November 19, 2018 Podcast
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Guest: Donna Desoto
Topics: quilting inspiration
She says: "I put out a local quilt challenge Inspired By The Beatles, and just thought if I got 20 people to participate in that challenge that that would be really wonderful. And as it turned out, word spread and 150 people participated. Once that project wrapped up, everybody wanted to know what was next. Then I got the idea in the conjunction with the centennial anniversary of the National Parks, I put out a call for Inspired by the National Parks. And as those quilts were wrapping up, the artists again wanted to know what comes after this. And that's when I came up with the idea of having people do quilts in honor of Elvis."
Guest: Mary Abreu
Topics: quilting community
She says: "If there's a will, there's a way. It's amazing how we can make do with so little when we really have this desire to do something. I get frustrated occasionally with the online community where someone will ask what's a good machine for a beginner and I see people suggesting these very expensive machines. And I think that it can make some people who feel like they can't afford that this isn't a hobby they should pursue. And that's really not the case. It should be very accessibly and approachable for anyone. You can sew by hand."
Guest: Roseann Meehan Kermes
Topics: quilting trends
She says: "When I first started quilting, it was uncommon to machine-quilt your projects. Everything was done by hand. And I remember there was a big hullabaloo at the time when people started doing machine quilting and then when the longarm machines started to come into play -- are those real quilts? But what I've been seeing lately is that there are a lot of people who send their quilt out to a longarm quilter, but there are more and more people who are doing their quilting on a domestic machine. And I think it's in part that they are trying to save money, but also that they are intrigued by the idea that they can do the whole process themselves."