graduating class” at the Agape Center in Cambodia. The Center’s leaders suggested that teaching the girls to sew would give them a skill that could change their lives.

“That triggered something in me,” she says. “I thought, ‘I can do that!’ We seldom get the chance in this life to really make a difference—this is my chance. After we are gone, we hope the older girls can teach new girls as they come into the program.”

Cash Donations Needed
If you are interested in helping with this effort, Judy is looking for assistance in providing the girls with sewing kits, fabrics and sewing machines. Any money raised for the trip will be used to purchase supplies, fabrics, batting, and pay for translation expenses. All donations are fully tax deductible. To donate, make checks payable to Adventure Christian Church with the notations “Missions/Cambodia 193″ and mail to Agape International Missions, P.O. Box 2037, Rocklin CA 95677.

One of her favorite quilts, Signs of Summer, is designed to be a visual time capsule showing future generations how the people of today spend their summers. Some of the many images stitched into the quilt are people playing baseball, surfing, riding the rodeo, scuba diving, sailing, kayaking, and climbing, with whales, sharks, sea planes, kites, flowers, birds, and the Golden Gate Bridge thrown in for good measure.

Signs of Summer by Laura Lee Fritz

The Storyteller’s Own Story

Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Laura is a self-taught machine-quilting enthusiast who knew from an early age that she wanted to be an artist. Going to art shows as a young child, she learned that artists could in fact make a living, and later realized that fabric would be her medium. She began machine quilting in 1989. At the time, she was one of only two people in California who owned a long-arm quilting machine. She taught herself how to make the continuous line designs that brought her fame as a quilter and formed the basis of her four books with C&T Publishing. Her most recent releases are: Creative Classics: 250 Playful Continuous-Line Quilting Designs, and Mindful Meandering: 132 Original Continuous-Line Quilting Designs.

Today, Laura splits her time between Northern California, where she keeps a full teaching schedule at Napa Valley College, and rural Bitterroot Valley, Montana, where she raises bluetick hounds, Navajo-Icelandic sheep, and just recently picked up a few cashmere goats because they were cute. “If you saw them, you would have brought them home too,” she explains. Laura practices spinning and weaving as a form of cross-training to keep her thinking from getting too narrow. “I like to reach out beyond quilting and work in different media,” she says.

Taking Machine Quilting Online

Laura’s newest adventure in quilting is hosting an online club for machine quilters with C&T Publishing. The club, called It’s Quilted! Laura Lee Fritz’s Continuous Line Club, offers monthly in-depth machine quilting lessons for both long-arm and short-arm machines, plus new quilting designs, a blog, Q&A forum, and a quilt gallery.

What’s next? Definitely more quilting. Laura says quilting is like eating and breathing to her. “Quilting is a high, a total adrenaline rush that I can’t live without,” she says. “It’s in my blood. I will always play with fabric and love the art.”

Now, pretty much everyone who is interested in sewing, wearables, or fashion knows about (and is addicted to) the show Project Runway (including yours truly). I eagerly opened my email and almost jumped out of my seat when I read it. Jay was writing to tell C&T that he loves our fast2cut® Foolproof Circles!

The fact that Jay, a creative genius and overall really cool person, likes our product enough to take the time from his busy schedule to tell us about it made my day. I’ve posted his comment, along with a bio that he provided. Check it out!

I was born in a little town in Pennsylvania in 1974. I was the last of six children. My father made septic tanks. My mother had a delicious hall closet stocked with remnants of fabrics and tins of buttons and bags of yarn. This was my favorite place in the house. My sisters were in the high school marching band and my brother was on the football team. I made myself costumes and twirled batons in the front yard. I suppose this is where it all started.

I studied Fashion Design at the former Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, now Philadelphia University, where I currently teach. I also studied at the London College of Fashion. While in London, I sold my clothes at Camden Market. I then decided I hated it and moved to Amsterdam. I sold at a few boutiques there and loved it but I was homesick and moved back to Philadelphia. I put together small fashion collections in Philadelphia and sold at a few boutiques there. I moved back to the woods of northeastern Pennsylvania and opened a vintage shop for a few years. I discovered yoga. I auditioned for a reality show called Project Runway. I won the first season. I met Molly Ringwald. I currently live and work in Philadelphia.

Here is what Jay had to say about fast2cut® Foolproof Circles:

I incorporate many circles in my designs, so I was elated to see these templates are so efficient to work with. I can’t even imagine having to cut circles by hand anymore. No more sore fingers from cutting circles by hand. I get perfect circles in seconds!