An Interview with Deb Karasik - May 2009
by Penny McMorris
Phat Tuesday, 2009, by Deb Karasik
Q: When and how did you first get interested in quilts?
In late 2000, I got a call from one of my daughters that she was pregnant with
her first... Then the next month we found out it was triplets. Suffice it to say, if
that isn't enough incentive to start quilting... nothing is!
Q: Do you remember the first quilt you ever made, and the story behind it?
The very first quilt I ever made was a trip around the world with 1” finished blocks
for my first daughter when she was born. I gave up quilting then...<G> and waited
until grandkids came along!
Q: You work now with Janet Mednick, in a business called Quilt Mavens. Tell me a bit about how you met Janet and started your business. And how about the name?
I met Janet at our guild, and she totally impressed me by the caliber of her work...she
took very traditional quilts and tweaked them, played with color and fabrics and made them
into entirely new looking, exciting quilts. Mavens is a tongue in cheek play on words... a Maven
is a woman who THINKS she knows it all...we KNOW we don't know it all...<G>
Q: You and Janet wrote a book together. How did that come about? How did you find a publisher?
That's a pretty funny story. We entered a quilt in the AQS show [Editor's note: the quilt was Cressida later featured in Quilter's Newsletter for winning First Place at the Pacific International Quilt show] and got an email from AQS asking if they could use the quilt in a book being written about borders, by Bonnie Browning. Having no idea how publishing stuff worked, I asked if we would be able to use the same quilt in a book if we ever wrote one. The next thing I knew, we were submitting a proposal (KNOWING they'd never accept it...but whatever...) and getting a contract back in the mail.
Cressida, 2004, by Deb Karasik and Janet Mednick
Q: How do you and Janet collaborate on a quilt? Are you designing together in the same space? Are you sending files to one another?
Collaborating is not as hard as people think. Generally it starts with some sort of idea...
lots of curves, lots of spikes, lots of curves and spikes... whatever. Then I start playing on the computer, with EQ6, and we just play and play until something looks like we want to make it.
Then of course we have to argue about fabric <G>, but we both give in and start sewing.
Wayward Geese, 2006, by Deb Karasik
Q: Your personal quilt style involves spiky blocks, like New York Beauties. What is it about these blocks that fascinates you?
I wish I had an answer for that. I have tried and tried to make quilts without them, but they seem to have a life of their own now. I do lay a lot of blame on Karen Stone. If she hadn't come out with her first book with all those yummy NY beauty blocks, I may not have taken this path.
Q: Quilts with Attitude is your second book. How did that come about, how did they get that attitude, and when it is coming out?
Attitude has been out for about 2 weeks now. It came about as basically an evolution of the first book. I really can blame EQ for its ‘birth' so to speak. I discovered early on with this computer program that you can't just ‘design one quilt' and move on. I now have over 2500 quilts designed, and at this rate, I need to live a long, long time to make a dent in them!
Q: Which EQ version did you start with, and how did you discover it?
I started with EQ4, because I wanted to make a monkey wrench quilt. Well... I got the program, immediately got distracted by all the other things I could make. And to this day I still haven't made the monkey wrench quilt. Someday maybe???
Q: Have you used EQ6 to exports of virtual quilts for your book? Are you drawing blocks? Do you use it for your teaching? Or none of the above...
Anyone who reads my book can see the influence of EQ. It's on every page. What better way to describe the blocks or the quilt, than actually showing what they look like and how
they go together? I love this program...it does all the hard work for me and all I have to do is have fun creating. What could be better?
Q: Your teaching schedule takes you all over. I see you'll be teaching in Dublin, Ireland about when this interview first appears. Are you a natural performer and teacher? Or did you have to conquer “stage fright” at the beginning?
Stage fright is not something I ever suffered from. I view the world a bit differently than most people. You see, I think everyone out there is just a friend I haven't met yet. I adore the process; travel, teaching, lecturing...or just meeting other quilters. Love it, love it, love it. Those that know me know that I'm not the least bit shy, star struck or afraid to talk to anyone. It's a real asset in this line of work.
Q: Ever have those “teacher nightmares” where you're unprepared, or all your slides have been put in backwards, or your quilts get sent to Bolivia by mistake?
I'm married to a tech geek, and should have a fancy, schmancy lecture presentation, but I prefer to pull out my quilts and talk from the hip. I have no prepared lectures, no slide presentations, none of that. I just like to show my quilts, talk with the crowd, and have a great time. So far, it seems like it works pretty well. I get a really good response from folks and they don't feel afraid to approach me afterwards.
Q: Have any funny teaching stories?
My own favorite memory of traveling and lecturing was my first away-from-home lecture when I was quite young. I was invited to share a motel room with the great quilt historian Joyce Gross, who had taken me under her wing. Normally I go to bed early, and also get extremely quiet when I'm tired. Well, Joyce is incredibly popular, so our room was crammed with other teachers, who all knew each other. I knew only Joyce. About 11:30 I finally realized there was no way anyone was going to bed for hours. Much to my embarrassment I was so exhausted I began to get tears in my eyes. At that point the always gracious Bonnie Leman, founder/then-editor of Quilter's Newsletter, said she was going to bed and offered me a pull-out couch in her suite. From then on everyone referred to that as the “night Penny slept with Bonnie Leman.” Do you have a favorite story?
Probably my funniest story was when I was hired by a guild in Arizona to teach. I was picked up at the airport by a member of the guild who had graciously offered to put me up for the three days I'd be there. When we arrived at her home, I was a bit taken back by all the ‘insect' stuff around the house: bugs on pins, mounted everywhere like another person would display fine artwork. Yeah... a little creepy.
Well, when they showed me my ‘room' I couldn't even walk in. Floor to ceiling were cages filled with live spiders: big spiders, small spiders, hairy spiders and naked spiders. Well, suffering from a healthy dose of arachnophobia, there was no way I was going in there!
The woman took it rather well. But the husband was totally offended at my ‘yellow belly' reaction to God's creatures. I was taken to and dumped off at a local hotel. It's now in my contract that while I am delighted to stay in the homes of quilters, I will not stay with spiders.
Q: Can you share a favorite tip from your classes with us here?
Besides the fact that all of my patterns are printed from EQ6, because I know they'll be completely accurate, the only other tip I always tell my students is this: When starting any paper piecing project, always remember: with right sides of the fabrics together, the back of the background fabric is the first thing to touch the back of the paper.
Napa at Sunset, 2005, by Deb Karasik
Thanks, Deb! We're still feeling a bit itchy about your spider story. Maybe a good quilt title for one of your spiky, windy quilts: Spiders in the Night?
You can join Deb in her yahoo group.
Check out more of her quilts at www.quiltmavens.com.
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