How exciting it was to see Whipup listed as one of the favorite websites of the staff of the Chicago Tribune’s Home & Garden section.

Kathreen, hope you could hear the shout-out all the way down there in Australia!

When I lived in Japan in my 20s I became fascinated with the little shrines along the roads, inside many restaurants and in many homes. Amid the noise and bustling along the street, I felt a little bit of calm every time I passed one of these places.

When I came across this fabric with angels printed on it a couple of years ago I bought two yards having no idea what I would do with it but thinking that it was cool that it looked like stained glass windows in a cathedral. With Christmas approaching I decided to use the fabric to make a small wall hanging for our daughter’s catechist as a gift. I played with several designs and background colors and decided that simple black sashing was all I needed. Any other colors seemed too distracting. The black made the small bits of white look like tiny lights. Placing the fabric on a cream background made the fabric look less luminous and dreary I thought.

Using a pinking blade, I cut two strips for a hanging sleeve on the back. Because I wasn’t quilting this piece, I could top stitch the hanging sleeve onto the backing before I attached it to the front of the piece. I slipped a piece of 1 1/4″ lattice through the back which was cut 1/2″ shorter than the width of the piece and I was done. I made two less than an hour and a half. I’m envisioning the recipient using it as a holiday decoration or to mark a meditation or prayer space in her home. If you can’t find any fabrics that help create the environment you are looking for, you could also embroider words or images onto plain fabric or take a photo of a cathedral window or some sacred text and transfer it to fabric with photo transfer fabric and your computer’s printer.

Master craftsman, designer of exquisite furniture, teacher extraordinaire and our friend Berthold Schwaiger died unexpectedly this week. Berthold was the powerhouse behind the Chicago Bauhaus Studios, which trained woodworkers of all backgrounds in Chicago. FunQuilts did some events with Berthold and our quilts never looked as beautiful as they did on his beds, which were often made from native woods and other natural materials. One memorable bed was made of osage orange tree wood and had a headboard woven from corn husks. I wish I had a picture of it to share with you.

Berthold’s death got me thinking about the legacy of the maker. Whether you are a hobby crafter who dabbles in numerous media or a full-fledged master craftsman like Berthold, the things you make are an expression of who you are. When we returned from China after adopting our daughter Berthold brought over a beautiful, dovetailed box as a gift for our new baby. The box refueled my interested in learning woodworking but as a new mom I knew it would have to wait. Last summer we commissioned Berthold to make a kitchen table for us. Who knew when he delivered it a month ago or so it would be the last time we’d see him?

As great as he was a craftsman, Berthold was also a wonderful teacher. Part of his legacy is also the huge number of people of people whom he inspired either to think about furniture in a new way or to become woodworkers themselves. As all you crafters out there wonder whether or not those handmade gifts you are rushing to complete will be appreciated by their recipients know that what matters more is that they are wonderful expressions of who you are and that you might inspire someone else to be creative just by making something yourself. Long live the makers.

It really was the best of times and worst of times, that first Christmas of 1995. It was the best because I had just met Bill, the man who would become my husband and business partner. It was the worst because his mother Connie, a young widow, lay clinging to life in a hospital room. She had a degenerative illness so we could not be optimistic that her health was going to improve. It was heart-breaking and so, so sad.

Their family did not have Christmas stockings for grown-ups, only for children. I decided that making some stockings and filling them with a few small treats was going to be the only real hope for Christmas cheer that we were going to have that year.

Before her illness Connie was a very talented weaver and had a very minimal aesthetic. “Less is more” was her motto. She needed a stocking made from sophisticated textiles, simply constructed. I pulled out my antique Japanese indigo fabrics, rescued from old kimonos that I bought in Tokyo and I cut them up (gasp! I loved her that much!) and made her a stocking. I filled it with some hand lotion, a pair of fuzzy socks, and a few small treats that would be nice to have in the hospital.

We were able for fill that stocking for three more Christmases before she died and I still have it. It was so perfect for her and for what she needed Christmas to be: comfortable, portable and not too overwhelming.

And then I needed to make a stocking for Bill. Bill had just hiked the Appalachian Trail, a 2,000 mile hike through the mountains of the east coast of the US which takes six months to complete if you hike all day every day. He was also missing his family’s cat, who had just died, so I made him a soft, furry, backpacker’s stocking.

