Dear Quilting Friends,

With new Quilt Out Loud! and Quilt It! The Long Arm Quilting Show segments coming on every week, things are hopping here at QNNtv.com.

This month, on Quilt Out Loud! Mark and I visit The Atlanta History Center for a highly visual episode full of quilts and history. We get a rare glimpse of a few of the quilt treasures in the museum collections. We learn about quilt documentation and explore questions such as: Why get your quilts appraised? Can we predict which quilts will be valuable? What makes a quilt valuable?

My guest this month on Quilt It! The Long Arm Quilting Show is the amazingly talented and spunky Cathy Franks. Her work never ceases to amaze me, including “On the Wings of the Dragonfly” which she sent me for this newsletter. Here is what she wrote about the piece:

“I made this quilt a few years ago. I knew I wanted to make this quilt but I was scheduled to have surgery when I needed to start it. I gathered what I need to draw the pattern, and had that part ready. I had the surgery and needed to take some pain medication because of it. I normally do not take any kind of drug but the Doctor suggested that I take the pain meds to make my recovery go smoothly. I listened to the doc and took the drugs. I picked all the fabrics while on these drugs. Remember in the 60s when some people were saying OH wow the colors!!!? I think I do not need drugs to pick colors for quilts, but I had a grand time picking the colors for this quilt!

Piecing is another matter. I had to wait to do the piecing because it was very intricate and I need every brain cell on board to complete the task. This quilt uses lots of my embellishing techniques. There is painting and dying fabric, appliqué and beading of flowers, and thread appliqué was used to make the wings of the dragonfly. The wings are about 3 feet long and I used at least 2-3 cones of thread. The thread manufactures LOVE this technique!!! LOL! Now they know my name and greet me at shows. Isn’t it nice to make friends thru quilting? This quilt has won many ribbons but the memory of how I had to make it still brings a smile to me.”

I am constantly amazed by quilts and their makers. The stories are amazing; our experiences through our quilts are priceless. I often hear myself saying, “If it weren’t for quilts...” I met Cathy because of Quilt It! What an inspiration she is!

Happy quilting,
Jodie

Jodie and Mark introduce the show from the Turning Point exhibit at the Atlanta History Center. One of the nation’s largest and most complete Civil War exhibitions, Turning Point depicts the war through the eyes of soldiers and civilians. One of the civilians was Carrie Berry, a little girl whose story of remaining in Atlanta through the war and tending to daily chores such as sewing, is preserved here in her diary. The theme of “preserve the pieces, preserve the stories” continues throughout the episode.

Susan Neil, VP of Collections and Exhibitions at the Atlanta History Center, invites Mark to her workroom, a rare opportunity. Susan has chosen a few quilts to show Mark, each of which has a story to tell. Susan shares those stories and addresses some truths and myths surrounding quilts and their history.

Get ready to be amazed. Cathy Franks thinks outside the box when she steps into her long arm studio and proves that you can do way more than just quilt with these fabulous machines. In fact, she says anything you can do on a home sewing machine with a straight stitch you can do on a longarm, and she proves it!

In this episode Cathy shows how you can do many embellishing techniques that are simple and easy and add dimension and texture to all your quilting projects. Use bits of fabric, yarns, and threads in her ingenious techniques: capturing, fringing, and flash and trash.

Part One
Cathy doesn’t throw anything away and you won’t either when you see what art you can create so easily with pieces of yarn and “flash and trash.” Using a simple “roadmap” she sketches on her backing fabric, Cathy fills in her design with bargain bin yarn, then goes on to show other techniques - even how to sew borders to your quilt on the longarm!

It’s easy! Simply login to QNNtv.com. You will be taken to you dashboard page. Look for the big show logos 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” or “Visit LongarmQuiltingShow.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.

Celebrate Mother’s Day with 0% financing at Baby Lock. This offer is good May 6 through May 9, so hurry in to your local dealer!

Calling all quiltmakers! The Alliance for American Quilts invites you to enter "New from Old", a contest for all ages that celebrates the past in the frame of the present. The Grand Prize this year is a Handi Quilter HQ Sixteen Quilting Machine for Sit-Down Use!

All you have to do is make a 16” square quilt!

There are many other incredible prizes to entice you and the best incentive is helping the AAQ. All contest entries are a donation to the annual AAQ eBay auction. Visit the "New from Old" contest page for complete information and a downloadable entry form.

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:

Click here to get started today!

The quilt block "The Gem Block" is also known as ______ (think the gem state)?