Lancaster Instructor Edyta Sitar: In Her Own Words

My love for fabric began at a very young age when I used my mother’s newly hung drapes to create my first fabric project! My mother recognized my passion for fabric and thus began the journey with fabric and sewing. Creating beautiful gowns opened the door into creative textile design and established the building blocks which lead me into a quilting adventure.

One of my biggest blessings is my husband, Michael. I not only fell in love, I was introduced to the family tradition of quilting by my mother-in-law, Carol, and grandmother-in-law, Anna. My husband's grandmother welcomed me to live with her and the day I stepped through her door was the day I started quilting. She made it clear to me that when I live with her, I will be quilting with her. And so she sat me down across from her, with a quilt on a frame between us. She taught me how to rock the needle and that's where my quilting journey began. I have been quilting for 18 years.

My quilting studio is in a barn that my husband built for me. My favorite part of my studio is the loft upstairs. I get a perfect light and can leave all my fabrics spread out up there. I call it "fabric nesting". Something that makes me a little bit unique in the quilting world is the fact that I love using my batiks and prints in the same quilt. That allows me to enjoy all my fabrics and get great results.

I love gardening so flowers many times become my inspiration for colors and patterns. Students are my inspiration for teaching, and my favorite thing about teaching quilting! They are always happy and excited to learn something new. And what amazes me about quilting is that it does not have a language barrier. I once had a student that did not speak any English and we were able to complete a project during a class perfectly communicating with body language.

When I am not working, I enjoy spending time with my family. My children and my husband are my greatest motivation, providing the basis that you can accomplish anything you want if you just set your mind to it. Being able to do what I love and share this love with others is the greatest feeling and reward I could imagine! This is the Cinderella dream for me. My daily companion is my little dog, Max. I think he likes quilting too because every time I lay out a quilt… he immediately wants to lay on it.

Edyta travels all over sharing her passion; connecting to and inspiring quilters of all levels by sharing personal, stimulating stories about the quilts she makes. As the owner and co-founder of her company, Laundry Basket Quilts, www.laundrybasketquilts.com, she has been published in magazines world-wide and her quilts have received numerous awards.

She is teaching the following classes at the AQS Quilt Show and Contest in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March 16 – 19, 2011…

#42804 Why We Quilt – Let Us Count the Ways (lecture)

#43506 Painting with Fabrics-Fusible Appliqué

# 47104 Dresden Star-Perfect Points

#47502 Foundation Piecing-On Eagles Wings

#47509 Mosaic Quilt




Click here to register for the Lancaster show and to sign up for one of Edyta's fantastic classes.

Greetings To All of Our AQS Friends...

 Sometimes we do have snow in Paducah and our photographer Charley Lynch 

recently snapped this shot of our office to use in this year's greeting card.  

All of the staff at the American Quilter's Society wish a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year to our quilting friends around the world!


Joyeux Noel * Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu Omedeto * Sung Tan Chuk Ha * God Jul * Feliz Navidad * Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun * Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom * Feliz Natal * Maligayan Pasko! * Nollaig Shona Dhuit * Froehliche Weihnachten * Hyvaa joulua
Translations from: http://www.worldofchristmas.net/merry-christmas.html 

Do You Have an AQS Christmas Wish List?

What is on your Christmas wish list? AQS Gift Certificates might just be the answer for that gift for your friends, mothers, and sisters who are quilters. Or tell your significant other how to order one just for you.




AQS Gift Certificates can be used to purchase any of these items from the American Quilter's Society:

* AQS and other books, eBooks, calendars, software, and souvenirs in the AQS Catalog

* AQS Membership which includes six issues of American Quilter magazine and much more... ($25 per year for U.S. residents)

* Workshops, Lectures and Special Events at AQS Quilt Shows

* Subscribe to: The Quilt Life: Ricky Tims and Alex Anderson   ($24.99 for six issues per year)

Order your gift certificates by Friday, December 17 and we'll do our best to get the certificate to you in time for Christmas giving. The gift certificates can be purchased for any amount you wish and there is no expiration date on them.

You can order online or by calling toll free: 1-800-626-5420.

We hope Santa brings you lots of quilting supplies!

Cookies, Santa, Paducah Quilt Show Entry!

Christmas is almost here and the weather has turned cold – BRR (at least here in Kentucky!).

It’s that time of year again – time to send in your Paducah Quilt Contest entry forms. So while you are checking off your holiday to-do lists, don’t forget to enter your quilt. We know you have been hard at work and we want to see what you have been making, besides cookies for Santa!

The contest deadline is January 3, so be sure to mail your entry forms by that date.

Find and print the rules here.

Erin Ulrich
Contest Coordinator
(270) 898-7903 ext. 174

Progress on Executive Inn Demolition

We are seeing more progress on the demolition of the Executive Inn now. Here are some photos that I took this week.

You can now see that they have removed a whole section of the building, with part of the roof hanging precariously on the back section. There are gates around the hotel so only the workers (with hard hats) can be in the demolition zone.

