Linda Cantrell @ Gate City Quilt Guild

If you happened to walk past Randy's Quilt Shop last night, you'd have thought it was more likely a comedy club. Linda Cantrell provided the riotously funny program for the May meeting of the Gate City Quilt Guild as well as some up-close looks at her fantastic appliquéd quilts. A painter before she began quilting, Linda is a self-taught appliqué artist. Photos, unfortunately, do not do her work justice. The detail is just breathtaking and her humor shines out in her signature pieces.



Reading the tombstones in Linda's piece called "Halloween" is an incredible treat. Seeing several of her pieces together, you begin to see reoccurring characters like Sun Bonnet Sue and Elvis. Her technique is flawless and her creative energy boundless.



"Pat Finds Nirvana" is my favorite because of it's obvious Buddhist references and all of the wonderful quilting details.
Photo credits
Photo of Linda quilting
http://www.southernhighlandguild.org/lindafiber/
Pat Reaches Nirvana and Halloween quilt photos
http://www.southernhighlandguild.org/lindafiber/

Sue Nickels @ Gate City Quilt Guild

Photo credit: http://www.sue.nickels.com/beatles_quilt.html

Sue Nickels, co-creator with her sister Pat Holly of The Beatles quilt, presented the program at the second meeting of the Gate City quilt guild tonight. Sue and her sister are both incredibly talented quilt artists in their own rights, but are also unbeatable collaborators. The Beatles quilt won best in show at Paducah in 1998.

Sue's program was about the history of machine quilting, which is really much older than one would imagine. In their travels, Sue and Pat have collected historic examples of quilts that were machine quilted. The oldest goes back to the 1870's. Sue will be teaching at Randy's Quilt Shop in Greensboro this weekend and there are still a few places available. Her raw edge appliqué and machine quilting are stellar and I'm sure her classes will be terrific.

Words of wisdom from the mother of machine quilting

Harriet Hargrave spoke to the first meeting of the new guild here in the Triad, the Gate City Guild Guild, last night. Even though her luggage (and consequently, her quilts) didn't arrive with her, she had some really smart things to say. Trained as a consumer scientist in textiles, she is incredibly knowledgeable about the technical side of quilting. She talked about irons and pressing, sewing machines, needles, attachment feet, thread, batting, and marking tools. She discussed the myth of the quarter inch seam. (Did you ever think about the fact that we aren't accounting for the width of the thread? That ends up making the finished blocks just a little short.) For a store owner, she also made some rather revolutionary suggestions--stop buying things, create from your stash, and finish the things you've already started. She rightly pointed out that many of us are toppers not quilters. Many people send their tops off to be quilted and bound by other people, losing the satisfaction of having made a quilt all by themselves. Most importantly, she invoked Malcolm Gladwell's theme in his book, Outliers, that 10,000 hours of practice make the difference between a genius and a mediocrity. She cited the example of people who take her machine quilting classes and want to learn, but are not willing to put in the hours of practice that are required to get really good at it. All around good advice: use the right tools for the job, be a quilter rather than a topper, use what you already own, and practice, practice, practice. It was an auspicious beginning for the new guild.
Photo credit http://www.ctpub.com/client/client_images/authors/Hargrave_Harriet.jpg