Quilt Industry News: Pat Sloan is Retiring !!

Pat Sloan has uploaded her LAST YouTube video!  

Although all of her videos will remain on YouTube for now, she and her husband Gregg are officially shutting down their quilt business.  Pat has been a quilt pattern and fabric designer for 26 years.  

Pat was employed professionally as a software designer and project manager in the computer industry.  However after learning to quilt, she decided to pursue her dream to own her own business and started designing patterns to sell to quilt shops.  Back then her quilt style was more "primitive" and featured a lot of applique.  

She also wrote patterns for magazines and then published books with McCalls Quilting,  Leisure Arts and (the dearly departed) Martingale Publishing (some of which can now still be purchased through C&T Publishing).  She also traveled the country as an in-person quilt teacher and was the featured teacher on two international quilt tours.  She has also designed fabric lines for P & B Textiles, MODA and in recent years for Benartex Fabrics.

An industry pioneer, Pat started an internet radio show called "Creative Talk Radio" in 2010 then in 2011 partnered with American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine to host a show for them.  

That show later continued as a podcast that she hosted for them until 2020.  She says she started doing videos when YouTube first came out and then began doing her daily videos during the pandemic.  Pat also hosted Aurifil's "Designer of the Month" series on their blog from 2010 to 2020.

Pat has also had a long standing social media presence and has talked about starting all the way back when she did a group on the photo sharing site Flicker.  She has also hosted two Facebook groups:  the main one as "Pat Sloan Quilting" and another "Fireside Chat" group for crafts other than quilting and cooking topics.  She transitioned the two into a new account earlier this year and will now continue that just as a personal page.

Sadly, Pat lost her mother last year after caring for her during the last six months of her life.  During that time Pat was forced to cut back on her daily video schedule and I think those life changing events also made her take stock and begin thinking about winding down her quilt business.  She says that she and her husband have been able to travel for pleasure a bit lately and look forward to doing more of that now that she will not have to devote time to promoting her business ventures.

As a big Pat Sloan fan, I will definitely miss her!  What follows is my own mini tribute to Pat as a quilt designer and influencer even if as of right now I have more planned or "fabric funded" than made, LOL!  

The first of her designs that I made was "Valor" finished in 2013.  It was from a kit that featured the pattern designed by Pat to showcase her "Tribute" fabric line with P&B Textiles.

Hung outside my home for July 4th one year!

I also used some of the leftovers from that kit to make "Tribute",  my mini quilt version of the lap size quilt she designed for the Spring 2011 issue of  Fabric Trends magazine.

I've also made two of her seasonal wallhanging designs:  in 2023 I made her Fall themed "Thankful" published in her book "Holiday Hoopla". 

In 2024 I made my version of her "Hello Luv" quilt that she originally designed for the Fat Quarter Shop's Button Club and later published in her book "Holiday Celebrations". 

This also makes me glad that I recently got to longarm my version of her "String Beans" quilt which had been one of her "Block-A-Day" projects that was offered in March 2022. 

It's still waiting for binding though!

During the pandemic Pat was also a big influence for me that lead me to start cross stitching!  I later made these two "Year of the...." pieces after seeing her stitching them up:

I was influenced to make this coronation one when Pat showcased quilt and cross stitch projects to celebrate that historic event.

I got this English Tier one started in 2024 when Pat worked on her "London Town" quilt project.   

As she winds down her presence in the quilt industry, it has also made me reflect on how many more of her projects that I have set up.  Whew, it's actually quite a list!!  So I've already put it on my plans for the remainder of this year and for 2027 to try to finish off at least some of them.

A top priority is to finish my Christmas panel design that's based on Pat's "Scrappy Squares" quilts.

Pat's influence led to....

....wanting to make this!

Hopefully this one will get done to hang up for Christmas this year!

I also need to get back to the applique blocks I gathered fabrics for in 2024 for Pat's "Breakfast Club" Mystery.  This one was a "Block-A-Week" quilt along that I am miniaturizing so I can hang it in my kitchen.

Also in 2024, Pat's March "Block A Day" project was a really nice one called "Toffee Bars". 

