Pauline Salzman

Pauline Salzman

Pauline Salzman describes the quilted wall-hanging that she brought to the show and how she wants to redo aspects of it. She reflects on gender issues in quilting. For her, a good quilt must tell a story and be technically sound.

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Quiltmakers

Quilting

Portraits on quilts

Machine quilting

Quilting shops

African American quilts

Art commissions

Art--Commissioning

Appliqué

Pauline Salzman

Jo Frances Greenlaw

2000-11-03

Karla Poggen

Houston, Texas

Jo Frances Greenlaw (JG): Thank you for coming. This is Jo Frances Greenlaw interviewing Pauline Salzman today. This is November the 3rd, 2000 at the Quilt Festival in Houston. We are interviewing for the Quilters' Save Our Stories Project and it is about 2:45 in the afternoon. [pause and very quiet talking for a moment.] Pauline, you have brought a beautiful wall hanging, quilted wall hanging for us today. What would you like to tell us about it to start off?

Pauline Salzman (PS): Well, when I got the letter or whatever, and they said, 'Bring a quilt.' I thought, 'What will I bring?' Well, a lot of my quilts are traveling and they're not home. They're out of the country, they're wherever then this quilt had just come back from being in a show. This quilt is a very good example to me. This quilt was Best of Show at the P & B. It was a challenge quilt, challenge fabric and I did this as a challenge so the choices of fabric were not mine necessarily but I like challenges because they make me expand my horizons. So 95%--75% of this quilt had to be that series of fabrics. Some of them are turned upside-down, and one of them is used on the backside. This quilt traveled for one year as best of show but then went to other shows and did okay and won a few awards but came home two weeks ago. They always come with critiques and the critique was a woman didn't like how I quilted the body parts. They were inappropriate. And I thought, 'What a stupid comment.' So I unrolled the quilt and I realized she was right. And I ripped all of the body parts and re-quilted them. I ripped the hair and I requilted it. I am now going to rip the shirt and the pants and the fish and requilt them. I won't do anything with the background but one of the reasons I enter quilt shows is not just to win a prize but to get a critique and learn. And sometimes the critiques are valid and sometimes they're not. Sometimes they're stupid. This, however, was a valid critique and I learned something. While it was a pain to rip it all, it looks a hundred times better than what it did. And these jeans and this shirt are going to look better. And because I want this to be the best I can do, to me it's worth ripping and redoing, because it's a learning experience.

JG: How was it quilted before?

PS: It was kind of quilted in snail's trails following the bodies' curves. But they didn't make you feel like the body was rolling. You didn't feel the curvatures. They were there but you didn't feel them like you do here. You didn't feel the toes. And here, you didn't feel the shirt moving like you should. It has movement but it's quilting that's there and not doing anything. Like, this is the sand and I can go with this for grounding, and here's some leaves, and up here are bigger leaves because it's in the background. You can see the leaves--they're straight lines with--whatever. You see the leaves here? And I'm a free hand quilter. And it is important for me to fill a space not just with stitching but with something that means something or gives texture or feeling to the piece.

JG: Explain free hand quilting for us.

PS: Free hand quilting is on the sewing machine. You drop your feed dogs and you just sew. And I love it. I mean to me it's therapy. It's probably better than reality, I don't know. I love to do it. And I really get involved, and my pieces all tell a story. I rarely do something that doesn't say something.

JG: What is the story of this quilt?

PS: This is my son who went fishing, who caught his first fish. Actually it came from another photograph. It was something else, and I put it together and I put my son's head on it, okay? He caught his first fish, and like any mother I think, 'Oh, it's great, let's mount the fish.' And then I found out how much it was going to cost to mount the fish. Too expensive, cross that idea off. So we put it in a Ziploc bag and we put it in the freezer. And for four years when people came out, he said, 'Look what I caught.' So that's the story of the fish. But it meant a lot to me to realize that somebody had a valid comment: 'redo it.' I have no problem when I get a critique that means something. I have a problem when the critique says 'your piecing isn't very good' and there's no piecing because I don't piece any of my quilts. Well maybe a border but you know I'd be criticized or whatever. So his feet roll and his legs roll and I love it. It's just fun. And I sell my pieces. I don't know that I'll sell this one but if I do it gives me a reason to do another one.

JG: You would sell the piece that has your son on it?

