Interview with Nancy Rink - September 2011
by Penny McMorris
Nancy, you’ve been such an active EQ user for years and years, and we keep seeing your designs all over the place. When I read on your blog about your upcoming new book, I thought it high time we catch up with you.
Q: Tell all about your new book, and what inspired it?
A: The book is titled Away From Home: Quilts Inspired by the Lowell Factory Girls and will be published by Kansas City Star Quilts.
It was inspired by a driving trip my husband Oliver and took one summer through New England. He is a professor of American history at CSU Bakersfield, so we stopped at all the historical sites. Lowell was on my list of stops because I wanted to visit the New England Quilt Museum located there. It was on his list because he wanted to visit the historic sites related to the Lowell factory system. The National Park service exhibits were so interesting and varied that the one day visit on our itinerary turned into a two-and-a-half day visit.
One day when reading one of my many Kansas City Star Quilt books, the idea of doing a quilt and a book about the Lowell mill girls became the seed of an idea. The plan for the book is for Oliver to write a brief history of the Lowell Mill system in the period 1830-1850 during which New England farm girls were recruited to work in the textile mills. We are also going to provide primary source material written by some of the factory girls themselves. The feature quilt is a sampler medallion quilt with four central applique blocks and a border of pieced and applique blocks.
Once the quilt was planned, I approached Marcus Fabrics with the idea of developing a line of reproduction fabric to go with the quilt. They were excited and things just took off from there.
Judie Rothermel designed the fabric collection based upon historic designs from swatches in the Old Sturbridge Village Museum archives. I was able to provide my input, especially since Judie began with about sixty-plus swatches that we eventually narrowed down to twenty-five that make up the fabric collection called The Mill Girls 1830-1850.
The book will also have some additional quilt projects along with some smaller projects such as pillows and a pincushion.
Q: This actually sounds fascinating to me. Anyone doing quilt research sees the city name, Lowell, Massachusetts constantly because of the fabric mills. I’d love knowing more about the mills. When will your book be available?
A: The book is scheduled to come out in the spring of 2012.
Q: What’s your quilting background – how did you get started?
A: I actually began as a seamstress—taught by my grandmother-- and made the majority of my own clothes since I was about twelve years old. In my early twenties I took a beginning quilting class with my grandmother. She didn’t really care for quilting because she didn’t see the point of cutting up perfectly good yardage into little pieces and sewing it back together. I enjoyed it, but didn’t do much with quilting, making a quilt here and there. Then, I went to a local quilt show and my eyes and imagination opened up to a world I had no idea existed.
Q: I love your Amish with a Twist quilt which is a wonderfully fresh idea for a sampler, and notice you’ll offer workshops on it. Tell me what inspired that quilt.
A: I have always loved Amish quilts and have made trips to the Amish country and own numerous books on Amish quilts. One day, Pati Violick, the Marketing Director of Marcus Fabrics, called me and said she was sending me some yardage from their new Centennial Solids collection. She simply said, do what you want with them. Make something, add them to a project, or add them to your stash.
By coincidence, around this same time, several women at work asked me about quilting and what was the best way to learn to quilt. One had taken a beginning class in which she had made a baby blanket that consisted of four strips of fabric. While she loved the blanket, she felt like she had not learned much about quilting. So I began thinking about beginning quilters and what it felt like to be a beginning quiltmaker. I clearly remember one stage I went through where I wanted to learn as much as possible in as short a time as possible, and I wanted to progress quickly so I could make any quilt I wanted to.
So that’s how Amish with a Twist came about. Those solids were just sitting there on my table and I was thinking about a quilt for beginners. The two just melded together. Again, I worked up a quilt and showed it to Marcus Fabrics. Pati called and asked, “What additional fabric colors do you need?” I picked out some classic Amish colors and Marcus is now adding eight new colors to their solids collection to go with the quilt.
In Amish With a Twist, is a set of lessons designed especially for the beginning quilter. This fifteen part workshop approach focuses on the basics of quilt making. When all fifteen lessons are completed, one will have completed all the blocks and borders for the feature quilt. The “twist” part of Amish With a Twistis an extension activity within each lesson that shows quilters how to take the basics to the next level with an additional small project. This way a beginning quilter can quickly progress and become more proficient.
Amish With a Twist is scheduled to be available in booklet form to shops in Nov-Dec 2011. Shops can then use it as a BOM, as a beginner course, as a single project, or for retreats.
Q: What will your workshop on the quilt be like?
