Episode 452 - Hand Quilting Class Debrief

0:00Good morning. This is Emma and I want to say today's the 14th. The um birthday of one of my co-workers and she's well she's not she's not young now because we'll see when was this 2008. She was about to go to work for us. She might have been working for us far time at that point and this is the anniversary of Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Ike was pretty destructive in Texas and it took about 24% 25% of the shankles out my house and therefore I had lots of leaks in the ceiling. We did not have power for less than 24 hours but I think it was about 20. I think

1:03that was the most that we had had. As I said that power out in jahed a couple of years ago where I didn't have five days was highly unusual for me but that one was 20 hours and didn't have prepper stuff going on then like a generator whatever so I was trying to get stuff cooked that was in the freezer so I had a bunch of pinks and a blanket that I made with fresh of rose and little sausages and they were frozen so that now you had to do which is purple in the oven and you could have a nice hot pink and a blanket. I saw it a bunch of those in the freezer so I cooked them all and my co-worker at the time as I said she was very young she just great-joyed from high school and she was dating the guy who lived next door that I was renting the house to

2:07his mother and he was having his mother and so she had had to spend the night with the only cause. She lived farther out in the country and there are three different roads and she could go to her house and trees were blocking all three roads so she could not go home so she stayed with the old man she came down and she and I celebrated her birthday by eating pinks and a blanket on the front porch in the heat and post hurricane Ike. So hurricane Ike has always been memorable for us. I wish I had remembered sometimes if I remember a time I will make pinks and a blanket for breakfast for us at the office so we can celebrate our birthday. This weekend unfortunately I forgot so we don't have any pinks and a blanket this morning. Anyway that was with all the things I had going on I'm going to make myself a note

3:08so I will remember to do my pinks next time. Anyway so Ike and anniversary of hurricane Ike and co-workers birthday today. I was mending the 14th so I thought what I would do today is I would debrief the quilt class quilting class on this. I ended up with nine people which I thought was pretty good because I think I had about 11 or so signed up so apparently a bunch of mine were not a bunch but several that were going to come to the class were actually involved in the annual Highway 84 Grotzen and that's kind of a thing in various parts of the country where you have a US highway or something that goes for a long way in 84. One of those it goes...

4:11I'm going to say if it then goes most of the way across Texas I think it goes it's it's as big a deal as highway 80 so 80 in many places has been replaced by I-20 parts of it are still around but I-20 was meant to kind of take the place of it there are still some pieces of I mean of how US 80 and it's one of those that goes coast coast you know 6 route 66 route 66 that's another one that one kind of comes down from the north goes through Amarilla so that's a big one you know there was a song about that you know in Galifornia but 84 is the same way there's some others like that to 87 goes north to south 84's go in east to west that which is also pretty simple an interesting thing this is if you did not know

5:15this on maps if you're looking at particularly I don't think it really goes down into the state level like you're looking at a state highway but if you're looking at US I-Ways and interstates if they have an even number they're going east to west and if they have an odd number they're going north to south like for example I-20 goes and I-10 both go east to west 35 45 and they're getting there with it I-69 coming out of Houston which is taking the place of US 59 those are odd so 84 obviously is east to west since it is an even number okay that was off topic from the quill class but so some of my people were manning their place own US 84 for the

6:17rod sale honestly I mean I would mind going to it although I was busy but I sure wish they'd have it when it wasn't quite so hot you know bump that thing down into October or something or have one in the spring but it is way too hot to be out broad sailing right now it takes us because if we are if we're not in the hundreds but we are needed things as in the hundreds our temperatures are in the high 90's and I am done with the hot weather I'm ready for this to be gone and have all that rain that they keep telling us we're going to get with this super alien you okay quilting class let me give it to it so had a break or had a couple that were the experience quilters which was great because then they were able to help some of the others I think they were interested in kind of life may be owning their skills they did say they learned about some new tools they didn't know about so hopefully they felt like their time was spent wisely I had a bunch of

7:24beginners it sometimes and I have to stop and think I'm not amazed but anymore and I do have to stop and remind myself that there are no people in this world that don't know how to thread a needle and they and you know kudos to them for wanting to learn how to thread a needle but they it's you know they haven't had a lot of practice holding scissors that there's they're just not they've just not done this before and clearly we're trying to teach our fingers to do things that our fingers have not done and for those of us who take those kind of skills for granted I have to step back and remind myself not everybody does this all the time like I do so and others that I know certainly not the only one okay so first of all it was two hours which you know for those of us who like to talk and I'm certainly one on that list two hours is not a really

