March, 2024

Northwoods Log Cabin, lengthwise strips, baseball, and more

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Greetings quilting friends,

Ah, this is a time of regeneration and hope. I love spring, even as I write these words on a rainy, bitter, and windy day!

The Wisdom of Jerry Coleman

Jerry Coleman was an infielder for the Yankees in the 1950’s. He later became a legendary radio announcer for the San Diego Padres. With the start of the baseball season today, let’s look at some of his malapropisms, or Colemanisms as they came to be known.

“He slides into second with a stand-up double.”

“Larry Lintz steals second standing up — he slid, but he didn’t have to.”

“They throw Winfield out at second — and he’s safe.”

“McCovey swings and misses, and it’s fouled back.”

Northwoods Log Cabin

Earlier I shared with you a few of the blocks for Northwoods Log Cabin. After doing next to nothing on it for 2-1/2 months, I recently started back on it in a big way. I’ve completed all 100 of the interior blocks and 24 of the 44 border blocks, and I’ve sewn all of these together. I just need to make and attach 2 borders, but I can finally see the end of the road.

Every time I show a block or segment from this quilt, I’m peppered with questions. I’ll try to anticipate those questions with some answers. Northwoods Log Cabin isn’t in a book; the pattern isn’t even written yet. I plan to release it as an e-pattern after I finish the quilt and have time to write it up. The blocks are 8-3/4”. The quilt is 105”; that’s 12 rows of 12 blocks including border blocks. The quilt has 6240 pieces. And of course, I’ll let you know when the pattern is available right here in the newsletter and on my Facebook page. Here’s a photo without the borders.

Celebrity Alter Ego

Legally, I am Judy Bennett. Because I already had a following when I got married 42 years ago, I chose to keep writing under my maiden name, Judy Martin. The other day Kate observed, “You’re Judy Martin AND Judy Bennett. Judy Martin is your celebrity alter ego!” Shazam!

Hear Judy Talk; See Judy’s Quilts

I have two engagements in April. Perhaps you have a road trip in your future? I hope so. I’d love to see you. The first is right here in Grinnell for the Jewel Box Quilters, my local guild, on Thursday, April 11. The meeting starts at 6:30 at the Drake Community Library. I’ll talk a little about getting started in the publishing business and then give my lecture and trunk show, “One Quilt Leads to Another.” They had a sudden opening in the schedule and asked if I could step in. Fortunately, I’m able to help out.

A mere four evenings later, you can celebrate getting your taxes filed on time by seeing me in Altoona, Iowa. The Eastern Polk Quilters Guild has asked me to do my lecture, “One Quilt Leads to Another.” It’s at 7:00 on April 15 at Lutheran Church of the Cross, 1701 8th Street SW, Altoona, IA 50009.

Both lectures will feature about 30 quilts, with a healthy dose of scrap quilts, Log Cabins, and star quilts dating from 1994 to 2024.

As I’ve detailed in previous newsletters, often when I design one quilt, it leads me to ask questions like, “What if I changed this one thing?” or “What would happen if I combined this block with that block from another quilt?” Then the new quilt I design is apt to result in me asking those same questions all over again. And on and on it goes. For me, design is often a journey, sometimes meandering, sometimes direct. Often I draw a dozen variations of a quilt in my computer before settling on a final version to make.

Northwoods Log Cabin that I showed you above is one such quilt. If you look at its ancestry, you’ll see elements of Colorado Log Cabin, Starlight Log Cabin, Timberline Log Cabin, Door County Log Cabin, Lakeshore Log Cabin, and Ohio Valley Log Cabin, but I’m sure you’ll agree it’s new and fresh. I intend to show Starlight, Lakeshore, and the unquilted top for Northwoods Log Cabin at the lecture.

Girl Power

Steve recently presented a paper to his men’s club about women poets, looking at Anne Bradstreet, Aphra Behn, and Christina Rossetti. He delved into the challenges women faced getting published and once published, gaining recognition on an equal basis.

These slights were justified by commonly held views such as one expressed by Victorian physicians that estimated “maternal functions diverted nearly 20 percent of women's vital energies from potential brain activity.” Can you imagine someone saying that to you today?!! I’m sure many of you can because you’ve been subjected to a lifetime of slights, often subconscious and subtle, sometimes obvious and intended, always ridiculous.

I mention this because we’ve noticed lately how themes of what Kate calls “girl power” permeate so much of what we’re watching and reading. “Miss Scarlet & The Duke” on PBS is about a woman struggling to be taken seriously as a private investigator in Victorian London despite the fact that she is excellent at what she does. “All Heart” on PBS Passport deals with a brilliant cardiologist in Turin in 1967 who has to constantly prove herself to her male colleagues. Or another PBS program, “Around the World in 80 Days” has a woman reporter covering the adventurers over the objections of men who don’t view that as women’s work. Another good show, Netflix’s “The Law According to Lidia Poet” tells the true story of the struggles of the first woman to practice law in Italy in 1883. The books of Marie Benedict, of which Steve and I have read several, tell true stories of women whose contributions in the face of biased stereotypes have been ignored or underappreciated.

Even as I’m aware of the historical challenges women have faced and continue to encounter, it’s not lost on me that I’ve spent my whole professional life in a field dominated by women. I’m also aware that quilting is often discounted precisely because it is usually a woman’s pursuit or because it’s seen as a craft rather than an art. I’m fortunate that my husband of 42 years and business partner of 36 years doesn’t devalue me or my work. He’s my biggest advocate.

I didn’t mean to get so philosophical. It’s just something that’s been on mind as a sit at the sewing machine.