PS: Yeah, do another one. It could be anyone's kid because--it isn't that important to me because I'd just do another one.

JG: How old was he when you made this quilt--when he caught his fish?

PS: When I made the quilt, he was in college. When he caught the fish, he was four or five.

JG: That's a good story. Do you label your quilts?

PS: Yes.

JG: That's a nice label on the back of this.

PS: I make my labels on the computer. I run them through the printer.

JG: You have not dated it.

PS: I need to do that. Bad habit.

JG: Okay. Especially since you have this special little boy.

PS: I need to date them and I don't and I just forget about them and I make the things but I need to do that.

JG: It's very nice. It's all framed.

PS: I keep records so--

JG: Well, where did all this come about? Where were you? Where did this happen?

PS: Making quilts? I was given a class, a free class if I would make a log cabin quilt. Before that I did only wearable art. I did own a sewing machine dealership at that point. I made only wearable art; if it didn't go on my back I certainly didn't want to own it. If I wasn't interested in it, don't do it. I made the one log cabin quilt, and this looked pretty interesting. Then I made another quilt, trip around the world. I did a couple. But I have an only child so I don't have that many beds. How many quilts can I make? So I thought, what else can I do? So then wall hangings came into being, I started doing them. I still do bed quilts for our bed once in a while. I do small quilts for the sofa. I call them "Puppy Quilts" or "Save Your Sofa from the Dog" quilts, those I'll practice some techniques on. They won't be big appliqué things. They'll just be quick knock it off and do it. It really doesn't save the sofa. But I started doing wall hangings and the first wall hanging I did I think was called "The Smithsonian Phantom." It was the Hoffman Challenge. It won the Judge's Choice Award. It was Karen O'Dowd's choice. He was punching a cash register that said 'quilts-r-us', he was standing in flames being struck by lightning, and it said, 'God will get you millions of stitches.' On the back was a heart that said, "The American Quilters Society was being stabbed by the Smithsonian dagger." It was not shown here in Houston. They hid it under a table and they wouldn't show it until I got Karey [Bresenhan.] to complain because I said that was censorship. And they hung it but they would only show it to a few people. It was under the table. Betty Bynisk wouldn't allow it to be shown. So they hung it and now Karey owns it. You know, it found a happy home and it is a nice home because of what Karey did in helping quilters, then she deserved to own it.

JG: And Karey is--

PS: Karey Bresenhan, head of Quilts, Inc. So that was really nice to give it a home. It didn't need to be in a closet. So I really love to do freehand quilting and I love to do the piecing. I do not like anyone else to touch my quilts. I don't like anyone to pin it, baste it for me. I've got this thing about 'it's mine' and you might be the best quilter I know but you might screw it up and not do exactly what I want. I don't mind people touching my quits when I take my quilts and I go to a lecture. I never have a problem, I just tell people not to drool, spit or anything else. You may touch my quilts. They are very tactile to me. I want to touch and I want to feel. In fact I like the new feeling more than I like the old feeling, you know, where the new stuff is a little - I have a quilt in the show and if you get a chance to look at her she has kind of a story too. It's a little girl and I called it "Safe Haven" and I was originally going to call it "Safe Haven?" with a question mark on the end. I decided to leave the question mark off because I didn't want to upset people but I decided I was wrong, so it will now be with the question mark. You know, I think quilts for me they need to tell a story. I love the pretty pictures. I love the Barbara Olsens and--I can't do it. I don't think that way. It isn't in me. I love Baltimore Albums but I can't do them. I think you ought to do what you do and do it well and not worry about everything else. You can't be everything. But, the kind of quilting I can do, or you do can be different and be unique. I don't know how to explain that. It's unique to everyone because it isn't just a picture. It isn't the same old thing, you know. It's kind of like the Harriet Powers old quilts that were stories which is wonderful.

JG: Do you always appliqué? Is that your choice?

PS: Yeah. Originally I started doing piece backgrounds then cutting into it. Then Michael James told me I was yucking them up--[laughs.] which was funny. I started out, like I said piecing the backgrounds and cutting then into it. I decided that the backgrounds were disjointed from the foregrounds. They weren't--they just didn't work after a while. They didn't fit. They didn't blend. So to me then the background had to be appliquéd. There have been many technical problems in order to make things lie flat, like batting, new problems. Quite frankly, I love the challenge of making something work. I've always felt because I was a wearable artist before I was a quilter and I've done tailoring, that quilting came easily to me because I understood what the fabric would do, and what would happen with the sewing machine. There are very few surprises for me. I understand directional sewing, you know, there are just instinctive things that I do. I've talked to people who don't really know how to put on a binding, and don't understand why the bindings warp because they didn't have basic sewing skills. When I go to do it, I don't think about it, it's just something I've done.

