GIMME: All About the Fun Stuff!

Butler Skins the Surface

David Butler has done it again. First we swooned big, big time over his debut fabric line, Curious Nature by Parson Gray, through FreeSpirit Fabrics. Now we get to handle these lovelies every day on our phones. Working through SkinIt, a website that allows you to design custom covers, David has translated eight of his neutral, masculine designs into hip adhesive covers for all those things in our lives that plug in and beep. Cells phones, laptops, MP3 players, cameras, handheld games and things we can’t even think of (because we’re usually too busy playing with our sewing machines to think about much else). We priced out an iPhone cover and a MacBook Air cover to get an idea about pricing. The iPhone skin came in at $14.99. The MacBook at $29.99. But SkinIt has a deep list of other things we can skin with Curious Nature; we’re not limited by any means to just Apple products. Get to the designs by searching “Parson Gray.”

www.SkinIt.com

Aunt Martha Goes from Timeless to Timely

It’s no secret to any of us that embroidery is hot. Very hot. And there are scads of cool patterns popping up as PDF downloads all over our ‘Net sources. But did you know that Aunt Martha’s iron-on embroidery transfers are still being produced? Better yet, we’re no longer stuck with a choice between cute kittens or cute babies to stitch up, because Aunt Martha’s has just released Stitcher’s Revolution, a line of 18 iron-on transfer patterns which are mostly more hip and timely than their classic lines are. Case in point: Instead of settling for charming vintage images of old things, we can now adorn our tea towels with our love of Black Jack and Craps (Roll the Dice patterns). Or maybe that pillowcase you’ve just finished stitching needs to reflect like your obsession with the big hair and bad fashion worshipped in the 1980s? Turn to the 80’s Vibe pattern for your Rubik’s Cube pics. And if you’re little gal or guy is completely into robots, Aunt Martha’s covered that too with Robots Invade. So what the most interesting or fun project you can embellish with your embroidery?

Aunt Martha’s Colonial Patterns, Stitcher’s Revolution: http://www.colonialpatterns.com, $2.95 each

Yes, They Do Matter

As quilting becomes more mainstream (and yes, it is) it grabs the attention of creative people from other disciplines, like filmmakers. Last year it was Stitched, The Film, produced by our friends Jena and Tom, who set out to capture the dedication, obsession and intermittent in-fighting among different quilt camps. This year, it’s Why Quilts Matter, a documentary series of nine episodes of well-crafted film that carefully reveals what quilting is and why we should care.

And care we do, because, as we’ve finally accepted, the only thing we love second to making quilts is talking about our quilts. When bitten by that nasty Quilt Bug, we turn into passionate messiahs of all things stitched and our best day is when we see the light go on in someone else’s eyes about quilting. That’s what host Shelly Zegart knows and shares. She could be seen as straight, but then she comes out with bursts of passion reflective of our existence and we know she’s another Sister of the Cloth being a good steward of our shared passion. For instance, we loved it when Shelly, in the eighth episode, Quilt Nation: 20,000,000 and Counting! told those people who believe the quilt world is a cozy place celebrating a domestic craft to, “Get out more!”

And this is indicative of the documentary throughout. Just when you’re starting to wonder if there’s anything other than an university survey lecture happening before your eyes on the vid, we’re shown QuiltMan, or given graphic images of just how many times and in how many ways Sunbonnet Sue can be offed by our fellow quilters. It’s enough to make us proud, we say.

Those of us who have come to quilting recently could easily dismiss Why Quilts Matter as yet another look-see into a corner of our universe where we don’t live. But that would be arrogant and dismissive to ignore our roots. Fact is that our roots are vitally important to what we’re able to do in today’s quilt world. Learning more about them can only help us become better advocates for our love. Get the DVD. Host a movie night (with sewing machines—all nine episodes together makes for a long night!) or maybe run the DVD during the course of a weekend sewing retreat. But do watch it and then watch it again. What you learn about where you come from can inspire you to make better quilts. It’s a legacy filled with pride.

www.whyquiltsmatter.org, DVD, $39.95