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Urban Elementz
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The Best of ...
Welcome back to "The Best Of ... ! " where our designers share a bit about themselves and why they do what they do.
This month Marybeth O'Halloran is sharing her "best of"!
Best quilting tool: I have two favorites, one for patchwork, and one for quilting:
For patchwork, I just love my seam ripper/stiletto combination. The two ends can be turned around into the hand-turned base, making them safe to store or travel with. Plus, the ends are replaceable, so when the ripper is dull, I just pop a new one into the base. The stiletto is so wonderful for curved piecing and pointy patchwork, when you want to control that last bit of a seam.For quilting, I love my simple long-arm ruler. Gadget Girls makes short and long versions in that splashy neon yellow-green acrylic, marked in 1/4” intervals. They are my go-to for simple cross-hatching and stitch-in-ditch.Best inspiration: One of my all-time favorite things to look at (and hold, if you’re lucky) is vintage quilts. I’m so inspired by the art of making do with what’s at hand to create functional works of art, and it’s simply amazing to touch quilts that were made decades ago — like your hands are connecting to the maker’s across time.Best time to quilt: For me, longarming is a job I do every day, pretty much during working hours. But the earlier in the day I’m able to get a project done, the better! Before anything else can happen.Best project ever: I’ve had the opportunity to finish projects that families couldn’t — the maker passed away. The sweating-bullet difficulties of matching the character of hand-quilting with longarming fall away when the family picks up the quilt and wraps themselves in it, tears overflowing. I think this is why I quilt. I can’t lift that family's burdens but I can ease them. What we wrap ourselves in and sleep under at night is what brings us the deepest comfort and I am grateful to be able to do this for myself and others.Best day off: One of my favorite things to do outside of the studio is to play with acrylic paint pouring. I love to venture into other media — you always learn something you can bring back to fabric and the textile arts.Best advice you ever received: When I started my longarm business, the advice I was given was to buy thread slowly, from several sources, in the colors that I love to work in. That was great advice because the more I worked with my machine, the more threads I tried, the more I sorted out what suited the machine — and the type of project.Best advice you’ve ever given: I like repeating elements in patchwork and quilting, because I feel like it lends unity, a sense of harmonious whole to a piece. I’m aware this is counter-advice to what a lot of people suggest, which is contrast in your quilting pattern (curves over straight lines, geometric over organic shapes etc.) But it does make me happier to look at, to see similar things at different scales in the same piece, and it seems to make my clients happy too. But of course, satisfy your own aesthetics when it comes to pattern choice! That’s probably the best advice of all.Best road trip: A few years ago, I drove with a friend to California to help her clean out her family house. It was going to be a tough emotional journey, so we stopped at every fabric and yarn store we could find along the way. We came home with a stash of fabrics in completely different colors than either of us usually work in and did original quilt compositions in that palette as a sort of stack of postcards from our trip. (Mine still isn’t done but hush!)Best thing about quilting: I have to say I’m fairly obsessed with pattern and design. It’s probably what keeps me up late at night and gets me up in the morning. There’s something so soothing about the way geometry fits together, and the process of constructing it in fabric, that calms the chaos of my thoughts and puts my reality back in order. I also love the camaraderie of quilting, of finding like-minded people who similarly obsess, no explanations needed.Best place to visit: Sigh ... I was going to say Fabric Depot, a destination for the whole West Coast, but sadly, it met its demise last fall, so unfortunately it’s no longer available. But instead I’ll say go to your local fabric stores as often as possible. Do them and yourselves a favor and try to help keep their doors open. And if you’re in the Puget Sound area, go on out to Port Gamble and the magnificent store Quilted Strait! It’s one of my local shops and I am so grateful to be able to teach classes there on occasion. The owner and her staff are friendly and knowledgeable, and there’s a huge selection of fabrics, notions, and tools, and of course, lots of beautiful samples to enjoy.