I got some lovely Kaffe Fassette and Marsha Derse fabrics that I had planned to use in this one so really look forward to finally making it up next year.

The size of these "Wishing Rings" blocks were pieced based on the ones seen on Cathy's Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting blog.  However, the decision to make them as a year long "Block-A-Day" project was influenced by a similar block called "Hope" that Pat did as a "BAD" in 2021.

These are all pieced and now need to go up on the design wall to decide on a layout.

Cathy's influence on the left, Pat's influence on the right.

I also have two camping-related projects that were Pat Quilt Alongs:  First, I had put together a "kit" for Pat's "I Love Camping" Block of the Month in 2018.  

I had always hoped to get this made up to use as another camping quilt.  Now that I've revisited the fabrics I collected for this,  I am excited to see how this one develops -- that is, if I can get to it given the list of all the other things of hers that I'd also like to work on!  

In 2024, Pat did the "Ode to our National Parks" Quilt Along.  

Of course I couldn't resist doing that one since my DH and I have visited three of them and dream of evenutally visiting them all.  My plan for this QAL was to make my blocks into a tote bag that I can use on my camping trips!

One block is done, only eight more to go!

In 2022, Pat was also the influence to expanding the color scheme of a "non-Pat" project:  I had signed up and received kits for Minick & Simpson's "Blue Pear" BOM .  Then I saw Pat's "Hometown Charm" quilt:

What is even better is that I got to see Pat's quilt in person at the Virginia Quilt Museum when she had an exhibit there that year.  

Pat has been a big supporter of the museum and I was introduced to it through her videos.  As a result, I decided to purchase red Minick & Simpson prints and add them to the "Blue Pear" layout to give it a color scheme just like Pat's sampler.  

Speaking of the VA Museum,  I also still have plans to make the VA museum's "Silver Lake" quilt. Sales of the pattern were a fundraiser for the museum that was promoted by Pat.  The quilt is designed by her good friend Wendy Sheppard of Ivory Spring whose work (particularly her domestic machine quilting)  I am also a huge fan of.

I have my background fabric and my plan is to make it up in 30s reproductions like the original Spitzer family quilt that is in the museum's collection.

The original quilt it is based on.

If I do that it would also give me the opportunity to finally get back to work on a series of quilts using my stash of those fabrics.

So I don't know about you but I will be having some serious "Sloan Zone" withdrawl over the next year!!

You can still get your "Sloan Zone" merch from Kate Spain Designs here!

Finished Or Not Friday: The Mini Quilt Retreat Finish Recap

We're finally back from two back-to-back trips!  The first was my DH and I making our annual Fall trip to visit his mother in North Carolina.  For my husband these trips are a vacation/family visit but for my MIL and I it's also a mini quilt retreat!  

When we left NY in mid-September it was still warm but pleasant with temps mostly in the 70' and low 80's.  Arriving in NC (actually as early as when we made a rest stop in Virginia) it was muggy with temps in the 80's to mid 90's and stayed that way through the first half of our two week stay.  However once the calendar changed over to Fall on the 21st, it seemed like Mother Nature flipped a swtich and suddenly the temps dropped and it stayed cooler and in the 60s until we left!  

Part of the quilt retreat for me was to get another chance to learn to use my MIL's longarm.  I'm pleased to report that her machine and I had a good 'ole time and a lot was accomplished!   So I'm joining in with everyone over at Quilty Girl Alycia's for this week's "Finished Or Not Friday" to report on what got done.  

I will just show the finishes here and then will do a detail post on each in the coming weeks.  Be forewarned,  it's still a long travel post ahead!!

We arrived on the second Friday of September so that I would be there for the monthly Saturday meeting of the Tar River Piecemakers Quilting Guild of which I am now a long distance member.  

As we prepped for the trip down, I had been working on finishing up my "Sparkle and Shine" log cabin quilt made up of giant (22") courthouse steps blocks.  I got 2/3rds of it quilted on my domestic machine by the time we left.  

Fortunately (and despite it having been pin basted for the DSM), I was still able to load the quilt on my MIL's longarm and finish the last column of stitching to present it for Show & Tell the next day at the guild meeting!  This also meant I got some more free-motion practice on my MIL's machine.

