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About MeMy name is Barb and I live in South Dakota. I am a self taught quilter and think of myself as a rebel quilter. I like to do my own thing and don't want to be locked into any one technique or ruler whether I have made my own quilt design or am working from a kit. I believe in taking my time- making quilts one piece at a time. I believe in trying anything once- which is probably why I can't classify myself as a modern or traditional quilter- I just like good design!
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Modern Tools |
My desire to create quilts of my own design was thwarted by the quilt math. Not to be deterred I worked closely with an app developer to create a simple way to calculate yardage starting with just piece shapes. Together we created QuiltSandwich. It handles all the quilt math — all I have to input is my fabric width (or FatQ!), piece shape and number of pieces. Since QuiltSandwich I've been designing and creating my own traditional quilts, adapting kits (correcting kits!) — I've even started doing my own quilting! My grandmother would be proud!
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Quilting
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Whenever I am asked when I first started to sew, I answer was that there isn't a time that I don't remember sewing. And I always wanted to learn how to quilt. When I was a little girl, the first quilt book I remember was from Dover Publications titled The Standard Book of Quilt Making and Collecting. I still have it. The pages are filled with block designs and I poured over every page, but didn't have the slightest clue as to how to start.
Fast forward, I decided to take the plunge and I was determined to figure out how to make a quilt. So I went to my local quilt shop and picked out a pattern. Fourteen years later, I finished that first project! But between then and now I have made many quilts, relying on patterns and kits. But I have always dreamed about making my own designs....looking at my books of block patterns and dreaming up some layout that had never been done before.....cutting out each piece and stitching them together into a design of my own making. What stopped me? The books that contained just block designs never told me how much fabric to buy or how to figure it out. I did buy the standard books of charts, but honestly, I didn't know how to use them. But now I do make quilts of my own design. Working with my brother-in-law, who is an iOS app developer, we came up with QuiltSandwich. Because of QuiltSandwich, I can pick out blocks from my books, draw my layout and within 30 minutes of completing my drawing, I have my cutting instructions. I can use cutting and sewing techniques that I want to use, not the ones the pattern designer used, so I have better accuracy in my sewing. And when I make a cutting mistake, (unfortunately, the app doesn't prevent cutting mistakes!) I can recover and use fabrics I have on hand to fix my mistake. I don't have to rely on a particular fabric line or technique for my quilt that someone else chose. QuiltSandwich has opened up a whole new world to me. One that before now, I could only dream about. |