A large, red heart made out of polymer clay sewn to the outside of the stocking conveyed my affection for him and the small jingle bells sewn around the top were festive without being annoying.

Eleven years later I still love this design, with its secret pockets and straps. The best part of the backpacker’s stocking is that I made all the pockets different sizes, which require thought to fill. The tiny pocket is excellent for a lottery ticket or a ticket to an event.

The long, zippered pocket on the back is fun for a new pen or a new hankerchief. The straps lend themselves to a magazine rolled up or a Toblerone bar. There’s a secret pocket on the back that is perfect for a gift certificate for a tai chi class or a fun photo.

The main compartment is big enough for socks, small books, new art supplies or a new pair of gloves.

If your family doesn’t have stockings, think about making one that reflects each family member’s personality and interests. They don’t have to “go together” or be perfectly crafted, but don’t hold back on the making part–the more they reflect the recipient, the better.

I wrote a rave review of Marcia Derse’s beautiful hand-dyed with resist technique fabrics that I saw at a quilt show earlier this year. Her website wasn’t ready then but it is now. She offers incredibly beautiful sample packs of ten 5″ x 6″ (12.7 cm x 15.2 cm) rectangles, each in a different color and pattern for US $25 each including shipping within the US. She will also ship internationally for an additional charge. You can also buy packs of a single hue or solids as well. Given the cost of these fabrics you might consider pairing them with a less-expensive commercially available solid if you are planning to do a larger piece.

[Note:She doesn't offer e-commerce on her site but you can see her offerings and call or email credit card information. If you are emailing credit card information, be sure to break up the information into two emails just to be safe.]

With the holidays approaching I thought I’d share a favorite idea for decorating a dinner table for a large family gathering. About ten years ago when my husband and I were planning the rehearsal dinner before our very small wedding, we wanted our guests to get to know each other and for them to know how much we valued the history we had with them. So instead of beautifully scripted placecards to direct guests to their seats, we combed through our photo albums and shoeboxes of miscellaneous pictures and found old photos we had of each guest or the spouse of the guest. We printed them with their name on cardstock and used them as placecards. The effect was so charming that we saw the waiters and waitresses before the dinner carefully looking and each one and smiling.

The other wonderful effect was that it started conversations between people who didn’t know each other. “When was that taken?” “Oh, remember how beautiful their wedding was..” “Look how much hair I had then!” “Our family used to rent this old beach house…” Guests who had recently married into the family got to see childhood pictures of their spouses that they may not have seen before. Children got to see their parents when they were children. These simple placecards provided a much-needed opportunity to stop and remember our histories with one another.

One of our ever thoughtful students dropped off a copy of an article in the December 2006 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine. The article was written by Ann Fahl and advocates an interesting method of folding quilts on the bias to avoid permanent creases. I knew that folding quilts the same way, in halves at each fold, would damage the fibers over time and the creases would be permanent, but I had never seen this method.

Prior to reading this article, I made a point of folding differently every quilt I take out for a lecture or show to a client. Some I fold in thirds, then random proportions. Others I’d fold in different proportions for storage.

But invariably as I am hurrying to pack up after a trunk show or lecture I’d end up folding a lot in half so only the back of the quilt is exposed because it’s faster. While I like this new technique and will use it once the quilts are back in the studio it does take a little practice to master. If you have some special quilts that you want to keep for future generations, try wrapping them in a clean sheet on the bias. Small pieces work well on an acid-free cardboard tube that is covered. Be sure to give your quilts plenty of air to breathe and avoid keeping them in plastic bags or containers for long. For more details about quilt conservation click here for an excellent article from the Canadian Conservation Institute.

This is the second part of a two-part series on my visit to the offices of Fine Cell Work and to one of their quilting classes at Her Majesty’s Prison Wandsworth, a men’s prison just outside of London.

For security and privacy reasons, I was unable to take photographs of the prisoners or anything other than a few quilts. There were seven prisoners in the classroom that night and I spoke with each of them about what they have learned by making quilts. Respecting Fine Cell Work’s policy of not asking about the circumstances of their incarceration I only asked each prisoner whether he would be there much longer. Some had years ahead of them. One was to be freed in 18 days.

