Dear Quilting Friends,

As I write this, National Quilting Day is coming to a close. I so hope you all got a little quilting, or quilt-related, time in. I sure did! I just did the quilting on a table topper we’ll be making in the May episode of Quilt Out Loud! The Aurfil 28 weight sewed perfectly in my Baby Lock Espire and I didn’t have to change a thing; not tension, nothing. Plus, I moved a sewing table into the next room over from my studio and we’ll be taping the how-tos in there. Gosh, it’s amazing how something so simple as rearranging one’s space is so exciting.

Earlier in the evening I went to a quilt show—and I didn’t leave my studio. It was a virtual quilt exhibit of real quilts, complete with awards, at the Quilters in Second Life Spring Quilt Contest. Dressed for the occasion (oh boy do we shop in Second Life and everything fits!), we all gathered “in-world” at the appointed hour and waited as the prizes were announced. JoAnn Hoffman won first prize. The competition was tough, but this quilt has it all. The floral design is lovely, and the quilting, well, I since found out she is an accomplished long arm quilter. It shows!

Click for a larger image.

I asked JoAnn to write something for the newsletter:

“Aurifil Thread sponsored a Spring Quilt contest on National Quilt Day, March 20, 2010.

This was the first virtual quilt show of its kind held in a virtual world called Second Life.

You first have to log in and travel to Caravane City, a quilt and patchwork land. There you can meet up with a group of quilters called "Quilters in SL." You can chat and party, and travel the world together. You would be surprised who you can meet!

I entered my quilt "Midnight Blossoms" and it won first place. I won a beautiful suitcase of Aurifil thread presented by Alex Veronelli from Aurifil. I even received a virtual ribbon. Sounds impossible, but it's all true. We were from all over the world attending a quilt show together.

How amazing is that!”

Adding to the uniqueness of this event, the winning quiltmaker rode a bucking bull before the awards ceremony and drank Guinness while accepting her award. Have you ever seen that at a real life quilt show?

Back in real life, be watching for an e-mail announcing the debut of the first segment of the first episode of Quilt It! The Longarm Quilting Show Tuesday, April 6th. Kimmy Brunner is my first guest on the show. What a great teacher!

In the meantime, Rob and I are up to more gold-related sewing antics on Quilt Out Loud!. The “Flowing Lines” table runner we make is a quick and stunning project. I’m finishing one up for my kitchen table. I'm getting so much sewing done, I'm calling March "National Sewing Month!"

Happy quilting,
Jodie Davis

Watch out, Sew-mando has arrived!  Jodie and Rob arrive at Magical Threads, which is just off the square in Dahlonega, housed in an adorable Victorian house. Rob dons his Sew-mando vest and Jodie quickly takes her leave to shop for fabric.

A sewing machine dealer and repair person himself, Rob takes the opportunity to show you five tips to keep your sewing machine running smoothly between visits to your sewing machine dealer.

With the Baby Lock sewing machine cleaned and ready for sewing, Rob joins Jodie in another room at Magical Threads to see what the sewing project is for the day. And it’s a beauty! “Flowing Lines” by Elizabeth Rosenberg is from Skinny Quilts and Table Runners II. Rob and Jodie demonstrate cutting and sewing the free form curves of this easy, fun, and oh-so pretty table topper. The original is made of gorgeous silk. Jodie chose batiks for her edition of the project, to give you a different look.

Click here to watch Segments 3 & 4!

Jodie and Rob arrive at the courthouse in the town square which is now home to the Dahlonega Gold Museum.  Ranger Julie Autry gives them the gold tour, including a water cannon that excited Rob. Julie serves up some colorful stories of townsfolk of the time. Superstitions and colorful characters abounded wherever gold fever struck!

Next, it was time for lunch, and there’s no better place to catch a bite than the family-style Southern cooking of The Smith House, which was also home to one of the town’s most enduring personalities.

Rob finally gets his dessert at Jodie’s favorite stop in Dahlonega, The Fudge Factory. (Just as yummy as Magical Threads, though way more fattening.) The Nuggets truly are the best turtles Jodie has ever tasted. And yes, they do mail order!

