Beginner Quilt Winner - Ola at Festival of Quilts 2021 and My Life Lesson
I will probably never forget meeting Ola for the first time.
I am quite confident there will be a second meeting and probably a third. I hope many many more.
This first meeting however, will be one of those moments that will be forever etched in my consciousness for simultaneously the best and the worst of reasons.
She was very direct. She spoke with a foreign accent and there was no escaping the questioning.....it was unrelenting.
"Why did you film all the winning quilts but you didn't film mine?"
I was standing inside our Pinhole Quilting stand at Festival of Quilts 2021 and someone I had never met or seen in my life before had approached the stand.
There were no other customers. Just this one person asking this question.
"I'm sorry. Did you win an award?"
"Yes. I won the Beginner Quilt"
"Really? And I didn't film it? Well....I didn't film quite a few. The first day I did Part 1 and today I did a few more quilts as Part 2. The group quilt for example. I also did the Miniature and the Novice in Part 2", quickly back-tracking and thinking what did the Beginner Quilt even look like?
"But you did the one next to mine and the one after. Was there something wrong with mine? Was it not good enough?"
Oh crickey. I realised I had deeply offended this person and it was not a simple question of Part 2 of my Facebook Live solving the problem. This was far more fundamental than that.
The Beginner Quilt Award at Festival of Quilts is awarded to someone who has literally completed their first quilt. It's a really important award. I had completely blanked the Beginner Quilter Winner of Festival of Quilts 2021.
We were standing by the sitdown longarm machines on our Pinhole Quilting / Handi Quilter stand.
"Why don't you have a seat and tell me your name, show me a picture of your quilt and tell me about your quilting. Then perhaps we could do a video of your quilt."
"I don't want a video of my quilt..."
"So your name is...?"
"Ola"
"Hi Ola..please, have a seat."
She sat down and we talked.
This is Ola's story.
Ola is a prison guard.
She works in Wiltshire and has worked as a prison guard for 14 years.
It's a hard job. Before Covid she visited her sister in the States. Her sister's Mother in Law is a typical American lady and loves to quilt. Ola loved the quilts that she showed her so they went shopping and her sister's Mother in Law bought Ola a quilt kit by Polish American Quilter Edyta Sitar which was called "Super Bloom". Ola thought it was a very beautiful quilt and hoped that when she returned to the UK she could learn how to make it. Maybe she would join a quilt group. Prior to seeing her Sister's Mother in Law's quilts she had never really noticed quilts or quilting before.
A few months after she returned to the UK Covid hit the world. Ola's two sons are in their mid twenties and they both still live at home with Ola and her husband.
During Covid Ola's life consisted of working in the prison. So Ola would make food for her husband and her two boys. And so it went on. Working. Sleeping. Repeat.
She says she became very depressed during Covid. She knew that she needed to do something to get out of the terrible depression she had fallen into. She decided to get out the quilt kit she had bought. I don't recall if she said that she had a sewing machine or if she bought one but she wasn't an experienced sewer. In fact she said that in Poland you had a choice of going to a college where you could learn sewing but she went to a commercial school instead (her mother said that sewing was for less intelligent girls!!)
So she looked everything up on YouTube. She loved the fact that Edyta was Polish like herself.
Every time she got stuck on a technique she googled it. This is how she completed the quilt top including the applique. She described doing the applique tubes and doing zig zag stitch.
"I don't know if that is how you are supposed to put them on but that's how I decided to do it" she laughed!
Then she had to quilt it!
So she googled free motion quilting and YouTubed that too. The first attempt at free motion quilting didn't work out. She said Angela Walters makes it look so easy! But it wasn't so easy!
So she unpicked it all and started again. It was as though she thought that unpicking was cheating not realising that actually a lot of us end up doing the same. She has no point of reference. Ola did this entire Beginners Quilt on her own.
When she was standing by her quilt she would hear people say things like "It can't be her first quilt" but then others would say "Look at her points...not very good".
Well what do you expect when six months earlier she hadn't made a quilt! That is what a Beginner is. It's worth bearing in mind that when you are looking at quilts that the person who made it may be behind you!
At the end of telling me this as we sat on the stand she said...
"Quilting saved my life".
She said it without emphasis or drama. Just as a statement.
I believe her.
We walked over to her quilt.
She showed me the good points and the bad points.
The applique.
The binding.
Her mitred binding (the quilt angel came over and held it up for the photograph - thank you quilt angel).
The amazing free motion quilting (redone because she knew it was not good enough.) It really is extremely good!
So I learnt a very important lesson from Ola.
I thanked Ola for telling me I had not filmed the Beginner Quilt. It was a seriously bad omission. Of ALL the quilts I should have filmed the Beginner Quilt and the Children's Quilts.
I will make sure to do that next time (like I'll ever forget!)
