Beverly also had a feature in McCalls Quilting/Quick Quilts magazine and website with a modern baby quilt. The article was featured in the February / March 2010 issue, that is obviously, no longer available, but the pattern can be had through an inquiry to the website. Isn't it adorable?
Beverly's Start in Quilting
Beverly has been quilting for more than 20 years and it is one of her life's passions. Beverly has had several moments in her life when something comes together or clicks and she instinctively knows it will be a part of her from then on. Two such occurrences happened in 1993 - knowing she was going to be married to her now-husband, and knowing she wanted to pursue the ministry. But, long before either of those two things happened, there was a day when she was driving with some friends through the quaint little town of Allentown, NJ (not PA). There was an old grist mill that attached to the back, was a shack named "The Quilter's Barn" - a sign in the window read 'Quilting Lessons'. Beverly asked the driver to pull over so she could get information. A couple weeks later, she was enrolled in a 12-week quilting class. When the class was finished and she had a completed quilt to show for it, she was thrilled to complete a project as finishing projects had formerly been a sore-spot for her! Looking at the finished quilt, Beverly knew that quilting was the thing for her. As a sidenote, I tried to post a link and picture to the Quilter's Barn, but it seems to have closed down....sorry Beverly!
Sewing and Quilting Machines
Beverly has about 17 or 18 machines, mostly because she likes to offer summer quilting camps and finds the class works better when the kids work on machines she knows well. For Beverly's "Second Sanctuary" sewing, she has three Pfaff machines: One is pretty old and it is set up for free-motion on smaller pieces like placemats, baby quilts, coasters, and mug rugs; an Expression is used for her piecing and binding work; and a Grand Quilter for actual quilting work. The Grand Quilter is pretty persnickety, so Beverly almost never gets through a project without some sort of problem, hence, she tends to only do a loose meandering design on her quilts.
Color and Inspiration
Beverly finds that she loves fabric collections more than colors. When she's in JoAnn's or another fabric shop, she'll see one or two pieces of a collection and then need to hunt down the rest of the collection and get a yard of each. As a result, she has piles of collections around her sewing room (me too because I cannot resist fabric!). The irony is that she doesn't make many quilts from collections other than her Strip Around the Block on Diagonal pattern that uses a collection. The rest of Beverly's quilts are "anti-collection." The "Classic Americana" pictured above, and the other quilts that sell well are dependent on a mixture of 45-60 different prints and patterns.
Beverly's other fabric weakness is novelty prints...every time she sees one, she imagines for whom that print would be fun. She sees a sushi print and thinks of her step-son...a guitar print and thinks of her nephew. But, even after buying the fabric, lo-and-behold, she hasn't made the quilts. Since she has so many novelty prints, she has been making "caring quilts", which are quilts to be given to someone going through a rough time and in need of cheering up. Each square has a novelty print related to the person's life, then bordered with a 2" frame of another novelty print. Right now, Beverly is finishing up two Caring Quilts.
Donations / Sewing Machines to India
Several summers ago, Beverly began donating money to the Blue Mango project in India as a result of one of her quilting camps. When Beverly was pastoring at a church in Montclair, NJ, she offered a two-week camp in August every year. While the camp was free, the parents felt that they should pay something for this experience that was enriching their children. So Beverly hunted through mission programs within her denomination and found Blue Mango in southern India. Through Blue Mango, women who are impoverished, widowed, abandoned, etc., are able to come together and learn a couple trades, including sewing. With donations, Blue Mango is able to provide these women with their own sewing machines so they can work at home, earn an income, and still take care of their families. The cost for a woman to have a treadle machine of her own is $140.00 US. At the camp at her church, a donation box was set up that explained Blue Mango. Parents that wanted to donate, could. One summer, at the end of the two-week camp, enough money was donated to purchase 17 sewing machines. At Beverly's new church in Kinnelon, NJ, the summer camps haven't been started yet, but she has continued to help Blue Mango with monthly donations from her Second Sanctuary shop.
The FUN Question: Book on the Nightstand / Favorite Books
Right now Beverly is working through "The Brothers' Karamozov," by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It is her husband's favorite book and this past Christmas, she asked him for a copy so she could share in his love for it. Wayne, Mr. Second Sanctuary, didn't want to get her a paperback edition from Barnes & Noble, so he went searching on the Internet for an old copy. His sleuthing paid off as he scored a first edition through a seller on Etsy! Beverly is reading this copy, but has to be super-careful because of its age and breaking spine. At the same time, she's 'books-on-taping' to "A Passage to India," by E.M. Forster as she drives to weekend weddings. Last summer, she read "Rules of Civility," by Amor Towles and LOVED it. Beverly's want-to-read list includes never-read "The Good Earth," by Pearl S. Buck, so she plans to ask Santa for it come December. Funny Beverly points out The Good Earth, since I had never read it, it was the first book I pulled from my shelf in January 2012. Well-worth the read......
Cheers! Jennifer
My mother and I make up the Olive Street Studio design and sewing team. I cannot remember my mom NOT sewing or quilting. Since 2003, we've made chenille and cotton baby quilts, baby gift sets, little girls dresses and skirts, and for a second dimension, reversible tote bags and smaller handbags. I joined the Quiltsy Team on Etsy in 2010.
Etsy Shop: Olive Street Studio
Website: Olive Street Studio
Blog: Olive Street Studio on Blogger
1 comment:
Bev, it's so good to get to know you a little better! Love your quilts!
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