Blog Change

We’re moving! Our blogs, that is.

AQS is launching a new, comprehensive quilting information site: http://www.quiltviews.com/. 

You can find all my past, present, and future blog posts there. Since this site will include content from my American Quilter’s Society colleagues, too, we think you’ll be very pleased with the amount of information we have pulled together on our quilt shows, American Quilter, and The Quilt Life as well as books.

You can find me now at QuiltViews.com

Since this website is hosted at a new URL, please be sure to update your bookmarks, RSS feeds, and email subscriptions.

Please visit us at our new, improved location online. Be sure to check out the site organization, including categories, tags, and techniques. Plus, sign up for email updates to keep informed of the latest quilt news and views from the American Quilter's Society.

See you there!

Hidden Gems in the AQS Paducah Teacher Line-Up

Hidden Gems in the AQS Paducah Teacher Line-Up

Lucky you, if you haven’t yet chosen which classes to attend on your trip to the AQs Quilt Show & Contest – Paducah, April 27 – 30. Two amazing instructors still have openings in their classes, and their techniques will truly expand upon and improve your quiltmaking. 

Called “Dilys the Quilt” per the custom of her Welsh homeland, Dilys Fronks has taught innovative quilt designs and techniques across the US and Europe for more than 20 years. Appearing in Paducah for the first time in several years, she will teach a positive/negative appliqué technique that she calls 2-4-1. That is, when you cut your appliqué shape 1 time, you get 2 possible blocks. “2 quilts for 1 effort” is another way to phrase it, as is the title of her very successful book, Dual Image Applique, (AQS, 2010). Dilys has an unusual way with color, too, so if spicing up your quilts and getting the most out of the time you spend quilting—2-4-1 style—then Dilys’s classes are not to be missed. Be happy you caught up with her while she’s in the US!

Marianne Hatton hails from the Boston area now, but this native South African, a newly-minted U.S. citizen, brings an unmistakable continental flair to sampler quilts. Forget boring 6, 9, or 12 set quilts incarcerated by sashing and weighed down with cornerstones. Marianne shows you how to make a dynamic sampler quilt quite simply by using a super simple grid. Mix and match blocks and go to town. Create themed quilts that look like landscapes—but the blocks are just as easy as any beginner sampler class! Create a memory quilt of a trip to Europe or bring your garden indoors. The sheer versatility of the process she explains in Simply Dynamic Sampler Quilts (AQS, 2010) will blow your mind in her very popular classes. Marianne doesn’t come South very often, so if you can snag a class with her this year, count yourself fortunate.

Register here: http://www.americanquilter.com/shows_contests/paducah/2011/registration/

Come Talk with Me in Paducah

Andi Reynolds, executive book editor for AQS here. In just four short weeks the 27^th annual AQS Quilt Show & Contest – Paducah will open!

Being at each AQS quilt show is always exciting for me, because I get to meet so many creative people with such interesting ideas. If you have given some thought to writing a quilt book, come to the quilt show April 27 – 30 and see me! Bring just an idea or a full-blown proposal or anything in between.

My office will be on the second floor of the Julian Carroll Convention Center, to the left as you come up the stairs or off the elevator. There will be a sign indicating where to find me. The field editors for American Quilter magazine will have space there, too.

If you'd like to talk about a book or magazine idea, you can prepare in advance by reviewing our proposal guidelines. Go to www.americanquilter.com and click on “Authors.”

Potential book authors can also attend my lecture, Get into Print!, which will be Wednesday, April 27 from 10 am to 11 am in the Eisenhower Room on the first floor of the convention center. Tickets for Lecture # 2802 will be available at the Workshop Desk; this is a free event.

Later that afternoon, also in the Eisenhower Room, I will moderate the Author's Roundtable. From 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm come hear what five AQS authors have to say about what it’s like to publish with AQS. This is your time to ask all the nitty-gritty questions you can think of about what it is like to write a quilt book. Invited authors are Dilys Fronks (Dual Image Appliqué); Linda J. Hahn (New York Beauty Simplified); Sally Terry (Pathways from Quilt Top to Quilted); and Linda K. Johnson and Jane K. Wells, aka The Crafty Ol' Broads (Cuddly Snuggly Quilts). Tickets for Special Event # 2202 will be available at the Workshop Desk—and it’s free, too!

