When did you start quilting
and how did that happen?
I began quilting in the late
1980s. I worked for many years as the financial director at a local hospital...
about as uncreative a job as you can imagine (unless you are doing slightly
illegal financial management!). I worked more than full time, had a small
child, and was going to school for my Masters ... I burned out! When I became a
woman of "leisure", I began to cross-stitch. Loved it. I did lots of
home projects (repainting the outside, refinishing wood floors, etc.) that had
been waiting for spare time, and I cross-stitched like crazy. Eventually I ran
out of wall space and friends and relatives to give stitched pieces to.
Fortunately a Georgia Bonesteel quilting show on public television caught my
attention and our local high school offered a quilting class. Like lots of
quilters, I learned to quilt with an Eleanor Burns Log Cabin pattern, except I
reduced the width of my logs to 1" finished and changed the layout to the
Barn Raising design. Right from the beginning, I loved the designing and
"puzzle" part of quilting. Perhaps the math part came from my
previous job, but it was certainly a far more creative way to use math!
You have a business partner, right? Do you design together or do you create separate designs?
Sandy Boobar and I have been
business partners in Pine Tree Country Quilts since 2005. We design and make
quilts for magazines, books, and fabric companies. We collaborate on all of our
designs.
How would you describe your style?
Eclectic. We don't think we have a
recognizable style though people tell us they can always tell which are our
quilts in the magazines that they get. Funny though, when we've asked how they
can tell, what is it that gives us away, they can never pinpoint anything. Our
main goal for most designs is a pieced quilt that is easy enough for an
experienced beginning quilter, but a quilt that looks more complicated than it
is.
What inspires you to create
a new design?
Nothing romantic here ... a fabric
collection and a deadline. Since we are usually designing specifically for an
assignment, we are using a requested fabric collection and working up a design
to best showcase that collection.
Do you use technology when
you develop new designs? If so, how?
Yes. We use Electric Quilt for our
designs and import the actual fabric images into the design. We sometimes begin
with a graph paper sketch and then draw it in EQ. We never have fabric on hand
before we design a quilt. We use fabric images only. We sometimes wait 3 months
for the fabric to actually arrive to make the quilt.
Do you participate in other
activities related to quilting?
I have been a freelance editor and
technical proofreader for quilting publications since 1994. I work with several
fabric companies writing and proofing instructions for their free patterns. I
work with several publishers as a technical editor.
What are some of your
interests outside the quilting world?
Reading (at least 2 to 3 books a
week), gardening (another thing I got very involved in after I quit my
"real" job), and lake conservation.
Anything else you would
like people to know about you?
I am married (37 years, OMG, I
feel old!), have a married son, and an 8-year-old grandson. My husband and I
have lived on a pristine lake in central Maine for 33 years. We have been
volunteer lake monitors for 16 years, and I was an officer of our lake association
for 14 years. I was a half-hearted fisherman (fisherwoman?) for many years when
my son was young, but gave it up when I realized that since I hate fish (eating
them), the smell of fish, and frigid, rainy days in a boat (the only
"good" type of fishing weather) ... what was I thinking!! My grandson
now wishes that I still would try to like it. He already has fish stories about
the one that got away! Life is good!!
Check out Sue and Sandy's designs on their website.
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