Color Tips for Quilters by Maria Peagler

The cupcakes were baked, decorated, and ready to be nibbled on in a ladylike manner.  My studio was sparkling, ready for the Mom & Me Quilter’s Tea guests to take a tour.  Their parents won the experience at a silent auction for my son’s school.  Books autographed, check.  Camera, check.  All done a day before.

My elder son and husband were away at a Boy Scout caving trip, so it was just me and my younger son.  Who came to me in the middle of the night saying, “Mom, I don’t feel so good.”  Poor guy.  He was up all night with a stomach bug.

Tea postponed, check.  After all, fiddle-dee-dee, tomorrow is another day.

Like the frosting on those cupcakes?  Then you won’t want to miss February’s Color-of-the-Month show.  It’s the first Tuesday in February, only 7 days away!

After I shot this video at Dragonfly Quilt Shop in Watkinsville, GA, I gave a lecture to the Cotton Patch Quilt Guild in Athens, and drove home for a late-night arrival.  The same day, my elder son attended a workshop at the local Apple store on how to use iMovie.

I’ve been the computer expert in our home for a long time, and I taught my son how to use Word, how to navigate the internet (with supervision), and even how to create a blog for a math project.  So he was excited to help me with my video.

I planned on creating a black screen with a white title for the Title screen and ending credits, which I can do with the Flip software that came with my camera.  But after he saw my results, he offered to help me do much better.

He showed me how to create the fancy title screen with my book’s cover and the white title superimposed over it, and the ending black frames with the credits on them.  Actually, he wanted to do it all himself, but I’m trying to teach him how to educate others:  never do for them what you can help them to do themselves.

That’s my same motto for my classes.  I never do the work for my students, or else they won’t be able to replicate their experience when they get home.  I gently guide students as to how to achieve results, and everyone’s path there is different.

So thanks, son.  My video looks oh-so-much better.  Who knows what you’ll be teaching me next?

Last weekend I attended the fall convention of the Georgia Quilt Council in Carrollton, GA.  After all the years I’ve been quilting, this was my first time attending the council’s meeting, and I was impressed.  These ladies know quilting and know Georgia.  I met many wonderful quilters, appraisers, shop owners, historians, guild officers, and teachers.  It was a “who’s who” of quilters in Georgia.  I was so busy in my booth I didn’t take photos of the speakers, but here’s peek at one of the quilts displayed at the convention:

Carrollton welcomed us with quilts hung in the shop windows on the town square:

Next was a tour of the facility that will house the new Southeast Quilt and Textile Museum:

The above photo is of an interior wall of the facility, which used to house cotton bales for GoldKist.  The building was badly burned in a fire in the early 1900’s, and you can still see the outline of the hay bales on the walls.

I had a lovely time at the fall convention, and here’s a quick bulletin of events coming up and an invitation to join me.  If you can’t, hop on over to my Color Mastery blog and enjoy the resources there until you can attend one my lectures or workshops:

Oct. 13, Creative Quilter’s Guide to Color, Cotton Patch Quilters, Athens, GA

Oct. 17, Machine Quilting Mastery, Sew Memorable, Dawsonville, GA

Nov. 7, Color Mastery for Any Quilter, Quilt Shop on the Square, Ellijay, GA

Nov. 23, Simple Color, Stunning Quilts, Scrappy Quilt Guild, Calhoun, GA

Hope to see you soon in one of my workshops – let’s make a colorful quilt together!

I want my work to last.  Longevity is one of the three main goals I have for my books.  The other two?  A post for another day.

I realized long ago that it took just as long to write a book that was trendy and out of print after two years as it did to write a classic.  And as a quilter and artist, I appreciate books that provide me with lessons for years to come.

I often hear people complain about how expensive books are, which is why I go for those that provide me with lasting value.  I enjoy patterns, booklets, and other fun diversions.  But they don’t have the lasting value of a book.

Color Mastery has nine quilt projects.  If you bought them individually in a pattern, each would average $15.00.  Multiply that times nine and you get $135.00.

Color Mastery also has 11 exercises, and has twelve months worth of class material.  I teach shop owners how they can offer a different class each month using the exercises and projects in the book.  A full-day class averages about $60.00, and 12 of them would be $720.00.

$135.00 worth of patterns/projects, and $720.00 worth of classes is a total of $855.00.  Still think a book is expensive?  Look’s like the world’s best bargain to me.

The real test of a book-lover’s book is this:  does it provide those things that make a reader’s life easier, that will make the book last, and makes it easy to find, or get more information?  I printed Color Mastery on museum-quality paper using the best photographer and printer in the industry.

I included an index to make information easy to find.  Look at the latest quilt book you bought:  I bet it doesn’t have one.  Publishers are skimping on this kind of stuff and betting you won’t notice.  Bibliographies too.  I want to know how to find out more information when I’m interested in a topic, and I know my readers do too.  And librarians love them.

Does the book’s binding last?  Is it sewn or glued?  Color Mastery’s is sewn, of course.  And it has a spine, so you can find it on a store shelf or your own.

Look for these qualities when you buy a book.  Be a discerning consumer.  Expect them in your books and ask for them.  And support quilt book authors who give you the best.