Marybeth is an award-winning longarm quilter whose work has appeared on the cover of Modern Patchwork magazine, on pattern covers for Beach Garden Quilts, and in the book French Braid with a Twist, among other publications. She is also a quilting pattern designer for Urban Elementz, and an organizer for the local American Hero project, which provides quilts for wounded soldiers and their families. She started her career in engineering, and then studied and taught spinning, weaving, dyeing, and knitting, which informs her structural — and sometimes unconventional but definitely colorful — approach to the art of quilting. Commercial clients include McKenna Ryan, Jane Hardy Miller, Susan Wiggs, and Beach Garden Quilts, and two of her clients’ quilts have won Grand Champion at the Washington State Fair. Her three best selling pantographs are Harbour Wave, Nautilus and Stacked Snailz.
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The Best of ...
May is upon us! And you know what they say about May, right? April showers bring May flowers. Blooming is one of the things our intrepid leader does best. This month our own Patricia E. Ritter shares with us her "Best of ..." and her bio. Her creative genius takes it roots in the world around her. So, without much ado, we give you Patricia in her own words.
Zoey, Patricia's MVPBest quilting tool? My imagination. But it can also be my own worst enemy ... especially when I can't seem to execute what I imagine.
Best inspiration? Anything and everything ... from a trip to the hardware store to the pattern on a sheet of paper towels. Design and patterns are all around us, and it's hard for me not to visualize them as quilts, applique or quilting designs.
Best time to quilt? Mornings. I'm one of those crazy people (that you hate ;-) who loves waking up and getting started with their day.
Best project ever? Whatever project is next. I'm always evolving and always trying to think "outside the box", so my best project has yet to come.
Best day off? Hummmm ... this is a tough question. I feel like I'm always "on", even when I'm sleeping. I can't tell you how many times I've woken up from a dead sleep with a really cool idea.
Best advice you ever received? Strive to be the best at whatever you do.
Best advice you’ve ever given? When it comes to designing, don't "marry" your original idea. You're only dating. See where the design leads you before committing.
Best road trip? I don't think I can pick a best road trip. I once drove from Florida to California and back, and that trip was amazing. I also lived and worked overseas for 7 years and pretty much every weekend included a road trip that's worth noting.
Best place to visit? My house and studio ... LOL ... just ask any of my friends!
While pursuing her degree in Fine Arts, Patricia E. Ritter established her artistic voice as a ceramicist. Soon her talents expanded to include working with metals and bead work, and for the next 15 years she worked creatively and professionally as a jeweler and gallerist.
Her relationship with quilting bloomed out of a need to strengthen her fine motor skills through needlework. With quilting, she found an art form that was simultaneously useful and ornamental. Her quilting experience quickly grew from dabbling on a domestic machine to acquiring her own longarm machine and sketching the pantographs she envisioned yet found did not exist.
Inspired by the foliage and flowers within and around her native Miami, her original pantograph designs multiplied into a library of designs. It was a natural step to start a pantograph business, Urban Elementz, first selling to local quilt shops and soon after selling internationally online at her site www.urbanelementz.com.
Now Urban Elementz's product line has expanded beyond pantographs to include original patterns, stencils, design boards, applique and fabric. Patricia's multifaceted artistic experiences and entrepreneurial resolve ensure that Urban Elementz will continue to flourish alongside the ever-growing creativity of machine quilting.
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Spring Stash Cleaning
by Valerie Smith
Few things inspire panic like the disorganized stash of a fabric obsessed quilter. Whether doodling is your thing, tatting, or crochet, as a collective community, we all know that where there’s a sewer, crafter, or virtually any type of creative hobbyist: a supply of much needed accessories, gadgets, rulers, templates, and FABRIC must follow. We quilters know just how to hide, jam, shove, squeeze, tuck, and stuff our treasures into whatever sized space we may be fortunate enough to house it in. Some of us even have so many goodies tucked into that sacred space, our said treasures are literally overflowing into other parts of the house. If you find yourself overwhelmed with crafty clutter, then what follows may be of interest to your fabric collecting heart!
First, allow yourself to let go of your clutter anxiety. We all feel it from time to time, those pangs of guilt as we stand in the fabric store check-out line with a new basket full of must haves. We all are familiar with the “other room”, the one we often spend time dreaming up projects in. You know the one, that favorite back bedroom piled sky high with yard sale finds, fabric store sales, and the brand-new line from Moda that you just had to own, TODAY – yardage and precuts both. This is your sisterhood speaking (and your brotherhood too) – we sewers all have that room. We know it well. We love it. We spend hours daydreaming, rearranging, and adding to that room. It takes a little time and dedication to harness that creative tidal wave of a sewing room, but it can be done. Rest easy, and let’s tackle that tidying problem together.