JG: Do you quilt with the idea toward entering it into a show or an exhibit?

PS: Or I do a commissioned piece and then those pieces don't necessarily get entered.

JG: So every piece will have a goal of some sort.

PS: Right. And I almost always only work on one piece at a time. Rarely will I have two things going at once. Once in a while I'll take a break and I'll do a quick sofa quilt or a bed quilt just to have something to do between when I need a break. At this point I have two pieces going at the same time only because one's a commission piece and I'm waiting for some stuff from the client so I can finish it. So while I was waiting and she was out of town I started something else. I don't handle free time well, as you can probably tell. I'm either quilting, playing tennis and I do cook dinner at least five days a week. I don't do breakfast or lunch. I can't handle that. God only ordained me to cook so many meals and I reach my limit.

JG: You do belong to a guild.

PS: Yes, and I was president once; of my sewing group.

JG: Do you teach?

PS: Yes, I teach free hand quilting and blind-stitch appliqué. Nothing else. And sometimes I give lectures about how to put things together, you know, for quilting so that you don't get puckering. It's very hard for people to understand how to get this straight inside here. [motions to quilt.] If you do this like this, all one piece, chances are this is going to be warped because quilting warps so there are things that are difficult to do. This piece is smaller so it wouldn't be as difficult, and this one probably is pretty straight actually. So I give that kind of lecture. I try to not take over a lot of things. I don't have time. To me my time's too valuable. I don't want to teach a bunch of classes. I want to teach the three things I want to teach and that's it. I give trunk shows.

JG: Where do you do this?

PS: In Florida, usually, different places. I'll travel to Miami or whatever. They'll have them down there.

JG: Where do you work? Do you have a studio, you work at home?

PS: At home, right. It used to be a spare bedroom, now it's a studio. [laughs.] It's not my sewing room. It's my studio. It the master bedroom, it's my room. I remember we moved into this house and my child had just gone to college. We lived in a house and we took him away to college at Emory in Atlanta. We came back to Florida and we moved to the new house and then we renovated this new house. He comes home and he says, 'I want this room for my room.' So I said, 'You don't live here. This is your room, at the other end of the house when you come home. We'd love to have you any time you want. You could even move back in but you're not getting this room. This is my studio.' It has the most wonderful view of the bay. I watch dolphins play out in the back and herons. It's just absolutely spectacular.

JG: Sounds great. It's not distracting?

PS: Nope. I have two dogs. One I take to Project Pup, a program where you take your dog to nursing homes for the elderly. I met a lady there who has MS who is fifty-eight now, who's been there about twelve years. We taught her to quilt. And it's kind of neat.

JG: I was going to ask if you take your quilts as well as your dog.

PS: Rarely do I take my quilts, but it was more important to teach this lady how to quilt. It gave her a wonderful outlook. She sells them. She's not great but who cares. It gave her something to do. I don't need to take my quilts there. I don't need this lady to see what I do and feel weird about herself. I need her to feel good about her. So between the dogs and my husband and I, quilting, home, and tennis, I don't have much time. I rollerblade at 6:30 in the morning, too. I'm busy.

JG: [laughing.] You are--you look wonderful.

PS: Thanks.

JG: Do you also buy other people's quilts?

PS: I might buy small quilts. I don't buy really big quilts. I'm not a collector of quilts.

JG: Even old quilts? You don't buy old quilts?

PS: No. I don't buy old quilts.

JG: No influence from them? You mentioned the Baltimore Album.

PS: I love them. I love them. But I don't do them.

JG: But you don't--

PS: And I don't collect them. And quite frankly--because if I had them, I'd want to put them out on the bed. Then I'd have these two dogs all over them, and then I'd hate it. Life is too short; my dogs are going to be on the quilt, so if I make a quilt for the bed it's dark enough that I don't have to worry about it. I have a Weimaraner and a cocker spaniel; and the Weim is my baby. She is the puppy so to speak. She's big.