The prisoners work on their projects in their cells at night. They come to class with the small plastic bags in their hands that contain the needle, thread and fabric pieces that they have been working on for the past week. Teachers marvel at how the prisoners layout their blocks inside their cells. I am amazed at how well they sew with the limited light sources provided in the cells. They only have access to tools and help once a week during the class.

The class takes place in the Vulnerable Persons Unit, which is a unit that separates prisoners who might be vulnerable to abuse if placed in the general prison population. On the way to the unit, I asked what types of crimes the prisoners in this wing had committed and was told “sex crimes.” “Including those against children?” I asked as I thought about my own precious 5-year old daughter. “Yes.” I was told. I reminded myself that no one grows up hoping to become a pedaphile or drug addict.

Here are a few of their stories:

Paul is understandably concerned about his future. He is 50 years old and when I spoke with him was 18 days away from his release. Despite 18 years of service in the British army he is worried about finding employment upon his release. During the day he works in the prison’s tailoring shop and hopes to become a sewing machine repairman upon his release. He joined Fine Cell Work’s quilting class three and a half months ago and is proud of his green hourglass quilt. He showed me with pride the pillow cover that he made with the leftover blocks. “I like building it up from nothing,” he says.

Henry, one of the group’s newest members, is 56 years old. With two more years of his sentence left he finds that quilting enables him to “put his mind on something else useful.” Once released he hopes to make a quilt with all of his family’s initials embroidered on it. He says the money he hopes to earn from the sale of his quilt will be useful upon his release. As he proudly holds up his nine-patch block I notice his wedding ring and think about his wife or partner.

Damon says that he’s tired because he’s got three more days until his next blood transfusion. At 24, he’s a recovering drug addict who also suffers from Sickle Cell Anemia. “I’ve never felt as clean in my whole life as I have here,” he says of his time in prison. I realize that although he’s young enough to be my son, he has fought more demons in his young life than I can even imagine. His quilting “takes his mind off things.” During the day he cleans the visitors’ waiting room. In six weeks he will be released and he cannot figure out how he is going to rebuild his life. He makes less in a week at the prison than he did in an hour at the bar where he worked before he was incarcerated. Although he has only ever worked in bars, he knows that with his history of addiction he cannot return there. He enjoys quilting with bright colors and is particularly proud of the baby quilts he made with very small pieces in the shape of a large heart.

Philip became a Listener at the prison. Although a prisoner himself, he underwent special training to counsel other inmates who are coping with depression or having a difficult time adjusting to prison life. At any time of the day or night he might be called to any prisoner’s cell so he can listen in confidence to someone who might be contemplating suicide. He quilted for one year because it was “nice to be able to create something quite beautiful.” “It’s a self-esteem booster,” he says. ” I never imagined I could make something beautiful.” He says that he felt very cumbersome in the beginning “as though I was sewing with large gloves on my hands.” Eventually he became more adept with the needle. Upon his release, he hopes to continue quilting so he can “make gifts for all of my family and friends.”

[Postscript: I am part of a group of three women who hope in the next two years to start in Chicago a pilot quilting program at a transitional house for women who have just been released from prison. I continue to research other therapeutic craft programs around the world.]

This post has been six months in the making and proves that you never know where life will take you. In this case it took me to a quilting class at Her Majesty’s Prison Wandsworth just outside of London. This experience changed forever how I see quiltmaking and all because I read a post on Whipup! This is the first of two posts on this experience and I hope these posts will encourage Whipup’s readers to think about about crime, punishment and craft in new ways.

How It All Started

Last Spring I read a post on Whipup about Fine Cell Work, the 10-year-old, London-based organization that teaches needlework in nearly 400 prisoners in 22 prisons in England and Scotland. Having written my master’s thesis on the role of gardens as therapeutic and job-training devices in a women’s prison and having been a professional quiltmaker for the past seven years, I was fascinated by their work. We had a business trip planned to London so I emailed them asking if I could be of some help to them during our trip. I thought perhaps that we could donate fabric, teach a class, somehow support them. We decided through a series of emails that Bill and I would meet with the teachers at Fine Cell Works’ offices and that I would attend the Tuesday night quilting class at the men’s prison while Bill stayed at our flat with our daughter.

The Teachers
The best way of telling you about the character of these volunteer teachers and the Fine Cell Work staff would be to say that if I were on a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean, I would want these women in my lifeboat. They’re smart, capable, fun, compassionate and optimistic.

