Mother Earth’s ABC
Sieglinde Schoen Smith
Breckling Press; $15.95

Fans of the award-winning quilt “Mother Earth and Her Children” will love this charming tale of the coming of spring and the transformation of a seedling into a zinnia. The book includes instructions for transferring each letter onto your own sewing project as well as the embroidery instructions. A wonderful gift for the holidays.

Here’s a link to order the book through Amazon.

I decided to name our teleclass series, and I picked PQ Café Business Series. I think listening to the conversations is perfect with a nice cup of coffee or, my choice, herb tea. Stop in the café next month when I’ll interview Ann Anderson about publishing patterns. Ann is a pattern designer and the founder of Quiltwoman.com, a pattern publishing company and distributor. Ann also published the wildly popular Publish Your Patterns!, the definitive guide to starting and running a successful pattern publishing business. Earlier this year Ann sold her business and today enjoys focusing on art and textile design. She also consults with designers about starting and growing a pattern business.

The teleclass is scheduled for Nov. 13 at 8 pm, Eastern Standard Time. Details are here.

Our last class resulted in 250 signups and a large number of purchases of the audio. Since so many people wanted the audio, it made more sense to include the audio free with the purchase of the class. That way, too, if you can’t make the class, you can still listen at your leisure, even with your cup of tea.

If you been following my niece Hailey’s quilt, you know she was working on her first quilt. When I asked if she wanted to show her quilt in my guild show, she jumped at the chance. So we set a schedule to finish in time. Here she is with the quilt at the show.

I’m really proud of the work she did on the quilt. I helped her get started, but I had little input into the finished product. She chose the pattern and fabrics, learned to rotary cut and operate the sewing machine. I helped her tie the quilt, so we could talk. I sewed on the front of the binding by machine and then she sewed down the back by hand. She even made her own label for the quilt, which she named Jungle King. On our drive back from the show, she asked when the next show was. I’m hopeful she wants to start a new project after Christmas.

I’m still on a cloud after our teleclass on Tuesday evening. One of our listeners asked, “How do I type a standing ovation?” Thanks, Allison! It was our first of what I hope is a long series of teleclasses geared to serious or business quilters. Our first class featured a Q&A format with Gloria Hansen. Gloria’s latest book, Digital Essentials: The Quilt Maker’s Must-Have Guide to Images, Files and More, was just published in late September. The book is a wealth of valuable information and she shared lots of information on the importance of resolution, printing on fabric, working with images for slide shows, copyright protection of your images on the Web and more. I think our conversation is a great compliment to her book. We taped the conversation and it will be available next week as either an audio download or a physical CD. I’ll also have copies in Houston. And, thanks to everyone who stuck with us despite the technical difficulties. I know you’ll agree it was definitely worth it. And, thanks to Gloria for helping us kick off the series.

In the Summer issue of The Professional Quilter, David Nagle wrote about the importance of keeping good business records. Considering the current economy, I think it’s very important to have an accurate picture of the operational and financial effectiveness of your business. Without it, we can’t make good business decisions.

Part of recordkeeping is knowing how long to keep your records. (I tend to keep too much for too long, so David’s advice is helpful to me.) Here are his tips:

Generally, you need to keep supporting records of all income, expense and credit items that you claim on your tax returns for the period of limitations the Internal Revenue Service requires for those items. This is defined as the number of years after your return was due within which time you are allowed to amend your return
or to claim a refund or credit. The information below is a summary of the IRS guidelines:

1. For most tax returns filed on time with no tax due, keep supporting records for
three years after the later of the filing deadline, extension deadline or actual
filing date.
2. If you had income that you should have reported (but did not) that was 25% in
excess of your gross income, keep records for six years after your final payment
was made.
3. Keep all employment tax records for the later of four years after the employment
tax became due or was paid.
4. Keep records to support any deduction for bad debt loss for seven years.
5. In cases of someone required to file a return (and does not) or in the case of
fraudulent returns, the IRS requires records be kept indefinitely.I suggest that
after the period of limitations for your supporting records has expired, then you
make copies on CD (or DVD) before destroying them. Then, store the discs in a safe
off-site location.

Now, what do you do with all the papers you’ve purged after following David’s advice?
It will take me too long to put them through the paper shredder, so I’ll have a
box ready for the next free shredding day in my county.

To read more of David’s article, which includes specifics on what records to keep
and a sample recordkeeping system, you can purchase Issue 104 or start a subscription
here.

Quilts From the Selvage Edge
Karen Griska
American Quilt Society; $19.95

Who would have thought all those selvages tossed in the trash could make such beautiful quilts? Karen Griska takes the selvages, sews them to muslin foundations and them cuts them to size as squares, strips or riangles and creates quilts. They are fun and folksy, andn I know I won’t look at selvages the same way again.

Here’s a link to order the book through Amazon.

You’ve just finished your latest quilt, are proud of your accomplishment and want to show it off. You first share it with your family, then with your small quilting “bee” and finally take it to show and tell at your next guild meeting. For some quilters, this is enough. For others, it is not. Many quilters want to see how their quilts stack up against the competition, whether that is hanging the quilt in a local, non-judged show or entering it in a major juried and judged competition. In addition to gaining recognition for your quilts, you also educate other quilters and the general public about quilting and its standards. For local guild shows, this is often a primary reason for holding a show. Additionally, if your quilt is entered in a judged show, you can set goals for improvement based on feedback from the judges or your own comparison with winning quilts. And, of course, you might just win a prize, either a ribbon, cash ! or merchandise.