But first, it’s time for some book reviews. The theme is quilts made using strips, like sweet treats.

Click here to watch Segments 5 & 6!

How to Find Quilt Out Loud!

It’s easy! Simply login to QNNtv.com. You will be taken to your dashboard page. Look for the big Quilt Out Loud! logo in the center of the page and click on it. Under “Series” click on “Episode List.” There you will find all of the episodes available to date. Click on whichever you wish to watch.

To find out more about any episodes, click on “Visit QuiltOutLoud.com” on the left side of the page. There you can click on “Episode Notes” on the left side of the page and find notes for each episode.

The business growth program, the Make Mine a Million $ Business Competition selected Nancy Dill of QuiltWoman.com as one of ten awardees at the American Express Open Women’s Business Summit in Houston, Texas. 

Described as a cross between “The Apprentice” and “American Idol,” the competition provided these ten awardees with the opportunity to present their business in a 3 minute “elevator pitch” to a panel of business experts and a live audience.  The ten winners were chosen by the audience and judges who collaborate on the selection process.

A life long sewer, Nancy became the owner of a craft shop at the age of 21.  In January of 2008, Nancy purchased the quilt pattern publisher QuiltWoman.com and relocated the company to New York. She is bringing new designers and their designs to QuiltWoman.com and continues to publish and distribute thousands of patterns and books per month all over the United States and worldwide.

Launched in 2005 by Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence and founding partner American Express OPEN, the Make Mine a Million $ Business Competition was created to help post-start up, women-owned businesses grow to one million dollars in annual revenue.

Congrats to Nancy and to quilting for having such an amazing business women in our midst!

More Quilts Just a Mouse Click Away: New on the Quilt Index: 3,000 Wyoming Quilts

Last year saw a doubling in the number of quilts documented on the Quilt Index to 50,000, and now new collections coming. The latest is nearly 3,000 quilts from the Wyoming Quilt Project that began in 1994. Quilts included range from simple scrap quilts to exquisite heirlooms, and the project showcases more than 200 years of quiltmaking.           

The oldest quilt documented is also arguably the most spectacular. This incredibly detailed medallion quilt, below, was finished in 1808 by quiltmaker Belle Abrams and turned up on a documentation day in the tiny town of Encampment, Wyoming. Those working on the project put the quilt's owner in touch with the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, which now owns the quilt. See and read the full record on this quilt in the Quilt Index.           

At the other end of the spectrum, and more typical in some ways, is a simple one-patch quilt made in 1934 by Nannie Long. If you read the wonderfully detailed record taken down by the documentarians, you will learn that her bragging rights on this quilt are that it cost her a grand total of 65 cents to make. It was hand pieced out of old tobacco sacks that the quiltmaker dyed herself, with batting that she made from cotton that she picked.  Read more about the admirably frugal Nannie Long and her quilt.

See the entire collection here.

Quilters Club of America is a Great Value: Get Quilt Out Loud!, Quilt it! The Long Arm Quilting Show, and QNNtv.com, and much, much more!

QNNtv.com is a great deal at only $24 a year. But did you know that you can get a membership in QNNtv.com and watch Quilt Out Loud! and Quilt It! The Longarm Quilting Show all year, plus have access to over 1,000 other videos and a whole lot more when you become a member of Quilters Club of America?

Join QCA and you will receive all of these great benefits:

• All the benefits of the new QCA community!
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• Free Tips 2 DVD from Marianne Fons and Liz Porter - not available in stores!
• Save $50 off Sulky's teacher certification program with Joyce Drexler.
• 35% off online orders from That Patchwork Place!
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• $500 off an APQS Millennium machine
• Plus many more! (Click here for a full list of benefits)
• That’s nearly $900 worth of benefits including exclusive contests for only $39.95. You will need to enter in code  QN-9PRR5 in Step 3 of the checkout process to receive this discount.

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If you are right handed, should you thread your needle directly from the spool?