Both events should help explain the process of becoming an AQS author, but you don't need to attend them to talk with me. Walk-ins are welcome (leave me a note with your phone number if I’m not around), or you may make an appointment by emailing me at andi@aqsquilt.com no later than Wednesday, April 20. You can always ask for me at the Workshop Desk, too. I hope to see you in Paducah!

Just in Time to Celebrate Spring

If you're more than ready to welcome Spring, you will love Flowers, Hearts & Garlands Quilt, based on the 2009 IQA World of Beauty award-winning quilt by Liz Jones.

Liz has shared her very clever machine applique technique and the 25 flower designs and 6 garland designs from this visual feast of a quilt. In addition, there are 42 different quilting designs interspersed among the appliques. A real value of a book all around.

Although Liz wrote the book for machine work, ambitious hand appliquers could adapt the designs. Ask for AQS item #8356 when you call 800-626-5420.

A Perennial Favorite Returns

The results of the 2010 New Quilts from an Old Favorite contest from The National Quilt Museum are now available in book form.

This venerable old block received some thoroughly modern treatment in the hands of talented quilters from across the country. The 18 finalists share their stories, approaches, tips, and techniques.

With a few patterns and a couple of templates from the book, you, too, can create a fruitful rendition of the block many also know by Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, among other names.

Future contests in the annual event are Baskets (2012), Jacob's Ladder (2013), and Carolina Lily (2014). Rules are available at www.quiltmuseum.org. The book is available from there or by calling 800-626-5420. Ask for item #8350.

Reporting from Lancaster, Pennsylvania

There's nothing like row upon row of stunningly beautiful quilts to rev up the creative juices. It's not just the workmanship, which you know is good if a quilt has been juried into an AQS show, but the imagination! It never ceases to amaze at what quilters see, what they visualize, and how they manifest their visions in fabric, thread and embellishment.

And the support quilters receive from the quilting industry via manufacturers and vendors is staggering. If it doesn't exist, someone will find a way to make it for you. These people really do listen when quilters talk about their needs.

And then there's the venue. Lancaster is a fascinating city and there is much to be seen - and eaten! - within easy walking distance from the Convention Center, which itself is a very nice facility, along with the Marriott.

This is AQS's second year here, and if you haven't been, you really would enjoy coming next year. Better yet, enter a quilt! Take some classes! There really is something for everyone in the land of Virtue, Liberty and Independence (motto on a flag flying from the hotel).

Look Me Up in Lancaster

Andi Reynolds here, sniffing wonderful things in the air. It’s not just Spring—it’s the start of Show Season in the Quilt world. A most exciting time!

Next week AQS will host the first of our four American Quilter’s Society Shows & Contests in 2011. We will be at the Lancaster County Convention Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March 16 – 19.

Being at each AQS quilt show is always exciting for me, because as the executive book editor for AQS, I get to meet so many creative people with such interesting ideas. If you have given some thought to writing a quilt book, come to the quilt show and see me! Bring just an idea or a full-blown proposal or anything in between.

My office will be the Susquehanna Board room, which is on the fourth floor of the Marriott at Penn Square. The Marriott and convention center are attached; just use the hotel’s elevators and you’ll find me.

If you'd like to talk about a book idea, you can prepare in advance by reviewing our proposal guidelines. Go to www.americanquilter.com and click on “Authors.”

You can also attend my lecture, Quilt Book Publishing 101, which will be Thursday, March 17 (Happy St. Patrick’s Day!) from 12 pm to 1 pm in the Southern Market Council Chamber. Southern Market is across Vine Street from the convention center. Tickets for Lecture # 42805 will be available at the Workshop Desk.