Caitlin Clark

Prominent in all this discussion of girl power is the amazing guard from the University of Iowa, Caitlin Clark. As Iowans, we’ve had a front-row seat to her skill for years. I’ll admit, I’m a Judy-come-lately who only became aware of her last year, but Steve has known of her since her high school days in West Des Moines.

Even if you don’t follow college basketball, it’s hard to avoid her electric presence. Clark is the all-time leading scorer, man or woman, in NCAA history. She has led the nation in scoring the last 3 years and has led in assists the last 2. She regularly makes long-distance 3-point shots that few women and men even bother attempting.

And then Caitlin hangs around and signs autographs for the many little girls who come out to see her. She does charity work. She is available for interviews but always makes the interview about her teammates, coaches, and fans.

Caitlin Clark, the face of women’s basketball, has transformed the landscape for the sport. Her games, home or away, are always sellouts. They had 56,000 show up for an outdoor game at the football stadium! National media talks about “Clarkonomics,” the economic impact her presence has had in the cities she plays in and for women’s athletics in general. Her games set viewership records for women’s basketball. I know at my house we have to turn her on because she is mesmerizing on the court. Must-see TV. She’s on TV for insurance companies and grocery stores.

Caitlin Clark is empowering young girls, making them understand there are no limits to what they might accomplish if they work hard.

Look That Up In Your Funk & Wagnalls

Deep thought for a March day: If a word in the dictionary is misspelled, how would we know?

The Long and the Short of Lengthwise Strips

There are a lot of ways to get from here to there when making a quilt. I advocate for the methods I use and promote because they work for me, and I see how they work for others. That’s all part of my job of helping people make the best quilts they’ve ever made. But people come to quilting with a wide range of skills and desires. No one, not me or anyone else, should make you feel bad because you prefer to do things a particular way. If you’re happy with it, everyone should be happy for you.

That said, one common practice makes absolutely no sense to me: cutting strips on the crosswise grain. The lengthwise grain is parallel to the selvage; the crosswise grain is perpendicular to it. Why does this matter? Primarily because the crosswise grain is so much stretchier compared to lengthwise. There is simply no reason to start your sewing off on the wrong foot when lengthwise or crosswise strips take the exact same effort and skill. You can see a vivid demonstration of how stretchy fabric is on the crosswise grain compared to lengthwise by going to my video:

Another advantage of lengthwise strips is how well the strips follow the print. I cut my strips 18" long and call them short strips. That length works perfectly for the fat quarters and half-yard cuts of fabric that I use so often. Since I usually make scrap quilts, the shorter-than-your-usual crosswise strips offer much greater scrap variety. Best of all, you don’t have to throw out everything you’ve learned about rotary cutting to start using short lengthwise strips today. Everything is the same except the length of your strips and the direction that you turn the fabric when you cut it.

Spring: A Time of Germination

Perhaps this student needs a botany lesson…

“Germinate means to become a naturalized German.”

How to Cut Lengthwise Short Strips

Lengthwise strips have the long side of the strip parallel to the selvedge. Strips can be cut any length, but I generally use 18" strips. Before you layer fabrics and cut strips, trim off the selvages. I do this by placing the ruler’s 1/2" line along the selvage, and cutting on the ruler’s edge. If you have prewashed your fabric, the selvage may shrink and curl. If this is the case, you can make short snips in the selvage to straighten the edge enough to trim off the selvage (along with the snips), or you can trim a few inches at a time, realigning your ruler as often as it takes to get a straight cut.

As you cut strips, you may place the fabric with the long, trimmed edge and lengthwise grain parallel to the front edge of the cutting table, and cut from right to left or from left to right. I use this method because I am directionally challenged, and I can never remember which way the fabric goes with any other method. If you prefer, you may place the fabric with the crosswise grain parallel to the front edge of the table, and cut away from your body.

For a scrap quilt, press at least the part of the fabric that you will be using, and stack four different fabrics to make four layers. Because there is no fold, the fabrics lay perfectly flat and are easy to cut precisely. Align the trimmed side and one end of the fabrics. I like to press the fabric again as a stack, and trim off ⅛" or so. This assures that all strips will be the same size. I sometimes cut just one strip from each fabric. If you will be cutting many strips from the same long yardage, you may cut the fabric into 18" lengths (or any other length up to the length of your ruler if you prefer). You can stack the pieces for up to four layers and cut as described above.

Well, that was longer than I intended when I sat down! The “too long; didn’t read” version is lengthwise grain is much more stable and takes no new skill and no more time to cut strips from. You might as well start off on the right foot.*

*If all you’re cutting is squares, it doesn’t matter if you use lengthwise or crosswise strips.

Appalachian Spring

I’m putting this in here because it’s spring and I like seeing this quilt. Appalachian Spring is one of the strip-pieced Lone Stars that make up my book, Singular Stars.

The background fabric is a playful border print Steve found at Nebraska Quilt Company in Fremont, Nebraska when we were visiting in 2014. The colors of the Good-&-Plenty-like candies that make up the print were a perfect match for a quilt I was planning. He suggested it for the backing, which is hilarious because he’s always going on about how for the backs I should just use up any old yardage I have and no longer like! I thought the fabric was too perfect for the back, so I made it the background.

Berraisms

“If people don’t want to come to the ballpark, how are you going to stop them?”

About a St. Louis restaurant: “No one goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”

On his hitting approach: “I can’t think and hit at the same time.”

On economics: “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

And finally, the one everyone knows: “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

Even Yogi would agree: This newsletter is over. Enjoy your spring!

Judy Martin
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