JG: You were telling us earlier, before we turned on the tape, about these fabrics. Would you like to tell us how you came about choosing these fabrics?

PS: These were challenge fabric. I used to enter challenges and if I find one that looks interesting I'll enter it. In a challenge from a fabric company it's going to be a certain amount of fabrics and you have to use, like, 50% or 75% of their fabrics, of those particular challenge fabrics. So that's good because it helps you expand your horizons and sometimes it makes me work in colors you can't stand. But it makes me look at things differently. I think expanding your horizons is important. I take classes - not necessarily a class where I'm going to do what they're doing. I took an Elinor Peace Bailey class, and a Virginia Robertson class, and I made dolls. I'm not going to make dolls. I do that once in a while. I'll make somebody--like I might make your grandchild in doll form and do the child. That's fun, but I don't want to do it on a steady basis. But you learn things from other people. I took Katie Pasquini's [Masapust.] fractured landscape class, so I learned some things from her, and I took some of Libby Lehman's classes, and I learned techniques from Libby. Then you go and you make these techniques work for you. I don't want to be Libby Lehman. I don't want to be Katie Pasquini, but their techniques can help me out. If I learn one thing from them that I can make work, that's great. From Hollis Chatelain I learned or thought more about directional sewing because she sews as the ant crawls. I had already evolved to that point, but she then made me go just a little bit farther. I can teach Hollis things about basic sewing skills that she doesn't have. So we help each other.

JG: What do you mean by, 'she sews as the ant crawls'?

PS: This is as the ant crawls over your body, he has to come low, and high and around. This is how the ant would have to go down your nose; this is the curve of a nose.

JG: In order to give contour to your pieces.

PS: Right. You sew it as the ant crawls, so here the ant could come up to your height, or he could do some other things. But I want you to feel the direction of what's happening. And here it does it, but it doesn't do it as effectively as it does on the body parts. So all this will get ripped. When we leave this interview today I'll be able to rip all this and do it when I get home. I'll be so excited. I brought my seam ripper. In fact, I was going to do this Wednesday but I didn't know when I was going to be interviewed; I was going to find a sewing machine to work on, but anyway.

JG: The fabric content of this quilt is all one type, right?

PS: It's all P & B, because it was their challenge fabric, except for a few of the body parts.

JG: And it is a--all cotton, 100% cotton.

PS: And more than likely--

JG: Is there batting?

PS: Yes, I think this is when I was using more warm and natural. I use wool more now than I used to. I almost always now use Hobbs wool. This one I can't tell you but I have a feeling this is more wool. I've got a few problems with this quilt that I noticed when I r-quilted because--see how I can see the darkness of right there? I will solve that problem too. So battings are real critical to me. I use wool now because of the kind of quilting I do; you can steam wool flat. I'm not putting my quilts in the washing machine. If I did, I wouldn't be putting them in the dryer so wool covers a multitude of problems.

JG: What first influenced you in quilting? Did you grow up with quilts?

PS: Never. Family members who sewed are diddly-squat. I understand that I have an aunt who was a dressmaker who was very good, who didn't need a pattern and sewed for the elite--the Fords and the whoever. But, no, my mom can't sew--she thinks she can sew but really she can't. It's really horrible what she does. But my father was a tool and die maker, so maybe those kind of skills come from him. I don't know. I love to do it. You just get locked away and you just start working. I always do it with the TV on. I don't necessarily watch it but it's there for company.

JG: Do you see quilting as especially feminine or a woman's activity?

PS: No. But - I don't have a problem with men quilting; I have a problem with how women perceive men when they're quilting. They think they're wonderful even if their quilting is bad. A lot of times it's because, oh, a man does it, it must be wonderful. Well excuse me. There's some men around who quilt who look just like some women quilters I know but because they're men, gee, they're wonderful. I think the term for that is 'bravo sierra', which I heard on the radio the other day. Anyway, that's my only problem with men quilting. There are some wonderful men quilters around. Some of them aren't but because they're men, it's like, oh wow.

JG: Well, would you agree that quilting has done wonderful things for women?

PS: Yeah.

JG: Can you think of some ways? Has it expanded you or people you know?