Each goes to a men’s prison once a week to teach prisoners how to make quilts entirely by hand. They also work with the Fine Cell Work staff to sell the needlepoint and applique pillows and quilts at various locations in England. The teachers have differing approaches to the process but they all believe that offering someone who is at the lowest point in their life a chance to make something beautiful is worth their time. They do not ask the prisoners the circumstances of their incarceration beyond “Will you be here a long time?” To them it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the prisoners find the work improves their self-esteem, helps them cope with their situation, calms them as they try to overcome addiction in some cases, and prepares some for the bleak future that awaits many of them when they are released. To a non-crafter this may sound absurd, but to those of us who have experienced the transformative power of making things, it is easy to understand. The teachers report that some prisoners save the money they receive from the sale of their quilts through Fine Cell Work for accomodations upon their release while others send proceeds to their families, who are the unintended victims of their crimes.

The teachers gather donated fabrics and designs for new quilters to learn the basics, while prisoners with more advanced skills sometimes work with the teachers to design their own quilts. Sometimes patrons of Fine Cell Work commission a specific design with specific fabrics which are then purchased for the project. Aside from the time with the teachers once a week, prisoners do the needlework in their cells in the evenings after they have finished their prison work. The teachers invest a tremendous amount of time and energy preparing for each prisoner’s needs and are sometimes frustrated that a prisoner is moved to another prison in the middle of a project.

I asked the teachers what motivated them to teach prisoners needlework. They answered that most of the prisoners seemed to have lacked encouragement in their childhoods. After being praised for improving his quilting technique, one prisoner told a teacher, “No one has ever told me that I did anything well before.” The teachers know that the prisoners have committed terrible crimes, but they also believe that people can change. The quilting class is voluntary so only prisoners interested in learning show up.

“Have you ever felt threatened?” I asked the teachers. One teacher said that she feels anxious walking from the entry of the prison to the classroom, but that she never feels any anxiety around the prisoners she is teaching because she knows them so well. Another told a story of being in the prison one evening and hearing a tremendous amount of banging. She could tell that periodically there were a lot of prisoners banging on their cell bars. She thought a riot was about to take place and asked the guard what was going on. The guard explained that there was a World Cup football match being broadcast and that the prisoners were banging on the bars when their team scored a goal. The teachers and staff all laughed at this story but were aware that it could have ended differently.

I’ve added these women to my list of personal heroes. Bill and I gave them each some of our books and fabric, but that doesn’t seem like nearly enough. We’re going to keep in touch, maybe offer to donate some designs if they’re interested. I just know this isn’t the last we’ve seen of each other.

Next post: Part Two - Quilting Class in the Prison

A Whiptips reader asked about favorite notions one would use to assemble a sewing basket for a new sewer. Here’s a list of my favorite notions for quiltmaking:

Olfa Rotary Cutter - says on the package guaranteed forever. I’ve had mine since 1986 and no complaints. Use the 45mm for most projects, the smaller diameter blades for cutting circles. Get the pinking blade insert for clothing or other projects. Save old blades and use them for paper projects. Thou shalt not use the same blades or scissors for fabric as you do for paper. Paper dulls the blades much faster. Dedicate a separate pair of scissors for fabric. NOTE: Never, ever, ever, even for a second, put your rotary cutter down without closing the blade. One of our students lost the tip of her finger when she forgot to close the blade. Another sewer left a blade exposed on the cutting table in our studio when our daughter was a toddler and I still hypervenhilate when I think about it. ALWAYS CLOSE THE BLADE!

Olfa (or O’Lipfa) cutting mat and ruler - also critical for quilters.

Clover seam ripper - we have many seam rippers but this is the one we always look for first. It fits beautifully in the hand.

Clover Bias Tape Maker (25mm) - this brand is far superior to every other brand out there for making bindings for quilts (we describe the technique for using it in the Modern Quilt Workshop).

Schmetz sewing machine needles - universals are great for machine piecing and quilting but have the denim and leather one on hand for making bags or hemming jeans.

John James Millenium Collection needles - we hand sew only sleeves and labels but this collection is excellent for all sewing projects.

daisy head pins - I find these far more ergonomic that ceramic head pins, but you have to keep them away from the iron.

