I've known Sam for a couple years now, but I'd say that it's been within the last year and a half that we've really become close. (But not distance-wise, because the damn woman lives on the opposite coast.) We met in person for the first time at the Houston Quilt Market in the fall of 2012, though before that we had exchanged a few emails and Facebook messages and such.
That following spring, I decided to step down from being the creative director at Generation Q magazine in order to have more time to focus on my own creative pursuits, and when Sam heard about this, she called me up. And the first thing she said to me in that phone call was, "I am so proud of you and I completely support you." She understood—more than anyone outside of my family—my need to spend my creative efforts on work that is mine alone. She got it, and she reached out to me so that I would know that someone in the world got it and would cheer me on, even if I felt like I was disappointing people who needed me. I don't know if she knows how much that conversation meant to me, but I know that it has set the tone for our friendship ever since. I can only hope that I've given her even a fraction of the love and support and understanding she gave me that day.
Over the course of the following year, Sam worked on her book for C&T, Quilt Talk, and I got to hear a lot about the process, which was pretty fascinating, and frankly involved a whole lot of cursing, but lucky for Sam I can handle that kind of thing. The book was developed from a paper-pieced alphabet that Sam designed, with projects that show how the letters can be used in different ways, from the nifty buckets on the cover above, to larger statements:
The book has a Gallery section, where Sam got several people to use the alphabet in their own way to show how versatile they can be for your own designs. AND I MADE A QUILT FOR IT, Y'ALL!!!! This quilt clearly shows how versatile the letters can be in the hands of a smart-ass:
The sewing machine, the flames, and part of the spool are raw-edge appliqué, something I had never really attempted before. The thread, the sewing machine foot, and the wheel are all embroidered. And the quilting was done by the incomparable Lisa Sipes. The sewing machine is my design, one that I've used before on various pieces of merchandise.
And yes, I open the book and lovingly stroke the page my quilt is on (41) A LOT and I am not ashamed of it. Much.
So, let me tell you why you need this book, other than the amazing and beautiful quilt that is on the bottom of page 41, which—though I'm not making any promises here—could in fact change your life. Sam doesn't just give you a whole bunch of paper-piecing patterns and some projects. Nor does she waste time with the "here's a completely abbreviated lesson on how to make a quilt" chapter (and you all know my pet peeve about that). The whole first section of the book is dedicated to helping you understand typography (you need to know about ascenders and descenders and leading), choosing fabrics for lettering, and working with re-sizing the letters to fit the project you want to make. THIS IS A BIG DEAL. What I love most about this book is that while it does give you projects that you can follow to the letter (heh - see what I did there?), it also gives you the tools and the encouragement to make your own statements. It can be hard to follow your own creative path, especially when there are so many beautiful quilts out there that seem so much better and more interesting than what you can come up with yourself. But with words, well, just think of all the things you can say! And Sam makes sure that you can say anything you damn well please—in quilt form anyway. Because that's pretty much who Sam is: she's the cheerleader for anyone who wants to create, the person who says, "I know you can do this, and here's some things to help you start."
I am very honored to be the first stop on the blog tour for Quilt Talk. You know those buckets on the cover of the book? Sam has put together special patterns for making the word section of those buckets into color names for sorting scraps (or yarn or FQs or underpants—whatever). You'll still need the book to make the buckets, but each stop along the tour will have a PDF of the letters for each color word. My color is PURPLE, because it is the best color in the world and most expresses my true nature: a royal pain in the ass.
See how lovely they all look?
You can download your "purple" letter section here!
Here are all the stops on the tour so you can get all the color patterns:
- Thursday October 2 – PURPLE – Megan Dougherty, The Bitchy Stitcher
- Friday October 3 – BROWN – Carrie Bloomston, Such Designs
- Monday October 6 – RED – Kim Niedzwiecki, My GoGo Life
- Tuesday October 7 – TEAL – Flaun Cline, I Plead Quilty
- Wednesday October 8 – WHITE – Mollie Sparkles
- Thursdays October 9 – HEXIES – Cath Hall, Wombat Quilts
- Friday October 10 – PINK – Ebony Love, LoveBug Studios
- Monday October 13 – GREEN – Rose Hughes
- Tuesday October 14 – BLUE – Sarah Fielke
- Wednesday October 15 – GRAY – Maddie Kertay, The BadAss Quilter’s Society
- Thursday October 16 – BLACK – Cheryl Sleboda
- Friday October 17 – YELLOW – Victoria Findlay Wolfe
- Monday October 20 – ORANGE (but of course!) – Sam Hunter, Hunter’s Design Studio
NOW - DO YOU WANT TO WIN A BOOK? Of course you do, you avaricious little darlings, you. To win a copy of Quilt Talk:
1. Leave me a comment below telling me what your quilt (or pillow or wall hanging or bathmat) using Sam's letters would say. And remember where you are, people—dirty and profane are TOTALLY FINE.
2. To get an extra chance to win, go to my Facebook page and share the post that links to this one on your own page. Make sure your privacy settings are set so that I can see it, or come back here and tell me.
3. For another entry, pin one of the above images on Pinterest.
4. And finally, for another entry, say something about Quilt Talk on Instagram. Use the hashtag #quilttalk and tag me, @meganzdougherty.
You have until midnight, EST on October 19 to enter. Winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 21.
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