These days there are a multitude of stash busting and craft organizing systems around that can help eat up your overflowing fabric stash. With creativity, any space, big or small, can include an organized creative haven with which to work. But how do you keep from getting overwhelmed? What can we do to keep things neat yet at your fingertips ready for immediate use? What do we do to prevent the fabric mountain from migrating onto your sofa turning into a cozy new elevated cat bed? Well friends, you first need a plan. Think about the place that you have, the storage that can fit in that space, and how to most effectively utilize it. Take a walk through your local container store or even Wal-Mart and just see what is available to you in terms of storage. These days there are endless limits to our organizing needs, but if that is too overwhelming at this stage in your de-cluttering life, stick with simple. Plastic bins in various sizes and an area to stack them in. If you have a sewing table at all like mine, which is basically just a long eight by ten folding table with a cloth covering it, you can easily store organizing bins below.
Once your space is established, let’s get to sorting. Separate your fabric, notions, doodads, and thingamabobs into like piles. Head off into your sewing refuge and find an open place for fabric, thread, and notions – and establish a home for those items. I like to keep fabric in clear plastic bins so if my creative haven must for any reason move to say, the basement - then critters, spiders, and mold will be no match. What kind of bins you say? Well this girl likes options. I choose large bins for yardage, medium for cuts larger than a fat quarter, and both small and large bins for my teeny tiny scraps. The key here is to be flexible. Be willing to donate what you know you will not use or toss it in the bin until it is needed for a project. At times we may need to be a little ruthless with our stash. If it is outdated, donate it. Some may choose not to save the very smallest size scraps, and if you are ambitious like me you may appreciate onto them for “someday” scrap quilting. If you collect strings, those work well in a shoe box type of plastic bin so there is less folding, which means less ironing later. My first choice is always clear bins, for obvious reasons – I want to see the fabric! Not only will this inspire creativity, but it sure makes pulling colors for quilts easier! Occasionally it is good to go through that stored folded fabric and press it or re-fold it to prevent permanent creases, as well as color fading from uneven light exposure. Once a year is good for this refolding task, you can make it fun by declaring this your inspiring spring project. While we sewers love to be optimistic about the quantity of our production, however, very often at least some of that fabric will take a few years before making its way into the perfect project. Rotation and refolding are good habits to get into to preserve the longevity of those calicos and cottons.
A note on threads. My favorite way to store threads is on a shelf where I can see them. There is nothing like looking at a beautiful array of threads organized by color rather than tossed into a big box. If you are fortunate enough to store them in such a manner, I encourage you to choose one with a door to again prevent light exposure and dust accumulation. The next best place is a thread caddy. Generally, these are see through as well, and they prevent moisture or dust from damaging those precious threads.
Trims and thingamabobs are a little different. Those items are better tucked off into opaque boxes with neat clean labels. Trims can get messy once you collect a few and so out of sight and out of mind is the idea. Better neat and tidy out of mind so you aren’t off imagining the mess in your trim box. You can get fancy here when it comes to labeling if you like, but I tend to stick to a tried and true stand by – a black sharpie and blank side of an index card. If I decide I need that bin to house something different in the future, no harm no foul. I can easily repurpose the container.
Rulers are always tricky for storage, but a couple of solutions have worked well for me over the years. Large bins from a three-tier rolling storage organizer is wonderful, especially if you are working at a long arm and using multiple rulers. Your rolling bin can roll right along with you down the length of the long arm machine. If your ruler stash is still modest and in the process of being built, a small three tier shelving united with clear drawers is another great solution.
The key to maintaining organization is really a small amount of time dedicated daily or weekly to tidying. While often overwhelming at the thought, dedicating just 10-15 minutes of “clean-up” time into each project day you plan to prevent the clutter from becoming overwhelming can work wonders. Make it habit so you do not feel any loss of sewing time. Above all else, take time to enjoy the organizing process! Let that color sorting and time spent playing in the sewing room add to your creative experience, even use it as the catalyst for creating something entirely new with items you forgot you already had!