Later that afternoon, also at Southern Market, I will moderate the Author's Roundtable. From 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm come hear what four AQS authors have to say about what it’s like to publish with AQS. This is your time to ask all the nitty-gritty questions you can think of about what it is like to write a quilt book. Invited authors are Kathie Alyce (Flip Flop Block Quilts); Dianne S. Hire (Vivacious Curvy Quilts); Sally Terry (Pathways from Quilt Top to Quilted); and Sue Nickels (Machine Quilting: A Primer of Techniques). Tickets for Special Event # 42201 will be available at the Workshop Desk—and it’s free!

Both events should help explain the process of becoming an AQS author, but you don't need to attend them to talk with me. Walk-ins are welcome (leave me a note with your phone number if I’m not around), or you may make an appointment by noon on Friday, March 11, by emailing me at andi@aqsquilt.com. You can always ask for me at the Workshop Desk, too. I hope to see you in Lancaster!

Cabin Fever Relief

Just in time to relieve winter's cabin fever -- two new books from AQS Publishing. Both guaranteed to keep you and your sewing machine warm and cozy.

First up is Rita Fishel's latest fun-filled romp, Everyday Quilts. These are quilts that are a snap to make. They're so easy, you'll be happy to use them everyday. Go ahead -- love them to death! It won't take much time or effort to make another. These are great patterns for retreats, charity, and gifts.

Need a break from piecing? Read one of Rita's humorous stories about her adventures in her funeral-parlor-turned-quilt-shop and on the road in the Stitch Mobile as a popular teacher and vendor.

Getting hungry? Make one of the delicious recipes she's included -- because quilters need nourishment!

Ready to quilt that top you just made from Everyday Quilts? Turn to Sally Terry's latest book on machine quilting, Pathways from Quilt Top to Quilted.

Sally is a well-known machine quilting instructor, and in this book, she gives the soup to nuts info every quilter needs for getting from a completed quilt top to a quilted quilt.

The book emphasizes longarm techniques, but domestic machine quilters will find oodles of tips and helpful techniques. If you've contemplated quilting tops for other people, there's advice here about that, too.

Best of all, Sally begins her books with troubleshooting so you can avoid machine quilting mistakes right from the start.

Lose those winter blues! Rev up your sewing machine and get stitching!


Both books are available at www.americanquilter.com. 

Everyday Quilts by Rita Fishel is AQS item # 8349; Pathways from Quilt Top to Quilted is AQS item# 8348. Enjoy!

Sherlock Sue Puzzle

We received loads of positive feedback on last week's puzzle. In celebration of the release of the latest book from AQS, here's another puzzle challenge to enjoy.

Sunbonnet Sue Goes Abroad!

Sunbonnet Sue recently discovered a love of travel thanks to first-time author Debra Kimball, M.D.


Deb fell in love with hand applique and created a Kimono Sue quilt, which was shown in the Des Moines Area Quilt Guild's show during the first AQS show in Des Moines. I saw Kimono Sue and instantly thought about the rest of the world. When I contacted Deb to ask her if she'd be interested in creating a bunch of "International Sues," she didn't hesitate. Of course she'd be delighted to help Sunbonnet Sue hit the road!

And here it is, a book of 49 brand new Sunbonnet Sues. Each one wears an iconic costume and most hold a souvenir or symbol from her native land or from one of seven parts of the USA. Best of all, you can use these patterns with any type of applique!


Think of all the different ways you can express your life with International Sunbonnet Sues! Make a quilt that celebrates your family's cultural heritage. Sew a block for every place you've traveled. Send a memento to friends in far away places to remind them of where you are from.

Yes, indeed. Sue has left the comfort and safety of home and garden and is out and about. There's no stopping her now! You can use Deb's patterns as presented or tweak them to make blocks that are highly personalized. Either way, enjoy accompanying Sunbonnet Sue on her latest adventure!
AQS# 8347. 1-800-626-5420.

And here's a fun question: which is your favorite International Sue pattern? If you'll tell me yours, I'll tell you mine! Let me know by Valentine's Day and we'll see which Sues are faves.