8:28long time so I spent probably more time that I should have on the history and that kind of thing I did talk about tools and materials and the things they would need I don't necessarily regret doing that because when we're talking about absolute beginners and there were several of those in this group the you know if they hadn't ever picked up a needle before then it is no equal kind tools to buy is important for example one and I'm not real sure why she thought this was going to be but she again is a very sweet person whether not a frame of reference so I can't follow her for that although this wasn't really I don't think what she was looking for because she is an artist

9:28probably well I think she is an artist in a lot of different mediums she has she laughed at children's book that she had illustrated and I guess written maybe for me which was very sweet after I read it I'll send it on this way to some coworker children that I had that I know and it's really you know looks like she's very artistic and very gifted so I think she thought that being able to use an evil thread was going to help her in her art which it certainly wouldn't she could do a lot of things with it but I don't think she needed this particular class to do that because this was way more specific than what she she just needed some general sewing lessons which honestly she could get off of a YouTube hopefully she will do that but I also had a lady who's done a lot of other needlework I had not ever quilted just wanted to

10:32learn a quilt so she was a pretty good shape because she you know the the skill said is different but she used to handling the tools one of the things I thought was kind of interesting although I shouldn't be surprised having taught public school for years is that when I gave people a specific list of things to go get they either didn't bring them or didn't bring them right well or got different things like for example the artist lady she didn't go get a fat quarter she got some little bitty squares of fabric well that really wasn't going to do her any good because we needed to put this in a and she she first squares of fabric which is more for that well what I should have anticipated is on me I know that people don't always follow directions what I should have done was bought you know brought some cheap fat quarters from Walmart with me so that if somebody

11:32came and didn't have the fabric that we would have it I did bring the padding because they did as I said they didn't need to have to buy a whole thing of padding just so that they had a small square to practice so I did that and that you'll use a part of my bad things that she was okay I had a woman who came without a temple okay well you cannot unless you plan to poke a serious hole in your you cannot hand quilt without a temple you're gonna have to have one and I realized a lot of people so without a temple if I'm piecing our hands sewing I like to use the little leather dot because it's not near is you know doesn't cover up your health maker it's less intrusive maybe less noticeable but it still serves the purpose of protecting your finger from the needle so

12:34anyway I it was thankfully I did have an extra a thimble so that help because as a sage cannot do this without them I had people brought all kinds of weird needles not not the between that I told them to get fortunately I did think to get a package of number eight between off all one on Amazon and I put one in each one of there I gave them a little goody bag and in the goody bag I gave them a template that we didn't get to and I gave them some safety pins to pin their in base there quilt sandwich together and I gave them a needle so that I knew for sure they had the right kind of needle to use so that note just self from now on I may just have to create a kit and they can purchase the kit and so you know that that would help I wouldn't I mean I don't mind doing it and if it's stuff I

13:36have that I have plenty of like for example I put 10 safety pins in each person's supply bag and I have that thing back at the end of my safety pin collection so that was fine again I talked too long so that didn't give us a long time to see we're supposed to be done by 11 9 to 11 so it's only two hours I think I would have done better with three but what we have decided to do is come back and do a second session which is probably going to be better anyway because in this session we are going to strictly concentrate on the skills involved in this one of the things that we struggled with right off the bat was the quilter's knot and I don't again I don't think of that as a difficult skill but it was difficult for people who are not used to using their fingers in this manner and so you know explained it but folks were struggling with it big time so I think

14:42that's when we do our second session I will start off with that as people come in the door and get situated I will say okay get your stuff out and start practicing your quilter's knot so that they get that down and it's easy to do this is Matt Rogers from Los Cultures this with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang this is Bowen Yang from Los Cultures this is Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang okay we've been talking about Cupid male for a minute now bow and wow the feedback we're getting I mean so many of y'all love this stuff you're stopping us in the street going I love Cupid and if you're thinking wait what is Cupid do you not have the internet it's the OG Japanese mayonnaise the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle once you know what you start seeing it everywhere people ask what makes it different from basic mayo will the answer egg yolks Cupid is made with egg yolks only giving it this incredibly rich umami flavor that elevates everything burgers fries sandwiches chicken noodles chefs use it

15:43restaurants use it people who really love food and flavor use it whatever you're eating Cupid so if you haven't tried Cupid yet find the bottle with the red cap and see what everyone's talking about you'll understand Cupid the original Japanese mayonnaise this episode is brought to you by spreeker the platform responsible for a rapidly spreading condition known as podcast brain symptoms include buying microphones you don't need explaining our SS feeds to confused relatives and saying things like sorry I can't talk right now I'm editing audio if this sounds familiar you're probably already a podcaster the good news is spreeker makes the whole process simple you record your show uploaded once and spreeker distributes it everywhere people listen Apple podcasts Spotify and about it doesn't apps your cousins swears are the next big thing even better spreeker helps you monetize your show with ads meaning your podcast might someday pay for well more microphones start your show today at spreeker dot com spreeker because if you're going to talk to yourself for an hour you might as

