Desire To Inspire

We have been having so much fun between the Jaftex 85th Anniversary Blog Hop and Quilt Market but it is time to get back to regular programming here. The weather has definitely been cooler and we suddenly see the holiday booths up in Bryant Park. Are you making any holiday gifts this year? Stay tuned because we are starting up our Let's Get Quilting fun next Monday. We will be giving away fabric again and hope that you can make something wonderful with the bundles for holiday gift-giving. 

We are happy to present the latest edition of the Desire To Inspire Challenge. If you haven't been following this feature you can certainly read about past challenges by clicking the button on the top right sidebar. If you want to be a challenger, send a photograph for consideration. The details are above.

This month, Lynette Caulkins from Monument, Colorado is our challenger. We sent her a bundle of Marie Cole's Miss Kitty's Colors collection and it looks like Lynette had tons of fun creating with this range.

HG:  Tell us about your family.

LC:  My husband, Scott, is in the Air Force. We have three terrific daughters: Heather is in medical school, Devon is in Virginia with her Marine Corps husband, Kyle, and Marissa is a high school senior still at home.

HG:  How long have you been quilting?

LC:  I've been quilting regularly since 2007, but my first foray was when I was 19 and a nanny in 1987. My mother had taught me fine couture sewing skills, and my grandmother's quilts enchanted me. Far from home, I turned to a creative activity that made me feel connected to them. I knew nothing at that time of rotary cutters, so I cut out all the purple, pink, and white pieces by hand with scissors to make a queen size quilt in a McCall's magazine. The next quilt was in 1990, as a young wife participating in an officers' wives club quilt-in-a-day activity, and that snagged me for good. But I didn't get very many made before kids were born in '92 and '93 and Life sucked my attention elsewhere for many years. These days I quilt with modern rotary tools and use a domestic sewing machine for both construction and quilting. I do dream of having a good longarm set-up and quilting for myself as well as others.

HG:  What's your favorite technique? 

LC:   I am a true eclectic, loving a wide variety of techniques! A new love for me, though, has been needle turn hand applique since older children equals the ability to actually sit down each evening and stitch while I watch a show with Scott after dinner. My absolute favorite technique for this purpose is back-basting applique.

HG:  Who taught you how to quilt? 

LC:  McCall's magazine, ladies in the Officers' Wives Club and the Flying Needles Quilt Guild (of Niceville, Florida), and countless men and women sharing techniques and tutorials on their blogs! (I did already have excellent garment sewing skills from my mother's instruction.) Thanks to all these people, I have meshed an education in fine sewing details with advanced quilt construction skills and free-motion domestic-machine quilting skills that are rapidly improving.  

HG:  Do you belong to any guilds? 

LC:  At this moment in time I do not. The local guild, Palmer Divide Quiltmakers, meets at a time that is usually impossible for me to get to. I'm trying to rearrange things to remedy that, though, because I miss in-person interaction with local quilters and participating in the community service functions they usually organize.

HG:  Anything else you would like to share with our readers? 

LC:  I've been blogging for several years at "What a Hoot Quilts" (www.whatahootquilts.blogspot.com), where I sponsor a weekly link-up for folks who like some motivation to keep working on block-of-the-month type projects. I acquired an insanely huge collection of untouched kits and fabric sets during the years that my children were young, and I use my blog to organize my journey of completion through those kits and the current quilting trends that snag my heart. My personal work system is a little chaotic, but it's highly productive!  I hope my experience can inspire others who feel overwhelmed by their own collections that >YES!< they, too, can transform into productive finishers after years of being stuck in cycles of starting things and setting them aside.  P.S. I'm setting up a feature post on my blog each day that focuses on my Henry Glass Desire to Inspire projects one at a time, starting October 29th. More photos and a couple tutorials will be included. I like giving back to the community that has taught me so much so freely! 

HG: Thank you Lynette for inspiring us with your adorable projects. 

Have a great day!

-HG