They have punched holes in the front of the next section too.

The Silver Saddle is now nearly gone - just a few supports and the roof. They will be making a new entrance into the convention center along the wall where these two buildings were joined.

We will be posting a map of the AQS Bus Stop and additional parking areas as soon as it is finished.

We'll post more photos as the demolition progresses so you can see too!

Paducah Online Registration is Now OPEN

Making your plans to attend the 27th Annual AQS Quilt Show in Paducah, Kentucky, April 27 - 30, 2011?

Come experience four days of quilts! quilts! quilts! and the southern hospitality of Paducah and western Kentucky. You will want to spend several days seeing the quilts and vendors in the Paducah Expo Center, Julian Carroll Convention Center (two floors), the Pavilion, and the AQS Vendors on Kentucky in the Finkel Building. The National Quilt Museum is a 'must see' stop on your agenda too.

Click here to view all of the wonderful classes, lectures, and special events - after you have checked out what is available, just click on the pink button to go directly to online registration:



Once you are in the registration program, you will find all of the class descriptions, supply lists, and photos of the class projects. Just a reminder that many of the classes will fill quickly, so don't delay in reserving your seat.

You can print a copy of the Paducah Registration Guide here.

If you need assistance with lodging, click here for the listing of AQS-approved accommodations on the website of the Paducah Visitors Bureau. If you can't find a hotel room, consider the AQS Home Bed and Breakfast that is coordinated by the Visitors Bureau; request forms will be available on their website on February 1, 2011.

Lancaster Instructor Dianne Hire: In Her Own Words

Although enchantment with fabric seems to have always been a part of my life, I began my quiltmaking journey in 1985. Today, I look back at the development and exploration of my creative process. Even in 1985, the adapting of traditional time-honored designs and techniques was significant. Somehow, even then, I experimented, finding my own way, my own song, my own work within tactile dimensions. From that moment on, this became my Hard 'n' Fast Rule: find out the rules and determine a way to break them.

I honor diversity.
I celebrate new approaches.
I challenge concepts.

To stretch the rules and locate fresh boundaries is my desire. By approaching quiltmaking this way, I embrace technical skills while not allowing techniques to overshadow image.

I am a colorist who intuitively responds to the joyful way colors intermingle. I require vibrancy to speak out but never shout, yet boldly sing. That song is interpreted in fiber, strings, strong design and intense vitality of color.

Here is a look at my quilting workspace…

I love hand-dyed fabric, or commercials that look hand-dyed. I adore having them arranged and color-coordinated. However, when I work, this place is never organized and there is fabric all over the floor. This image is a photo-op that wasn’t included in the book, Vivacious Curvy Quilts, just released in October. It took me weeks and weeks to clean up these shelves and durn, the image wasn’t used! I am so glad to share it with you so you can enjoy all of my work. :-)





I also organized each and every single one of these beads, doo-dahs, buttons, etc. This image wasn’t used in the book either.

Design wall, large surface ironing board, and OLD iron that won’t shut off (thankfully)... although I cannot tell you how many times it’s stayed on overnight.






I thought I might share a good teaching story. There have been many funny things that have happened, but one incident stands out above all others. Always, there is great laughter, chaos, mayhem, and terrific fun in my classes. Here goes:

Sarah***, a very talented hand-dyer, was working on her lovely piece designed with many shades of brown (from deep chocolate to taupe, sand, peanut, etc.) with greens (olive, forest, mud, camel, etc.), an array of purples with black and white accents. Truly, it was beautiful, but as she noted, it wasn’t quite singing the way she wanted it to. She asked, “what would you do?”

Silly girl...because, as everyone knows, I have the coloring sense of a first grader, so I went straight to an explosive color that most folks thought didn’t belong within her palette and cut an unblock (definition: a 4-sided figure with nothing equal, no right angles, no parallelograms). She saw what I was doing and said, “if that color works, I’ll kiss your butt!” Everyone in the room heard her and was now focused on her work space, wondering what would happen if the intruding color might actually be an acceptable addition to her piece, and...

I pinned the hot little reddish-orange-pink unblock into place. Walking to the front of the room, turning my back to all the students, I then bent forward at the waist, smiling at Sarah with anticipation.

Next thing, she was right there, kissing me on the behind, Everyone lost it laughing, but especially Sarah and me. BTW: we are now very special friends.

(Sarah’s name and her chosen colors have been changed to protect the innocent. Everything else is true.)

Dianne is teaching the following classes at the 2011 AQS Quilt Show and Contest in Lancaster, PA, and she is also co-hosting the Quilter's Fun Night (#42202) with Bonnie Browning on Thursday night! They will definitely be more colorful than these photos when you see them at Fun Night!

#47101 come PLAY with me

#47103 Dangles: Curvies and Wedgies

#47501 Swirling Fan Centrifuge

#47507 Elegant Slender Curvies



Click here to register for the Lancaster show and to reserve your spot in Diane's classes today!! Who can resist working with all of this color?!