Hello and Happy New Year! As your new Heber Valley Guild President, I think you may want to know a little about me in the sewing arena.
Let's start with who it all began with - my grandmother. Grandma J was a thrifty woman who loved garage sales and swap meets! She always brought me and my siblings interesting things I wouldn't generally buy - a red and black plaid satchel, hot pink fishnet stockings - are two things that come to mind. However, when I was eight years old, my grandmother gifted me a sewing machine! READ MORE BELOW
Programs
WIP & UFO Challenge
If you have started more project than you have finished...
If you have a few loose ends and need motivation to finish projects...
...this challenge is for you!
WE ARE GOING TO TACKLE OUR PROJECTS TOGETHER!
WHEN YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!
FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED!
LET'S DO THIS!!
UFO Tracker (Excel file)
UFO TRACKER (.pdf)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HVQ RETREAT
"Quiltin' with my Gnomies"
DESIGN CHALLENGE 2024:
Create a quilt or other article that looks “woven”.
This may be the illusion of fabric weaving atop and beneath other fabrics to create the look, or it may be the literal weaving of fabrics or other fibers together.
Think: Woven—Linked—Knit Together;
interpret however you’d like!
· Quilts must be no smaller than 24" x 24", but may be as large as you desire.
· All Articles must be completed by Guild Meeting on September 6th in order to display and enter the contest.
· Prizes will be awarded for participation. Cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place Viewer’s Choice awards.
Contact Deonn Stott with any questions.
Click to see >> wovenideas video
Paige Douglas, continued.
I remember sitting at a table in my bedroom and teaching myself how to sew. The first thing I made was a royal blue cotton poly apron for my grandmother. Of course it looked perfect to me and I am sure it wasn’t, but it started my lifelong hobby of sewing.
I took a sewing class in junior high school. While my friend managed to sew through her finger, I made a rich orange-y brown blouse out of, you guessed it, polyester. It turned out well and I wore it often. I also made a two-piece swimsuit that actually fit.
In high school, I started making dresses for myself on my mom’s Necchi machine. I could cut and sew a dress on a Saturday and wear it to the youth dance that night. And if you have seen me wearing a red corduroy shirt, I made that for my dad when I was about 18.
In college, I took pattern making, a fiber class and a children’s clothing class. I made a little smocked dress and kept it for my daughter to wear when she was about 2. During this time, I also worked at a large fabric store in San Diego - Yardage City! This is where I designed and started my first quilt. It was a garden gate with ivy and stone pavers, all applique. It is still a UFO, but it was the beginning :)
Since that time, I married, raised three children, took care of aging in-laws, and worked but I still sewed. My other grandmother passed away and left me $3,000. The first thing I did was purchase a Bernina as I was soooo sick of bottom thread tension problems and I’ve never looked back! I went to Women’s Conference in Provo and saw hemstitched baby blanket sets at The Quilted Bear. That started a whole new era! I was told “No ladies, you cannot do this at home” and I took that challenge on. I found that with a wing needle with an asterisk stitch, you can make the hemstitch holes. It did take time, but it could be done. I began gifting and selling hemstitched blanket sets.
Quilting began in earnest about 15 years ago. A quilt store opened up in my area in San Diego and I started taking classes. I was drawn to Mary Englebreit fabrics and of course, more flannel for the hemstitched blankets. Then we moved to Utah where quilting stores are plentiful which was nice. My mom gave me some circa 1930 quilt squares that had been given to her from one of my childhood friend’s mother. They were a print leaf on a white with black print background. She said they were so ugly that she just couldn’t bring herself to put them together. Yep, pretty ugly but interesting. I took them to Quilt Etc. in Sandy and they helped choose some sashing in the lower area where all the 30's fabric was. The quilt turned out great thanks to their help!
And I think that’s where my love of 30's and antique fabrics came in. I love the prints and most of the colors - except the atomic green ;) Also, my husband and I love to visit antique stores together and I became aware of quilt tops that never made it to the finish line of becoming a quilt. We all know how much time and money it takes to make a quilt top and here were so many tops just begging to be finished. I have become a quilt rescuer!
Over the years, I have gone from a swap meet sewing machine to Berninas, from sewing clothes to blankets to quilts. Thanks to two of my brothers and my husband, I now have an actual sewing room which I am very grateful for. And I have had this thought popping in and out of my mind this past week or so and I wrote it on a stickie on my laptop: Do a little each day. This reaches many different facets of my life where I think I just don’t have time to do everything that I want to do in life. What if we all did a little sewing each day? Think of all we would accomplish over time!
Although I have been sewing most of my life, I do not know everything about quilting and I look forward to learning more. And I hope you do too. And I look forward to the warm friendships that we have and will create as we spend a year together doing what we love!
