Beth Ferrier’s Blog

The life of a traveling quilt teacher is exciting, challenging and sometimes full of adventures. It is a blessing to be able to visit so many new and interesting places. Before my career on the teaching circuit began I had been on an airplane exactly twice. Now I’m off to the small local airport so often that they know me by my first name.

 While most guilds treat us with much care and respect, housing us in comfy hotel rooms and feeding us local specialties, every now and then a stay stands out.  Such was my recent trip to the Westfield, NY guild.

It was my pleasure to stay at the Brasted House Bed & Breakfast.  The innkeepers, Joyce and Scott Brasted are the type of folk who put you immediately at ease. I felt instantly at home, and Joyce is a quilter! Located in beautiful Chautauqua, NY, the B&B is the perfect place stay for those attending the world renowned Chautauqua Institution’s seasonal offerings.

The sleeping rooms are homey and charming. My bed, in the Emma Stark room, was so comfortable I didn’t want to leave. That changed after the first breakfast! It was wonderful, all organic ingredients and created with care, a perfect motivator and start to the day. The excellent coffee and the conversation were just the ticket to get the brain cells perked up and popping!

While Joyce and Scott may have their names on the paperwork, the actual owners of the B&B are Anna and Picasso. These two charmers are perfect inn cats. They know exactly when to cuddle, when to give up a chair and when to pose for the camera.

Joyce has filled the inn with comfortable antiques and family heirlooms, giving the rooms a feeling of history but without the stuffiness of a museum.  Lace curtains may filter the sunlight, but every room still sparkles.

My stay was so lovely that I returned from my trip filled with energy. I am newly motivated to make my own home a comfortable retreat from daily worries and concern. What do you do to make your home a soft place to fall?

The day after a nasty nor’easter cleared the coast I boarded a plane for Western New York state. The flights were mercifully easy and on time for a nice change of pace.

 A truly beautiful part of the country, Westfield, NY is filled with charming old homes, sparkling lakes and some of the nicest quilters I’ve met.

This trip was all about piecing. We had a glorious time hacking fabric into bits and chunks and sewing them together to make a wall hanging.

 These pictures are from our day of Sneaky Piecing Tricks. It was such a joy to teach these ladies. I have so much that I want to share, these students were open and receptive to new ideas.

As a teacher, it’s a challenge to pour as much information and sewing into one day as possible and still leave time for laughter and fun. Stress is for the workday! We’ll have none of it in class, thank you very much!

In the Sneaky Piecing Tricks workshop we give new meaning to being “all thumbs”. It’s such a simple trick, to use 1/4″ tape as a measure to align angled seams, but it’s a big ah-ha moment when you realize that excellent piecing isn’t magical, it’s all in the tips and tricks.

We all sigh with deep contentment when the door opens on a shop full of gorgeous fabrics. Did you ever wonder how that fabric comes to be?

In the many years that I’ve been quilting I’ve learned a lot about fabric, especially about what makes quilt shop quality different from that of chain or discount stores. But the design process, how the patterns on the fabric move from idea to yardage was a big mystery to me. That is until I was invited to submit a proposal to P&B Textiles for a fabric line.

Oh, my goodness! I was so honored, excited and terrified! I’m a quilter, not an artist. In my usual dorky style, I spent three months buying art supplies, pencils, paint, brushes and sketchbooks as if owning these things would make an artist of me.

Then I realized that my wonderful contact at the fabric company had already given me the answer. Cyndi had said, “I like your style! I’ve followed your work, you’d be a welcome addition.” So, I pretended that I was designing applique, that’s what I do! And to flesh out the line, I pretended to be buying fabric for my Hidden Star Sampler quilt.

The proposal was presented at Spring Quilt Market last year.  This is one of the original graphics that I showed to the fabric company reps, designed with Corel. In the next few weeks I’ll be showing you how the design is changed, refined (and improved!) for the printing process. 

Work on the line began in earnest in January. The fabric will be shown to shop owners at Quilt Market at Houston this fall and show up in shops after that. Stay tuned as we follow the process from idea to fabric on this blog.

All that remained to do was the quilting. To prepare for the final step, the quilt was pressed within an inch of its life. Nothing improves the quilting process quite as much as a smooth working surface. The bobbin worked threads would provide enough of a challenge to quilt around; a good crisp pressing would mash those seam allowances into submission.

A little extra layer of batting was added under the flower centers to give them a little extra oomph. The flowers and leaves were quilted very simply, mostly channel-style to create dimension without competing with the bobbin work for attention.

The real fun came when it was time to quilt the feathers into the nine-patch portion of the quilt. Chalk was used to mark the main spines. The individual feathers and filler vines were quilted without marking. My apologies for the dark picture. The truth is, at this point, I was more concerned with finishing by the deadline than chronicaling the progress!

With almost as much care as dressing my youngest child for his first day of kindergarten, my challenge quilt was gently folded and boxed for its trip to Paducah.

 I see nine-patch blocks as “fives” or “fours”, depending on the color placement. The nine-patches in this quilt were most definately “fives”. Add to that the feather vines and you have the name of the quilt.

My “Five and Vines” will travel with eleven other quilts as a part of the Pilgrim/Roy Challenge for the next year. You can click here to see the challenge quilts from this past year. These quilts are to be auctioned off this month to benefit the Museum of the American Quilter’s Society. This year’s collection can be a part of your local quilt show, just contact  Judy Schwender for more information.

One year from now, at the 2008 AQS Expo & Contest,  ”Five and Vines” and its traveling companions will be up for auction.