Signature thread - we piece and quilt with Signature thread we buy in cones. Mettler makes beautiful threads but we use so much thread we really have to buy 3,000 yd. cones.

magnetic pin cushion - it’s amazing how helpful this can be. You can sew so much faster when you can just toss your pins in the general direction of the pin cushion and they stick.

schoolboard chalk - great for numbering parts of a quilt once you’ve laid them out. Comes out in the wash easily. If you chalk heavily, presoak before you wash.

Nifty Notions Fine Line Disappearing marker - disappears without washing.

Double-sided tape - to prevent templates from slipping around while cutting.

Scissors - My all-time favorite pair of scissors was purchased in Japan in 1986. The brand is “1910″ (Silky) and in 20 years on quiltmaking they have never needed sharpening. I love the way they feel in my hand and I haven’t found any other brand that I like as much. We have several pair of Fiskars around the studio that are great for general cutting but they don’t cut through batting well. I have a new pair of really small Acme Titanium scissors which are great for snipping curves or loose threads.

A walking foot for your machine - we use this for some piecing and all machine quilting that is done (mostly straight-line stitching or small projects) on our Bernina machine.

Quilter’s Dream Batting - not a notion but everyone always asks me about batting. We only use Quilter’s Dream. They have several lofts of cotton, which is what we use. For occasional charity work we have used their poly/cotton batting and it works well too. It just doesn’t give the pucker that 100% cotton does when it comes out of the dryer. We think Quilter’s Dream cotton has the best drape and is very durable. We have just bought one of their new washable wool battings and can’t wait to give it a try.

T-Fal Iron and the Rowenta Expert Iron - we get a lot of questions about irons. Our T-Fal iron is a workhorse but when a quilt is being sent to a client, we get out the Rowenta Expert Iron, which is the greatest iron ever. Rowenta sent us this iron for us to try otherwise I couldn’t justify spending the equivalent of trans-Atlantic round-trip airfare on an iron. But if you have the money and you do a lot of sewing, there’s nothing better. Beware that our model does not have auto-shut-off and it is an electricity hog so be sure to turn it off the second you’re done with it.

Sakura Pigma Micron .02 pen - this is the pen we use to sign our quilts. We have used the thicker version for signing class quilts. It’s waterproof and fadeproof so won’t run or fade in the wash. It comes in a dozen or so colors and various line widths.

This is my general list. I’m sure readers would love to know your favorites so feel free to post your must-have notions.

There’s a new movie in the US that is supposed to be very scary called “Snakes on a Plane,” about a bunch of snakes that get loose on a plane. In 2002, ten days after we adopted our then 11-month old daughter in China, we boarded a 20-hour nonstop flight from Hong Kong to Chicago with 32 other newly adopted, mostly sick babies on board: way scarier than snakes! Happily for us, our daughter slept the whole way but I realized in that moment that I’d better start designing some lightweight, portable, disposable entertainment for air travel.

Our favorite solution to mid-flight boredom is a series of double-sided puzzles printed from our daughter’s favorite photographs. This may not sound like much but carry one of these in your purse the next time you have to wait somewhere with a child and you will be amazed. If you don’t have children, imagine giving one to a restless niece or nephew to play with in a restaurant. You, my friend, will be proclaimed a hero.

Here’s all you do. Find two pictures your child likes. Print one on each side of a piece of cardstock. We use letter-size because it fits nicely on the tray table on the plane. Using a rotary cutter, cut the cardstock into as many pieces as your child can comfortably handle in a jigsaw puzzle. Try 10-20 pieces for a 3-yr old, 30-40 for a 4-yr old, etc. Put the pieces in a plastic bag with a zipper-type closure and you are ready to go. Pictures with lots of similar objects are harder than ones with lots of easily differentiated objects. The best part of this is that if you lose a puzzle piece in transit it’s no great loss. You can print up a new one when you get home.

Before we had our own fabric line I used to flip casually through bolts of fabric at the quilt shop unaware of who designed it, how many inks were on the selvedge or how elegantly the repeat looked spread over a couple of yards. But yesterday when the sample cuts of our fifth line of fabrics arrived from FreeSpirit I realized that I look at fabric differently now, so I thought I’d share the perspective of the fabric designer.