PS: The quilt group I belong to is mostly elderly women. There are some younger women. In fact, they're here at Houston. I think it's done some great things for them. Unfortunately I think their husbands don't perceive it. Most husbands do not perceive quilting as any big deal. Georgia Bonesteel once said that her husband never even went to a quilt show with her all those years. I've never dragged my husband, maybe once, to a quilt show. He's not interested. However, I think this is true of a lot of men but if they're going to a fishing show, they think you ought to go along. It's like, hello! You know, like do I really care? No. So drop me off, I'll go shopping, you can go to it. I don't feel like it. I think our husbands for the most part think of it as a women's activity. My husband doesn't do that to me as much as other husbands do, possibly because I'm relatively independent and I give him a tough time. When I was younger I probably wouldn't have given him a tough time, but there is a lot to be said for age. So, he doesn't really give me hard time about my sewing. He really doesn't care what I do, as long as I don't drive him nuts. Actually now I work in his office in the mornings. I go file for him and help out.

JG: Do any of your quilts hang in his office?

PS: Yeah. Didn't in his old office but he and his partner split up and it's been interesting because he has a quilt-- I did one of him cycling, it's one of my first ones. It's a pieced background with him on the front cycling. I think he was rather happy that we hung it in the lobby. People come in and they love it. So I'm doing a yard tools one because he has a law office so what goes in there has to be a little quilt. I plan to enter it and if I don't sell it he can have it for the hallway. He likes it.

JG: Maybe he should buy it.

PS: Well, I don't want him to buy it, I'll--whatever, but he likes it and he likes what I do, and that's nice.

JG: Do you have any desires to have your pieces hang at a large commercial building or in a museum?

PS: Actually I have one in a museum. I have one that hangs in the Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg. It was of the can of gas tipped over and it's quilted with skulls, with vignettes then there's the boxcar with three women going away. And I actually scanned photographs into the computer so I could get the women in the boxcars. One of the women wasn't Jewish; she was a lady who helped people escape. She was killed in the camps. Then there are tombstones and the camps and the gates of Auschwitz are in it. It's a pretty depressing piece. For me, it's big; it's five feet by six feet. The names of the camps are written on it so that hangs in the museum, in their permanent collection on the third floor. People really like it. It's a depressing piece, and I've sent that photograph off to magazines hoping somebody would publish it but nobody's interested. Probably because of the subject. Because the workmanship in it is--excuse me, I love it. And it's good.

JG: Judging by this, it should be.

PS: Oh, thank you. Then I have a piece in that hangs in the courthouse that's called "Let Freedom Ring". I entered in Freedoms of Expression, and it didn't get in. What got in--the stuff that got in kind of surprised me. Like, there was one about the 'cutting of the rose' and it had the clitoris there and--excuse me. That show hung here two years ago. And there was stuff in there that was like, where--okay, so it didn't get in. I entered it in the Paducah and it won an honorable mention, which is a pretty big deal, and then it didn't get juried into here. So you never know what's going to happen with it. But it does hang in the courthouse, and that's kind of a nice feeling.

JG: It is. That's nice recognition.

PS: Yeah.

JG: But don't you agree that it's wonderful for women.

PS: Oh, yeah. The quilting?

JG: And the recognition.

PS: Oh, sure. Well, recognition is good for anybody. It makes you feel good about yourself, make no mistake about it. Everybody wants a pat on the back for good work. That's encouragement as people go forward.

JG: One of these questions is kind of funny to bring up with you, but on the many ways that quilts can be used, in our contemporary times--is there any way we haven't thought of using quilts?

PS: Well, I don't know. I mean that's a tough thing because I don't think of them as bed coverings so much. It's never been that for me. For me, it's a way to--it's a piece of artwork. It's a way for me to get rid of some feelings or tell a story or talk about something and relate to other people, and hope I kind of pull them in to what's happening. Make them think about things. I really like them. I like quilts that make you think about things. This one in particular make you think about happy things with your kids. We've all been through little things with our kids, like 'Look Mom, look at this, look at that.'

JG: Is this an actual likeness of your son?

PS: His face, yeah, not the body part.

JG: Are you an artist?

PS: No, and you don't have to be. I am a good technician.

JG: And people would recognize your son or your husband in a quilt.

PS: Yeah.

JG: How do you do that?

PS: Katie Pasquini had a wonderful class where she taught you how to trace things onto the overhead film projector stuff and then blow it up, make it bigger and get a pattern out of it. You don't have to be the best artist. You don't have to be Hollis Chatelain. In fact, I did a piece with Hollis when I took a class. I can't draw as well as she can, but I can make my tracing, make it bigger and put it on the fabric and work off of that. So you don't have to be the best artist. You have to be a good technician.