A: Actually, I have three different workshops planned for Amish With a Twist; one a half-day workshop and the other two, full-day workshops. Because there are fifteen lessons in the booklet, workshop organizers will have the freedom to pick and choose the lessons they’d like to focus on. All workshops, though, will take a brief look at Amish quilts and the interplay of color and form in Amish quilts.
Q: Your web site offers several beautiful BOM collections. Can you tell us more about them?
A: For several years now, I’ve featured a block of the month quilt on my site and offered the patterns free to quilters. Just click and download the PDF—it’s that simple! I’ve also expanded by offering fabric kits so quilters can make the exact quilt shown. This year’s BOM is called Ode to Blue and Grey and was designed to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
Q: I was surprised to see you now have a very heavy schedule vending at shows. How and when did you decide to begin selling your patterns at shows?
A: Vending at shows seemed a natural evolution of my business. Guilds would invite me to give a trunk show and I’d be asked “do you have a pattern for . . .?” So I began selling patterns for my most popular designs. One year I was featured artist at a local show here in central California and was told to bring some of my patterns to sell. I was very pleasantly surprised at the response. Afterward, the show coordinator asked if I wanted to reserve a booth for next year’s show. Why not? I thought. Now, I vend about 5-8 shows a year in California. As yet, I haven’t ventured out of state.
Q: Do you “woman” a booth by yourself? Or do you have help?
A: I cannot imagine running a booth all by myself and truly admire those I see doing so. I’ve roped my husband into helping me at shows. I definitely need his muscles for the set up and take down. Sometimes, he leaves me on my own during the run of the show and relieves me so I can have lunch or a break. But I have to say, he is really, really good with customers and impresses me with his knowledge of my inventory!
Q: Have any advice for someone who may be wondering what it’s like having a booth and selling? Was it easier/harder than you thought? Any tips?
A: An enormous amount of work goes into preparation for a show, especially a big show. And no matter how many lists you make, it seems like something important always gets left behind.
Q: Have any funny “show stories?” For example, we remember having an EQ booth at the AQS show early on. I think we were showing EQ3. People weren’t used to seeing computers at shows back then. I gave a demo to someone who watched quietly. When I asked if she had questions she said “well I have one.” Pointing to the computer monitor she said “so for $99 I get the disk, the book, and the little tv?”
Any show moments that made you laugh?
A: Last year we vended at Road to California for the first time and grossly underestimated our inventory. After the first two days we were virtually out of everything. So when the show closed for the day, we drove 3 hours home, cut, folded, and packaged as many kits and fabric and patterns as we had time for, slept for about four hours, then got up and drove the three hours back to the show, unloaded everything, and set it up. Shoppers came by that day who’d been by our booth the preceding day and said, “Wow, you changed your booth all around. Do you always do that?”
Q: We know you as an avid EQ user. You were a winner in our Do You EQ? contest, sponsored with Quilters Newsletter several years ago, and have won many other quilting awards. Do your recall how and when you started using Electric Quilt?
A: I first saw EQ demonstrated at a quilt show. I sure wanted it, but had just bought a brand new Mac. After a couple of years went by and it seemed that I might need a new computer, I started shopping for a PC. Oliver thought I was crazy to buy a computer to go with a quilt program! Hey, haven’t we all bought an outfit to go with a pair of shoes? My first experience with EQ was EQ3, so you know how long I’ve been an Eqer. The quilts in Amish With A Twist and Away From Home: Quilts Inspired by the Lowell Factory Girls were designed using EQ.
Q: As as experienced EQer, do you have words of advice for someone starting out with it?
A: Use the guide! Normally I am NOT that person who reads all the instructions first. I usually just jump in with both feet. But when I first started with EQ, I went step by step through the lessons in the instructional book that came with the software. Even now, I sometimes go back to the instruction book and find little tips and hints that I forgot I’d learned. Joining the EQ online community is also invaluable.
Ed note: the EQ7 lessons are in the software, off of HELP > EQ Lessons. Trouble printing them? See this.
Q: What’s next for you?
A: Believe it or not, I’m going to be a first time vendor at Quilt Market in Houston this year. I’ve taken a year’s leave from my day job of teaching high school English to write the book and see where quilting might take me!
Oh, I definitely cannot forget to mention that I’ve designed a nine-month BOM program featuring the Mill Girls fabric collection that Marcus Fabrics and I will be kicking off at fall Market. It’s a totally different quilt that is all pieced. Hopefully you’ll see it and perhaps join in by making your own through your local quilt shop.
Congratulations on your upcoming book, Nancy. We’ll be watching for it! And thanks for talking to us.
Visit Nancy’s site, and if you sign up for her mailing list you’ll get news about her new book, BOMs, and more.
http://www.nancyrinkdesigns.com/index.php