Impartiality in judging is important and one way this is done is through use of a panel of independent judges, usually three. Judges can be trained and certified by the National Quilting Association, or they can be trained through experience. They all adhere to similar standards of judging, although final results will be varied based on the individuals.

Judging can take place either before or after the quilts are hung, and each method has advantages. Judging quilts after they are hung allows the visual impact of the quilt to be better appreciated. Judging quilts before they are hung is usually faster, but visual impact takes second place to the ability to view the workmanship.
Judges often use scorecards or evaluation forms and either a point system, an elimination system or a combination of the two to evaluate the individual entries. The point system uses a predetermined maximum number of! points to judge specific areas, for example, up to 20 points for the color and design, up to 20 points for construction, up to 15 points for finishing, etc., with the total equaling 100 points. Each quilt is judged on its own merits, and the quilt with the highest total number of points is awarded the first place.

The elimination system, on the other hand, allows each judge to evaluate a quilt, make comments on its technique and offer feedback for improvement. If the judge feels the quilt should be held for ribbon/award consideration, it is put aside. If not, it is released from the competition portion. After the quilts are judged in this preliminary fashion, the held quilts are compared to others in its category and the winners are determined.

Neither system is perfect. Regardless, judges evaluate quilts against the same standards. Here are just a few of the commonly held standards that judges use:

General Appearance
• The quilt makes an overall positive statement upon viewing
• The quilt is clean and “ready to show,” i.e., no visible marks, no loose threads, no pet hair, no bearding, no offensive odors.
• The quilt’s edges are not distorted. This is easier to gauge when the quilt is hung.

Design and Composition
• All the individual design elements of the quilt – top, quilting, choice of fabric, sashes, borders, embellishments, finishing – are unified.
• The design is in proportion and balanced.
• Borders or other edge treatments enhance the quilt appearance.

Workmanship
• Piecing is precise, corners match and points are sharp.
• Seams, including those of sashing and borders, are secure, straight and flat.
• Quilting stitches are straight where intended and curved where intended.

As noted, judges consider certain “standards” when evaluating quilts — and the list is really quite extensive — but how do they decide which quilts are the prizewinners? And what is more important, design or workmanship? In the end I think it comes down to design, the quilt with the greater visual impact. But even the quilt with the greatest visual impact cannot rescue poor workmanship.

The Professional Quilter has an ongoing column geared just for judges, but it’s useful for those who are entering shows. The current issue’s column by Scott Murkin focuses on phrasing judging comments. You can purchase Issue 104 or can start a subscription here. We also offer two resources recommended for those in judging programs. You can learn more about The Challenge of Judging by Jeannie Spears and Judging Quilts by Katy Christopherson on our resources page.

A Quilter’s Diary
Mimi Dietrich
That Patchwork Place

Have you ever wanted to chronicle your life in a quilt? That’s exactly what Mimi Dietrich did in her 25-block sampler quilt. Mimi shows you how to use simple pieced and appliqué blocks to create a diary quilt. Break your life into 5- to 10-year segments and then select from more than 150 pieced and appliquéd blocks to tell the story. To guide you, Mimi has inspiring questions and themes to consider. To finish her quilt, Mimi created a label with a legend to the quilt, tracing each traditional block to the story on the quilt. This is a fun and creative way to savor parts of your or someone else’s life.

Here’s a link to order the book through Amazon.

School started on Tuesday where I live, and on Monday my niece Hailey came over to work on her quilt. Next up was adding the borders, preparing the back, sandwiching the pieces and then tying the quilt. Here she is tying the quilt. She said she liked the tying part, as it’s easier than handling the whole top on the sewing machine. She has to finish tying and then bind the quilt before she can enjoy using it. I think she’s doing a fabulous job!

Tuesday evening my eight-year-old niece, Nicole, came to spend the night. After she helped cook dinner she wanted to sew, so we looked through The Best of Sewing Machine Fun for Kids by Nancy Smith and Linda Milligan with Possibilities. Nicole decided she would make scrunchies and a cloth lunch bag for school, which starts next week. She headed off to my fabric stash to select what I thought would be a couple of pieces for the scrunchies. Well, she came back with enough for ten. And that’s what she made. Here she is at the sewing machine.

Her skills have improved since she made her first skirt this spring. She’s more careful about the seam allowance and pays more attention to the project. And, while I cut the fabric, she followed the directions and worked without my guidance after the first few. She made two scrunchies that evening. The next morning shortly after breakfast she said, “I’m bored. Can we sew now?” Do you think she’s after my heart?! So she continued and made eight more. We took a break in the afternoon, went to the movies, out for ice cream and to visit the alpacas at the end of my street. After we got back, she wanted to make the lunch bag. She had picked out fabric for two bags, but we only had time for one. When her mom arrived about 6:15 to pick her up, she had just the top edge to turn and sew to finish the bag. She’s so excited that when people will ask about her bag or scrunchies, she can say, “I made it.” Here she is with the array of scrunchies.