Then we went and sat in front of the Novice Quilt which was won by Nicole Rollo. Nicole visited our Handi Quilter Showroom a few years ago and bought a Handi Quilter Amara after having told us that she wanted to become an excellent machine quilter. She won the Novice Award at Festival of Quilts in 2021 with her stunning quilt. I'll post about that separately.
Happy Endings
Ola is fixing to visit our Handi Quilter showroom to test drive our Handi Quilter longarm machines.
She is planning to do her next quilt but it will be her own quilt design. I get the sense that her learning curve is a steep one. She is a quick learner.
We gave each other a huge Covid safe hug.
I feel confident that my life lesson on encouraging those who are at the start of their quilting journey has been a lesson well learnt. I will not forget this one.
Enjoy the rest of these photos of Ola's beautiful quilt.
Thank you Ola. It was a real pleasure to meet you. You made my Festival of Quilts 2021 very special.
Liz x
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| Detail of the applique. Ola used a zig zag stitch. I was really impressed by her free motion quilting on a domestic machine for a first quilt. |
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| Examining the mitred corner - I just realised that this was before the quilt angel helped us! Sorry! |
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| Close up of the centre of the quilt |
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| Ola talking with a lovely visitor who was interested in her quilt. |
Life’s lessons hey? That’s such a good point about criticising others work. I’ve experienced being a quilt Angel and having to listen to the “quilt police” giving their opinions on a quilt I’d entered, my first ever quilt. Let’s hope Ola’s journey of quilt happiness continues
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Some of the comments we hear and the feedback we get from others. Among the "overheard at quilt show" comments, some of which can be quite damaging to those who have put their heart and soul into their quilts, perhaps overcoming the loss of a husband, child or other loved one. For others it might be criticism or lack of understand of techniques of machine quilting. So at Festival this year I had 5 visitors looking at the wonderful quilt made by Quilter, Teacher and Moxie Mentor Jo Avery which looked stunning. Jo called it Pinball Wizard! It was quilted by Tatyana Duffie who has one of our Handi Quilter Avantes, an 18" Longarm. She does NOT have a computerised quilting option. I had been off the stand and approached as I heard one of the 5 ladies say "It must take months to set up the computer to stitch it out."
ReplyDeleteI explained that none of it was done by computer. I then took the time to explain that it was done through a combination of free motion (hand guided) and ruler work. I took them over to the Handi Quilter 15" Moxie machine and they all had a go on the Moxie. Jo didn't have a Moxie when she made the quilt so she had asked Tatyana, who is a good friend of hers in Scotland, quilt it for her. I then showed them a selection of our quilt samples which completely blew their minds!
A sample by Handi Quilter Ambassador Laurie Tigner using Inktense pencils handguided on her Handi Quilter Fusion. No piecing.
My Radiance piece where I did an eighth of the design and then scanned and digitised it BUT made it look wonky so it wasn't perfect and then stitched it using the computerised system so it looked imperfect! Then I freehand quilted feathers and used rulers. All the techniques on one piece.
The beautiful piece that Laurie made for Pete and I based on the Old Palace at Bromley by Bow that is in the V&A - see the Blog Post on that one.
https://longarmlearning.blogspot.com/2021/02/the-story-of-old-palace-at-bromley-by.html
Many others including Karlee Porter's couched piece when she taught at classes I ran.
I'll bet they wished I hadn't over heard! But seriously they thanked me for correcting them. Two of them were American from California and they are going to find their local Handi Quilter Dealer.
Ola’s quilt is beautiful!!! We all started as beginners. My very first quilt is quite a mess!!
ReplyDeleteI think she did a beautiful job on her free motion. Yay, Ola!!!
And her statement that quilting saved her life is so telling. You can tell just from that statement that She’ll be passionate about quilting and it will become part of her being. I can't imagine my life without quilting in it!!!
Can you imagine how I felt sitting there having Ola tell me her story. I just sat. And listened. ...and listened. She said it in a way that had a truth that cut right through me. I had to share this not in a video post but written down. Written down as I heard it. As it affected me so powerfully. Ola is a powerful woman. We will hear and see more of Ola. That much I do know.
DeleteA passionate creative is indeed a force to be reckoned with. Ola clearly has found her passion and how fantastic that it has helped her so much, like it has helped most of us. She will clearly go from strength to strength now and not just with her quilting. A fabulous post. Thanks for the raw honesty Liz.
ReplyDeleteFabulous blog post Liz, very moving. Ola was on one of my workshops and she was so enthusiastic and happy to be there! I didn't realise she had made that beautiful quilt, it really is incredible for a first quilt, well done Ola!! Please tell her I said that when she visits you!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jo - it was one of those blogs that just flowed...because it was pretty much verbatim!
DeleteI will pass on your message - I am sure she will be thrilled! Liz x