The railing on my MIL's back porch was a convenient photo spot this trip.

Here's a sneak peek of the equally bold back!  The sides were courtesy of stash and came from what I had put aside for another project. 

This is my version of the quilt designed by Natalie Barnes to showcase her "Norma Rose" line which was a tribute to her mother designed for Windham Fabrics.  The pattern was published in American Patchwork & Quilting magazine in December 2020.

Mine used fabrics from my stash of what I call "Mod" fabrics that I had originally collected for the next project I got to finish on the longarm:  my "Modern Bohemia" BOM project!

The fun backing for this one is "Unstoppable" by Windham Fabrics!

Ever since my MIL purchased her longarm, each visit has been an opportunity for new "longarm lessons".  On the last trip, we had planned to try ruler quilting and had purchased the table and foot for her Handiquilter Moxie machine for that.  However, we never had time to actually try them so that was the plan for this trip.  Fortunately, this was the perfect project for that!  

I had planned out the quilting for this all the way back in June of last year but as usual "more projects than time" meant I hadn't gotten around to it yet.  I'd like to believe that the Quilt Muses had noted that I could do ruler quilting on my MIL's longarm before I did and made sure I kept busy enough to hold this project until now, LOL!

I stitched four different patterns on the quilt with three different rulers:  a straight ruler, a curved ruler and one that does a "squared spiral" design.

When I embarked on this project as a self-styled Block-of-the-Month (BOM) back in 2020,  I changed the sizes of the originally patterned blocks so I could die cut them all with Accuquilt dies.   However, when I later saw the same patterned blocks used in a runner pattern,  I decided to make the blocks for that in their original size since they came together to create a finished runner perfectly sized for our dining room sideboard. 

This shot of it on the longarm shows the Pro-Stitcher computer quilting design used.

This one was also made from that "Mod" stash.  In the lap quilt I had put the prints in the Churn Dash blocks and the tone-on-tones in the backgrounds but for this runner I flipped that and put the TOTs in the blocks and the prints in the backgrounds.  

There was also one other project made from this stash that was finished back in 2022.  I also have one QAYG UFO that utilized this stash and still have more of this stash in general so I'll have to see what other "Mod" projects may develop in the future! 

The next trip finish was this one, a gift for my High School BFF :

Pattern:  Patchwork PDQ by Swirly Girl Designs

The back with a special label.

She had asked me about a quilt at the end of last year and with this being a milestone birthday year for both of us,  I put a plan in place to do that.  She likes purple and fortunately I was able to add to what little stash I had in that color by picking up some things from two fortuitous year-end and New Year's Keepsake Quilting sales.  

I had planned out and tested the quilting before we left which again called for ruler quilting and also added stitch-in-the-ditch:  

The backing fabric choice used in the sample was changed after this test.

I did the stitching test on my domestic machine.  However, it took me a lot longer than I expected to complete the simple stitch scheme I had planned when I did it on the longarm.  The good news was that I was able to not only finish it but mail it off to her before we left NC!

The last two projects that I finished quilting on the longarm were UFOs that I had a simple straight-line stitching quilting plan for both.  I thought doing that would be easier to execute on a longarm with a "channel lock" feature.

Needless to say this is NOT straight-line stitched!

This is my interpretation of Pat Sloan's "Sting Beans!" pattern that she did as a "Block-A-Day" project back in 2022.  Pat's original design used jellyroll strips and at the time I didn't have a stash of those.  However I did have a huge stash of pre-cut 1-1/2" log cabin block strips and worked up a variation block that utilized them which resulted in this quilt.  

It also has a fun "two-sided quilt" back that I made up in 2023 using Mary Johnson's (of MaryQuilts.com) "Quick Strippie" charity quilt design.

As noted, the original stitching plan was to quilt this just doing straight line stitching across the width of the quilt.  However that was also dependant on determining that the lines would be equally as straight along the pieced "strippie" sections on the back.  The reason this has sat for so long waiting to be quilted is that I wasn't confident about doing that on my domestic machine.  

