Introducing Laura, who joined our group this year. She has jumped into our guild with two feet here to help us bring back "Meet your (quilt) maker" after a little hiatus. Thanks Laura for sharing so thoughtfully here! How/When did you start quilting? The summer after I graduated college I was unemployed, bored and broke. So I went out and bought a cheap Brother sewing machine at Walmart. One of the first things I made was a t-shirt quilt from all the free t-shirts that had collected over the years. It wasn’t great but I was pretty proud of it! Then I made a couple of baby quilts for my niece and nephew and was getting a lot better and then couldn’t stop! What skill are you itching to master? I feel like I use quilting to satisfy that super detail oriented, precise, perfectionist side of myself. Like planning out a quilt in excruciating detail. So I’m really curious about the flip side of that. When I see those beautiful improv style quilts, it makes me want to try that out and approach quilting from the other side of my brain. Tell us about the quilt that means the most to you and why. This doesn’t have to be one that you made. And we’d love to see a picture! I guess quilting is a little in the blood. My grandma and great grandma were quilters, making things out of old cut up clothes especially. My grandma makes a quilt for every new baby, HS graduation, and wedding, which is impressive considering how many kids and grandkids there are is AND that she was running a farm on top of that. (Hand quilted too! Lordy) But I’ve had the pink and green tulip quilt with me since I was 18 and keep it on my bed! J Other than that one, I think I’m most proud of the quilt I made for a couple of my friends’ wedding. I just had so much fun designing it, and it was the biggest quilt I had made. I nailed the color scheme to fit their style too! My idea was to have this big graphic looking design with bold shapes. But then to have the words “Alice Nikolai 2017” slowly come forward. Working in that large scale definitely helped. From designing and picking fabrics to watching a recipient’s face when they see your quilt for the first time, what is your favorite part of the whole process? Getting to see someone’s reaction to a quilt I’ve made them is pretty special. Like I had a quilt for a friend last year, and my other friend and I had a lot of fun imitating what we thought her reaction would be to it, and we were spot on! But other than that, it’s really the design process that I love the most. I have a backlog of ideas of quilts to make, but there’s just not enough time! I like to sketch on graph paper and then once I have an ok idea, I’ll translate that into Illustrator to fine tune it and play around with color schemes and scale. What do you do get over a hump when you get stuck on a quilt? I switch a lot between sewing quilts and sewing clothes. They’re just different enough I usually have one project of each going on at the same time. When I get tired of working on one, I’ll switch over to give my brain some space for a little bit. I’ve realized that when I get really frustrated with a project and nothing’s going right, it’s usually because I got carried away and forgot to eat or something! Maybe I should start keeping snacks by my sewing table… Let’s get personal! Rapid fire: What quilt camp do you belong to?
What’s your favorite podcast/music/audiobook genre to listen to when you quilt? I’ve gotten really into the Love to Sew podcast to get me in the sewing mood, but it’s pretty much just about clothes sewing. I’ll binge just about any podcast series though, especially anything about investigating cults! Otherwise my tried and true is putting on old 30 Rock episodes. Does anyone hang out with you while you quilt? Absolutely not! LOL! My BFF/ roommate has an intense hobby of making incredibly beautiful and delicious cakes. Like she’ll spend all weekend building a 2-tier wedding cake in our kitchen while I’m quilting in my bedroom. We both know to stay out of each other’s way when we’re concentrating! We call it the dueling artisans! What is your favorite quilting tool at the moment? Maybe controversial, but Elmer’s Glue!? Is that cheating? After I saw something online about using it to get the curves and fiddly bits to stay in place, it was a total game changer. Also I upgraded my sewing machine last year, and got one with a knee lift. At first I was like, yeah right, like I’ll ever use that! But holy cow, I don’t know how I went so long without one! Do you have a tip or strategy to share with your quilting friends?
I try so hard to keep my stash in check, just because I don’t have a ton of space to keep it in my apartment. I sew in my bedroom, and I doubt my roommates want my fabric overflow taking over the rest of our place. I’m working on practicing mindfulness with consumption all around. I just read Overdressed by Elizabeth L. Cline, which focuses mostly on fast fashion production, but touches on the economic and environmental impact of the textile industry in general. It really reinforces that idea to only use what I have and reuse textiles as much as possible. Does crushing environmental guilt count as a fun tip for stash management??? What kind of other crafts are you into besides quilting? Definitely way into sewing clothes. I’m obsessing right now with pattern drafting and how to do alterations. I just finished making my first pair of jeans! Where’s your favorite spot to eat in Cambridge? Hmmm maybe Gourmet Dumpling House? I just love those soup dumplings! Anything else you want us to know about you? I’m so excited to be a part of this quilting community and getting to see all the creativity everyone brings to the group! I’ve just been sewing on my own for so many years, it’s really exciting to get to share ideas and enthusiasm! |
Guild HappeningsMeeting summaries, member profiles, challenge details, quilt inspiration, etc.! Archives
January 2022
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