16:47well publish it I also went back after the class and rewatched a couple the first episodes of the Esther Miller videos on hand quilting she said she she was an older lady and she has since passed away but it is I think a treasure that we have these videos from her in the first place she grew up as she said and she so obviously she grew up with the folks over the gold standard for a quilting and she I want to say they started teaching she wanted to large she was always watching the ladies who were quilting you know when they all got together to quilt and they all you know were master quilters that is so you didn't have anybody quilting on your quilt that didn't know what they were doing and I'm sure their stitches were pretty uniforms that be hard to tell who quilted what part but she was fascinated by that so they

17:53began to teach her to quilt when she was four okay I started sewing when I was eight eight there's been difference between four and eight but she started when she was four and so they taught her how to hold the needle and how to do all the things that she needed to do to quilt and as she made her beginning stitches you know they just they just pull those out and let her do it again and that kind of thing to until she got to the point where she could join the ladies at the quilt frame because her stitches were as good as their stitches so one of the things that she does in in the beginning of her videos is she has people practicing holding the needle with their thumb and ring finger on their dominant hand and putting that in the fabric so you'd like pull it out put it in

18:55pull it out put it in and doing that 50 times so that their hand gets the field and they get used to they just automatically pick up the needle with their thumb and ring finger now I was not used to doing that I think I probably picked mine up you got a thimble on your middle finger so that takes up I mean you can't really pick up the needle with that but you can pick up I've always picked up the needle probably with my thumb and my index finger well the problem is that finger is in the way of your thimble and the thimble is what is going to hold the needle when you start to quilt so therefore using your ring finger is much better result in you have a more control but it's not the thing that you think to do first oh you think of you using your index finger in your thumb

19:56but not your ring finger in your thumb to pick something up so it's a motion that takes getting used to so that's why she says try that for 50 times and then she has you once you've gotten the needle in the fabric where you want it to go is that you're going to then transfer control of the needle from your thumb and your ring finger to your thimble and that's also kind of a muscle memory thing that you've got to teach your fingers how to do so when we do the second class we're going to practice that and get people used to it and help them understand that it's the they're teaching their fingers something to do they've never done before you know this can apply to any scale in the world it's kind of like learning a musical instrument your fingers are doing something your fingers have not ever done before so that is it's essentially

21:00even though all you're doing is a running stitch which doesn't really sound like it's that hard it is if you've not ever done it before and so they were kind of struggling with that part and then we ran out of time so we're going to try this I would like them to get to the point where they can at least quilt a motif so they can see what the hand quilting looks like because then I think they'll be hooked it's the it's the play of the thread and the texture and actually making a design that makes you go okay I love this and and so they didn't get to that part they just barely took their first stitches and then they had to go so that that's my goal next time I want us to actually I want us to quilt some stitches get that part dough and get that in a rhythm and then I want them to draw something on their sample and like a black feathers or

22:01something so that they can see how that works we also have to cover the concept of traveling inside your quilt with your needle and so you know that's a little bit of a trick too so anyway hindsight since I never told this before don't talk as much it's been more time with the skills but it'll just give us an extra time to get together and we didn't have fun and they seemed to enjoy it and several of them said they wanted to do it again so that's that's a good good sign oh and some that you know this was on Facebook so some people were going oh wait I missed it I didn't know that was happening so maybe some additional beginners would join us that would not be a problem because we didn't get far enough along that that we couldn't take up some extra beginners in our class so that might take the place of the people who might not come the second time okay that was obviously the most the biggest thing I did over the weekend

23:06was getting ready for that I took a Friday afternoon off and did not take Friday morning off and got ready made sure everything was working for the class and all that kind of stuff and then the class and of course after I done all that I was tired so I took a nap and that felt wonderful I'm trying to think what else I did I think that was it it is football season which I know this doesn't make you sense but I actually get more work done on the weekend during football season because if we're watching an actual show it's you know if you get up in the middle of it you miss part of what's going on or you know my family feels the need to stop it while I'm on or something football like in coming up you know I can sit down and watch something that part is not very interesting you know they're not doing much I could do something come back I last five minutes away where you know the they're gonna score at the end here

24:10so anyway kind of what the longhorn stood I didn't get to see the Aggies because they were in the middle of the day okay um I think that's all I have to say I have a training this morning that I have to do at 9.45 I think and a bunch other stuff to do except I will talk to you tomorrow