I thought using a "channel lock" feature on the longarm would allay those concerns.  However with the quilt loaded on the longarm frame, I still couldn't really confirm that the position of the piecing lines would line up with the channel stitching.  So I abandoned doing the straight lines in favor of just stitching it up with an all-over pattern instead.  

The Pro-Stitcher pattern I used.

I am pleased both with the chosen pattern and finally getting this one very close to a finish!

The last big finish was finally quilting my "Letters To Santa" quilt!

I am particularly happy to get this done as a start to the holiday sewing for this year.  Or more accurately, it's a finish of the "Christmas in July" piecing work done on it in 2024 and 2025, LOL!!  I loved being able to just quilt it with straight lines since I thought the words should visually take precedence over the quilting.  

Both of these almost didn't get finished when I decided late that I really wanted to use a fine weight thread to stitch these up.  I put in an order for Wonderfil Invisifil 100 wt  (Red #605 for String Beans and White #104 for LTS) and they almost didn't get to me in time, arriving on our last Friday there!

Our return to NY was delayed by half a day since we were tracking the big nor'easter storm that hit the Northeast on the day before we were scheduled to leave early in the morning on the last Sunday of the month.  However, for me the delay was fortunate because as of that morning I was still trying to finish quilting "LTS".  The leave time delay was just enough to allow me to finish it up!  Whew!!  

The same week we returned from NC we were headed out again at the end of that week for a Fall camping trip in Maine at Acadia National Park --- this time staying on the Schoodic Pennisula.  So I didn't have a chance to trim and bind those last two yet.  Needless to say it was a very productive two week visit and although my MIL is always sad to see us go,  I think her longarm machine was very glad for me to leave so it could get some rest, LOL!!

So that's it for me (for now) so let's all go back over to Alycia's and check out all the other finishes and works in progress for this week's "Finished Or Not Friday" link up!

Design Wall Monday: Happy Labor Day!

Here's hoping everyone has an enjoyable -- or just restful -- day planned!

A quick check-in today with updates to the last few DWMs.  There's been no addtional work done on the "Alaska BOM" or my HSBFF's gift quilt.  I also still need to satin stitch down the appliques for the "Whoo Is It?" Halloween banner (and for anyone new here, pictures of all of those can be seen in the last post).

What I did get done is work on these two:  first up the "Sparkle & Shine" top is finished!

 You can see the original pattern here - scroll down to #18

While doing so I also got some more of the border strings leader/endered for my "Magic Cube" project:  

DH and I don't have any formal holiday plans so I'm hoping today to maybe get the backing made up for "Sparkle" as I already have the fabric pulled and a plan for that.  

The other thing finished is the quilting on the Halloween 9 Fat Quarter Disappearing Nine Patch quilt!

Okay, hard to see it here as I can't seem to catch it in good enough light to really get a good look at the stitching.  But know that it is fun and in two shades of orange!  

Another attempt but still can't see it all that much better.

Connecting Threads Essentials threads on the front and Aurifil on the back. 

The binding fabric is already picked out but still needs to be cut and sewn into strips.  Ooh and if there's any leftover after I'm done, I've got a new place to park it!

Recently I ordered some of these Binding Spools.  I've always wanted to try some and knowing that someone (or ones, plural) are binding the two QOV tops I sent down a couple of months ago to the guild I belong to with my MIL, I wanted to bring gifts for those intrepid volunteers.  I found these on Etsy and thought they were reasonably enough priced to get a tester set and a couple of extras for the gifts.  Then after setting them up, I loved them so much I bought another set to organize the rest of leftovers I had.  

Before getting these I stored my binding leftovers like this:

The new Spools are so much neater and easier to thumb through to see what I have.  As I wrapped them onto the Spools, I also pulled a couple of the binding scraps out to add to the string work I'm doing and now have some ideas for using some of the rest to bind some future mini quilts.  Now I can pass all the empty toilet paper rolls I was using over to my DH to make campfire kindling starters! 

It's our last week before we'll be heading down to see my MIL in North Carolina so I don't know if I'll get to post while we're away.  I do hope to be able to make up one last post with these last two completely finished before we go!  Enjoy your holiday off!!