JG: What makes a good quilt, in your opinion? Or a great quilt?

PS: Oh, I was bad this morning--shouldn't have been around me but my friends decided they wanted me to walk the quilt show with them. I walk a quilt show and don't pick apart quilts. I just look at them from afar and if I really like something that's happening I take a picture. Because what happens to me if I look at a quilt and let's say I am in the same division and I look at it and it's not done well, then I'm annoyed that I didn't win because that quilt won--I know that the person who judged it wasn't objective; they were subjective. Is that clear or did I mix it up? Okay. The first thing I look at is the binding.

JG: The binding.

PS: The first thing I look at are people's bindings--are they on the bias? Are they puckering? Is the piece lying flat? I look at a lot of things before I ever look at the center. I want to know, is this thing square? I want to know first did you do the basics, and then I'm going to start looking at the stitching. So I try not to pick people's quilts apart unless there is some reason so we started walking this show and they made me look at stuff and asked me how things were done and they didn't realize how the quilts were even quilted. I think because of my sewing skills, I know how things are done. And so my friend says, 'No, it was done this way.' So the white gloved lady said, 'No, it was really done--,' the way I had said it was done. So it's been real interesting. I try not to pick apart. If I see something I like, I'll go look at it. I might take a picture of a detail, to help me remember what I saw; what I liked. I don't take as many pictures as I used to. I actually took twenty-five pictures, and I will take more at this quilt show. [looking at pictures.] And those are my close-ups of Buddha--I may take a few more, I've taken pictures of thing I might never make, but there was something about that quilt that made me look a little closer. Might be a design element too, I don't know.

JG: I'm hearing you say that you are really admiring the technical, the technician work that's gone in the construction. You're not mentioning the design or the color or the contrast.

PS: Oh, I like that, of course. What'll suck me in first is the color or the contrast then I'm going to go look at the technical. If the technical doesn't hold up, then the whole quilt doesn't hold up to me. But if I first look at a quilt and I'm off in the distance, the first thing that's going to get me--it's the color that'll pull you in and it's the design that'll pull you in. Then you're going to go in and look at the technical. To me, they have to both work.

JG: We are closing in on the end of our time, and I imagine there is a lot more you'd like to say. Can you think of something that is very important to you to get into the archives that we haven't covered?

PS: No. Didn't I cover it all?

JG: You have given a wonderful interview today, really. I've learned a lot from you as well. Your technique with your free hand stitching is excellent. I'm amazed.

PS: Oh, I met Dixie Haywood today and she was cute. I said, 'You know, you said the best comment about me once.' She said, 'Well, what was that?' I said, 'Oh, you said I quilted better than you did.' She said, 'Oh, everyone quilts better than I do.' [laughter.] That was cute.

JG: This will conclude our nice interview with Pauline Salzman today at the Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas. This is the project of the Quilters' Save Our Stories. This is November 3rd, 2000.

[tape stops then is turned on again in mid-sentence.]

PS: ...there should be a critique with numbers- X-points for yada-yada-yada-yada then you add it up and the highest points wins because when our quilts are out here in the quilt show and you need to give ribbons- first, second, third--and we're saying to the public, 'This is first, second, third. This is what you're striving for.' and it isn't good and it doesn't hold up, then this is what you're showing the public is the best that quilting can do. These judges a lot of times are subjective as opposed to objective and that is not a good representation for quilts because I went to--the Florida craftsmen gallery had a quilt show and I went down there because in the newspaper, there was a picture with this wonderful quilt. And I thought it was the worst piece of shit I ever saw. Okay. I'm a little upset. I went down there and I called. I actually called the lady who wrote the article because I knew her. I said, 'Marianne that is not good quilting.' I went down to the gallery to see what was there and I saw one piece and I said, 'That's good quilting. I don't like the colors, but if I had to pick the best quilt in this show, that would be it. The stitching is incredible, the colors are horrible to me, but they work. The values are what they need to be. The one you photographed, the woman has a sewing machine from hell or she doesn't know what she's doing.'

JG: Interesting perspective. We just added this on to Pauling Saltzman's tape. This is her opinion of judging at IGA. [laughing.]

Quilting techniques

Quilt competitions

Sewing skills