The fabric company generally suggests how many colorways of how many patterns they are interested in having you design. Much like the way a singer approaches music, a designer chooses a strategy for a line of fabrics. There are singers who do covers of songs written by someone else just as there are fabric designers who have a particular interest in recoloring existing designs. These designers can’t use any designs under copyright but generally anything that is considered to be historic, vintage or looks like some wallpaper you’ve seen before either never had a copyright on it or the copyright has expired. In any case the design is now considered to be in the public domain and is up for grabs. In this case, neither the the original designer of the artwork nor his/her heirs receives any compensation. When designing a line of recolrings, the designer gives a swatch of the fabric to the mill and indicates which colors are to be changed. No original hand drawings or digital files are needed, just swatches of the colors to be swapped out. Because the fabric has already been printed, the repeats are already done and the production is more predictable.

The other species of designer is the singer-songwriter type of designer who designs everything from scratch. All of the artwork is original and the production process is far more time-consuming, unpredicatble and complicated from a technical perspective. Some of the designers who work in this manner start from line drawings, digital files, gouache paintings or hand-dyeing. Some give this art directly to the mill to convert to a repeat while others painstakingly create the repeat themselves using graphic design software. They generally deliver a digital file to the mill. Although most designers are paid royalties on the amount of yardage sold, not on the amount of time spent on the design process, some designers opt for controlling as much of the process as they can, even though it is not financially in their interests to do so. As we are this latter type of designer, we try not to think about just how much time we spend getting from scratch to the digital file with repeats.

Although the US grows a tremendous amount of cotton, quilting fabric companies report that the minimum yardage required to print something at a US fabric mill is not economically feasible for the “new is better, new gets them into the shop” mindset that pervades the quilting world. So US companies often have their fabrics printed in Korea, Japan or China. After the designs are sent to the mills, repeats are designed if this hasn’t been done by the designer, and engravings of the designs are done. Rough prints, called “strike-offs,” are done by hand with different screens for each ink used. Those are the little dots you see along the selvedge of the fabric. The mill that FreeSpirit uses can accomodate 18 different inks in a pattern and repeats of up to 30.” More sophisticated machinery is required for larger repeats and more inks. Amazingly, the room full of computers at the mill operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, churning out new engravings.

It is usually months before the designer sees the strike-offs and it is a nerve-wracking wait. Quilting fabrics are launched at either the annual International Quilt Market in Houston, Texas in October or at the Spring Market which changes locations annually in the US. Designers work with fabric companies to make corrections to the strike-offs, sometimes they turn out the way you envisioned and sometimes they don’t.

Sample quilts are made, sometimes by the designer, sometimes by a contract sewer and they are taken to Market. These “free” patterns are given away by the fabric companies to promote the line to shop owners and many find their way online into the blog community. As a designer at Market we explain the line and how it can be best used by quilters but there are so many fabric companies at Market and the buyers are so bombarded with sales pitches from all of the fabric companies that they don’t necessarily want to see everything.

A couple of years ago when we were launching our Prism Watercolors line, a lovely (we thought) line of medium and lighter-toned fabrics that later appeared in a very successful quilt in American Patchwork & Quilting, a distributor in Europe flat out told me that they weren’t interested in seeing anything with lighter tones because pastels wouldn’t sell in Europe. A whole continent of sales gone because the distributor wouldn’t even look at the line.

Despite the long process it takes for a design to become fabric, it is a thrill to see bolts in shops. On a trip last year to Tokyo my heart skipped a beat when I saw our fabrics on the shelves in a quilting store there. So in a month I’ll go to Houston, hope for a good reception to our new line, come home and start the process all over again.

It shouldn’t be called City Museum. It should be called Phantasmagoria Central or something. For those of you who have never heard of St. Louis, Missouri, it is the gateway to the American West and located on the Mississippi River. It is home to the City Museum, way up there on my list of amazing places I’ve been in the world. If you are a creative person, a maker of any sorts, prepare to be amazed, astonished and thoroughly inspired. And any child over the age of 2, and likely all the grown-ups you know too, will beg to go back.

The City Museum is located in the site of a former shoe factory and occupies an entire city block. It is made of recycled industrial parts and architectural salvage. It is part adventure playground, part Alice in Wonderland and all organic, intuitive, outsider art on steroids.