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Valerie Smith is an Urban Elementz pantograph designer who lives in northeast Ohio on the coast of Lake Eerie.
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The Best of ...
Welcome back to our new series called The Best Of ... !
Every month we'll introduce to you one of our designers, and they'll share their very Best's. This March are thrilled to acquaint you with, Leisha Farnsworth and her "best of"!
Best Quilting Tool ...My favorite quilting tool is my own circle set rulers, called Circle2, which come in a set of 6.Best Inspiration ...I get inspired everywhere I look. From color to texture to fabrics to patterns, inspiration is out there if you look for it.Best time to quilt ...I would love to only quilt during the day and be done...however evenings after dinner, I get the most uninterrupted work done.
Best project ever ...
I’m working on a hexagon flower quilt using the English paper piecing method, which I started back in the summer of 2015. I have recently finished everything but the edge pieces. Now it’s time to lay it out and sew the flowers together.Best Day Off ...I love Sunday’s every week. I don’t work on Sunday’s so I can recharge by going to church and spending time with my family, which helps me continue to do what I love.Best advice I’ve ever been given ...Take care of yourself, so you can give to those who need you. And do be afraid of using the word “no”.Best advice I can give ...Don’t let someone ... anyone ... tell you that you can’t do something. If you have dreams, go for them! Figure out what you need to do, to make them a possibility. If it gets hard or you fail, don’t give up.Best Road Trip ...One of my favorite road trips was from northern Virginia (where I was living at the time), to upstate New York, to Boston, to New York City, and then back home.Best thing about quilting ...For me the most rewarding thing about quilting is seeing how much my clients love the quilts they made, after they are quilted.Best Place to Visit ...I’ve visited places all over the USA and a few places outside of the country... however my all time favorite place would be at a lake that is about an hour away from where I live.
Although Leisha has been sewing since she was a child, her love for making quilts started in her early 20's. In the summer of 2005, she started machine quilting her own quilts. Soon the word got out and she started quilting for others. In 2014 Leisha started co-designing paper and digital machine quilting designs, with Patricia Ritter from Urban Elementz, which has been an incredible opportunity. Even with 13+ years of machine quilting experience, she still loves learning new things.Leisha has also taught one on one and group machine quilting classes, and loves teaching her students the techniques that have helped her in her machine quilting career. She recently released her own circle ruler set of 6, called "Circle2".While quilting is her passion, she also enjoys water skiing, playing the piano, cooking, and spending time with her family. She has 10 nieces and nephews, and being their aunt is her very favorite thing. Leisha lives in beautiful Cache Valley, Utah, and thanks God for the talents He has blessed her with. She is excited to see what comes next. Her three best selling pantographs are Marmalade, Birchwood and Bubble Wrap - Double Take.*NOTE: You can find Leisha's ruler's on her website quiltingit.com.
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The Best Of ...
Welcome to our new series called The Best Of ... !
Every month we'll introduce to you one of our designers, and they'll share their very Best's. To kick off our first month, we are thrilled to acquaint you with, Valerie Smith and her "best of" list.
Best Quilting Tool: Seam Ripper. We all make mistakes!Best Inspiration: Quilt Shows!Best Time to Quilt: Early in the morning. I am an early bird and get my best work down 5 or 6 in the morning.Best Project Ever: Whatever I am working on at the time.Best Day Off: The day after a big "whoops". We all need breaks even from the things we love. Then get back to it!Best Advice You Ever Received: "That's nothing anyone on a horse galloping by would notice" - Gal from my old quilt guild. Let up on your mistakes and enjoy your beautiful creation.Best Advice Ever Given: Do what brings you joy!Best Road Trip: Hmmm ... my best road trip is yet to come! I don't travel much with small children, but I did take a trip to Gatlinburg, TN. That was a lot of fun.Best Thing About Quilting: You get something cozy when you're done.Best Place to Visit: The quilt shop!
Valerie has been quilting for more than 30 years, and many of her designs have been published in national publications. She lives in the northeast corner of Ohio, on the shores of Lake Eerie, with her husband and four children. Two of her most popular pantographs designs are Lather, Rinse, Repeat and Deja Vu.
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