You rarely know where the tunnels you are crawling through or the stairs you are climbing will lead you, you only know that you are entering another world designed by a sculptor with an amazing imagination. You’ll be thinking about how cool it was long after you’ve returned home and you’ll spot a key someone has dropped in the street and you’ll think about all of the different things you could do with that key–things that you might not have thought about had you not gone to the City Museum.

The spindles on the staircase–rollers from the conveyors of the shoe factory, the mosaic on the column–one night’s worth of oyster shells from a local seafood restaurant, the wall next to the elevator–old engraving plates from a printer, the spiral climbing structure over there–used to be a refrigerant tube used in a beer factory.

Yes that is our friends’ 3-year old climbing through a suspended tunnel made out of salvaged rebar 5 stories above the ground. It is connected to an abandoned FBI plane at one end and a series of climbing structures and old buses and a fire engine on the other. Did I mention that the place stays open until 1 am? We stayed for 5 hours and left only because our young children needed to go to bed. We didn’t even make it to the glass-tube slide that goes through the shark pool, see the acrobats or enter the Museum of Mirth, Mystery and Mayhem.

Going to the City Museum will make you rethink your definition of materials because it shows just how great design can make anything interesting. You will feel like a kid again, head swirling in amazement and longing to go make something.

I live outside of Chicago, where we take our winters seriously. And for those of you who live in the Northern Hemisphere, I don’t need to remind you that (sigh) winter is coming. But you’d never know by the “winter” clothing that is sold for girls–thin little cotton skirts and leggings that would chill the body long before the first snowflakes fall. So I decided to make our 5-year-old daughter some reversible pants with either two layers of flannel or one layer of denim and a layer of flannel. Best of all, if she spills something while we’re traveling or out somewhere, you turn ‘em inside out in the bathroom and presto chango your child is presentable! It’s this magical feat that caused her to name them her “Fancy Pants.”

She lived in these pants and others like them last winter and they only took an hour and a half or so to make. I used a simple elastic-waist pants pattern with three or four seams. I made two pair and sewed them together before I put the elastic in the waist. The added bonus is that I made one a size larger and then turned up the fab Pucci-esque print for added style and more wearings next year.

I am frequently asked where I get my ideas. Students want recommendations of magazines or activities that will encourage their creative juices to flow. In general I recommend a cross-pollination approach, encouraging them to go to the library and check out some books on wildly different topics such as knot-tying, African textiles, geology, reptiles, haiku and graphic design - the less you know about the topic the better. The idea is that exposing yourself to a variety of new stimuli can sometimes be the catalyst for new ideas. In fact one of my favorite quilts, Happy Accidents, (above) was inspired by a piece on National Public Radio in the US about a new book describing the invention of aniline dyes. The inventor was trying to develop a cure for malaria and dropped the beaker which permanantly stained the floor bright purple. Prior to that all dyes were plant-based and less intense in color. I got the book out of the library and read all about how this invention changed the fashion world and clothing as we know it. I would never have been able to make that quilt had I not heard that story.

If, however, I had to choose the single best book on creativity that I’ve ever read, it would have to be Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit:Learn it and Use it for Life. My favorite aspect of this book is that she debunks the myth that somehow you’re either born with creativity or you’re not. She explains that there are processes, mindsets and environments that encourage creativity and those that don’t. I’d love to hear the thoughts of others about this book or about what they have found that encourages creativity.

Our quilting sisters in Gee’s Bend have had images of their quilts captured on US postage stamps. You can buy them on the US Postal Service website. This is poetic justice to me - women of color in one of the most economically depressed areas of our country get their craft on postage stamps. Best news I’ve heard all day.

I don’t understand a lot of quilt competitions because often they seem to reward technique but not original thought. One of the big exceptions is Quilt National. The legend goes that this biennial, international quilt show began as an outlet for contemporary quilters whose work was not understood or appreciated by the traditional quilters who reigned supreme over the quilting competitions in the US.

Over the years I have had my frustrations with the quilts selected for Quilt National. Sometimes the quilts go in the opposite direction in the extreme–wildly sloppy craftsmanship, embellished to death amid a sea of overworked surface design. It’s as if the jurors were rewarding the pieces that most reject the functional quilt. But this year we have reason to be optimistic as two of the jurors have bodies of work that include exquisite examples of contemporary quilting.

This has to be the most competitive quilt competition anywhere, but I really think it’s a great opportunity to submit something, just to have a deadline and a new goal. The deadline is Sept 19.

I submitted a very meaningful quilt I made four years ago before I understood what the competition is about and I received the nicest rejection letter ever. The letter said something like almost everyone whose quilt was accepted that year got a rejection letter several times before that and that I should submit again. Bill submitted the above quilt and was also rejected. A month later Country Living Magazine filled an entire page with that quilt and four years later, it’s still one of our most popular quilts.

This year I’m going to try again. I will post some ideas about some origami box or something I will make out of my rejection letter. Hey, that could be the other competition–what creative thing can you make from your Quilt National rejection letter? I would love to have readers who submit entries to Quilt National post their entries here so we can celebrate everyone just being brave enough to enter. We’ll cheer on those who make it and those who don’t.

Imagine going to an academic conference about something you were actually interested in? The biennial symposium at the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska (right smack in the middle of the country for those of you who aren’t familiar with US geography) will take place in March 1-3, 2007. The deadline to submit an abstract for a paper is Tuesday, August 15 via email, fax or mail. We’re not talking high-school term paper here, we’re talking a chance to research and write about something really interesting related to quilts. Even if you don’t have an interest in presenting a paper, you might consider going.

I was invited to speak at this conference two years ago on creative collaboration and will be submitting an abstract again, this time on the role of quilting as a tool for rehabilitation in prisons around the world. It’s a fascinating group of people and a chance to learn about interesting current and historical research that people you’ve never heard of are doing. And although you can expect cold, snowy weather in Nebraska in March, you can also expect to see (about 45 mins away) HUGE flocks of 5-6 ft. tall Sand Hill Cranes resting in the farm fields along their migratory routes back north, marking the coming of spring.

In the mid-90s I was at a fork in the road in my professional life and was trying to decide between two directions. I read somewhere that one should choose three words that describe who you want to be and that those words would provide guidance for situations such as mine.

So I came up with mine–Love, Learn and Serve. They have indeed guided me on a daily basis. If I’m doing some of them each day I’m happy and if I’m not I feel as though something is missing. When I met Bill it became our family motto.

A couple of years ago I asked a student of ours with exquisite handwriting to write them with a giant marker on three pieces of paper so we could frame them. They are in our bedroom and are among the first words I see every morning. I’m telling you this is surprisingly powerful.

So I’m thinking now of other places to put words that are really important to each of us. Inside a handbag? Knit into a scarf? Appliqued on a quilt? I’d love to hear about any projects that people have done with words that are important to them.

Just writing the words and putting them in a frame was easy. It was figuring out which words to put in the frame that was the hard part.

Whiptips is an crafts advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving your comments. View the Whiptips archive here. You can submit questions, to whiptips@gmail.com. Please include photos with your questions!

A couple weeks ago, Whiptips asked readers to send in some questions about unfinished quilt blocks. Thank you for sharing photos of your projects.

Paisley Womble’s

Shelina’s:

Weeks replies:
Below are sketches of what I would do with these specific pieces if they were mine. From these two pieces one could create a nice tote bag, a table runner or a couple of nice napping quilts without too much work. For those of you that have other unfinished pieces for which you have lost enthusiasm, here are a few guidelines for giving them new life.

For things that don’t lie flat
Steam iron them as much as possible, attach them through quilting or appliqué to a foundation piece of some sort and then quilt the heck out of them. I recommend to Paisley Womble that she make hers into a tote. If she decides to do this, she might want to have a somewhat rigid, yet flexible, foundation to the tote such as Fast2Fuse to prevent the curling points from curling. Quilting densely will also help the piece lie flat.

Oddly Shaped Pieces
Both Pailey Womble and Slhelina could cut their blocks up and distribute them in different ways in a quilt (see illustrations). If you gasp at the notion of cutting up a Mariner’s Compass, think about it this way: A cut-up Mariner’s Compass that creates beautiful corners in a quilt is far more useful than one that is in tact yet stays in a plastic storage container forever. What’s most important is that there isn’t one lone piece floating around. Anchoring corners or creating a band across the entire quilt will make the piecing seem intentional.

Unfortunate Color Choices
If you have pieces that have odd colors in them, see if adding some new colors will diffuse the differences. Sometimes adding more colors improves the relationship between two that don’t seem to work well together—kind of like that good-tempered uncle who always seems to be able to diffuse the squabbles at holiday dinners!