Hi Quiltchaters,

I just wanted to send you a short note letting you know that the quilts up for auction
for this month is on going. The auction will go through May 10th 12 noon EST.
Take a look at this month's quilts at http://amisimms.com/quiltauctions.html and
see if there is one (or maybe more) that you would like to get for someone special
this Mother's Day.
Thanks for all of your support to Alzheimer's research.
Ami :)

Ami Simms website.www.amisimms.com

Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative

Alzheimers Forgetting Piece by Piece

Sign up for my free monthly emailed newsletter or email Debbie at MalleryPress@aol.com and ask her to sign you up. Guaranteed to make you laugh or your money back.

Mallery Press, Inc.
4206 Sheraton Drive
Flint, MI 48532
www.AmiSimms.com

Session Start: Fri Mar 24 20:57:02 2006
Session Ident: #quiltchat
 [20:57] * Topic is ' 1,13SuperChat tonite at 9:00pm EST... '

* scooter says We are using protocol for this meeting so if you have a question,
please just type a "?" If you have a comment just type "!" Please
wait your turn and when you are recognized, state your question or comment then.
<scooter> ok ladies, we are about to start
<scooter>  4 we are ready to start ladies, lol
<scooter> Welcome everyone to our superchat with Ami Simms, ladies

<Blockit> How long have you been quilting?
<AmiSimms>  03 I think since 1975...
<AmiSimms>  03 I may turn to dust at any minute.
<octopelius> What got you started?
<AmiSimms>  03 Stupidity.
<scooter> Please welcome Ami Simms, author, quiltmaker and teacher. Ami is
well-known for her delightful humor and wonderful quilts
<scooter> and we are so happy to have her with us tonight.
<rubye> welcome AmiSimms
<AmiSimms>  03 I was doing participatn observation among the old Order Amish
of northern Indiana...
<scooter> ladies, please let AmiSimms say a few words to us all, and then
we will open the floor to questions
<scooter> AmiSimms, ga
<AmiSimms>  03 I wanted them to like me and invite me to come live with them
so I could write my undergraduate
<AmiSimms>  03 dissertation in anthropology.
<AmiSimms>  03 Well, the first contact in the community was at a barn raising.
I must have looked really nervous so the fellow I was talking to
<AmiSimms>  03 suggested I visit his wife. She was at a quilting. I showed
up, they moved their chairs over and asked me to sit down and quilt.
<AmiSimms>  03 Had never seen a trampoline in the house before so I said sure.
Had they asked me to take
<AmiSimms>  03 off all my clothes and run naked in the woods I probably would
have said "sure." I really wanted them to like me.
<AmiSimms>  03 That was the beginning.
<auntie-em> Did you ever get to live with the Amish?
<scooter> what is your question, auntie-em
<AmiSimms>  03 I stayed with them for about 3 months, for a few days at a
time. Doesn't really count as LIVING with them, but close.
<jmtank> Hi Ami from Liberal, Ks.
<AmiSimms>  03 Hi, Liberal!
<jmtank> We got to enjoy you when Kansas Quilt Organization had you out here
back in the 90
<merrybee> how long after your original introduction to quilting did it take
for you to become hooked  ami?
<AmiSimms>  03 Oh, a little bit at least. That first quliting episode was
very painful. Not only didn't I know anything about quliting and I was sticking
myself in the bottom finger...
<Blockit> What is your all time favorite quilt pattern? and thanks for being
here.
<AmiSimms>  03 I didn't know how to use a thimble so I was ramming the eye
of the needle through the finger on top.
<AmiSimms>  03 It was very painful.
<AmiSimms>  03 Still by the end of my research I announced that I wanted to
make my parents a quilt. Haven't stopped since.
<mary_aster_maine> who is you favorite fabric designer.  thank you
<AmiSimms>  03 I love Mary Lous Weidman's fabrics and the gal from Australia
that puts Z instead of S in all her patterns, I can't think of her name right now.
<AmiSimms>  03 I can see her face.... don't you just hate that!
<auntie-em> Jan Mullen
<scooter> am drawing a blank, and I have taken a class from her
<scooter> thanks auntie-em, that's it
<AmiSimms>  03 YES!!! Jan Mullen.
<AmiSimms>  03 I tend to like wild colors and solids with lots of textures.
<aunty> hi Ami from Australia, I get your newsletter, was touched at your
unsewing of your Mom's squares, now that she is in care, do you mainly teach, invent
patterns or ? I recently saw you live on  a copy of Alex Anderson's show, was good
to see you in the flesh so to speak
<AmiSimms>  03 Just to bring everybody up to day, Aunty is referring to my
tactic of trying to keep my Mom busy. She
<AmiSimms>  03 has Alzhheimer's and lived with us for nearly 4 and 1/2  years.
In January she had to move into an Alz. care unit. In answer to your questions...
<AmiSimms>  03 I don't have any more spare time out of that deal. I visit
her every day, and then I started the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative to raise
awareness and funding for research to find a cure.
<Blockit> Thanks for being here Ami, what is your all time favorite quilt
pattern?
<AmiSimms>  03 All time favorite qulit pattern? The one I'm making now, whatever
that happens to be....that is also the one I hate.
<AmiSimms>  03 I'm a sucker for Double Wedding Rings, and Log Cabins. I've
probably made more Twisted Sisters than
<AmiSimms>  03 any other pattern....hard to say. ga
<Lucy> tell us a bit about your personal sewing room.....and do you use a
design wall......its always interesting to know how a person works
<AmiSimms>  03 Well, in order to get here to sit on the sofa in the living
room, I had to walk SIDEWAYS through my sewing room. It's a mess. It's our old living
room. (I'm sitting in the family room, the one with the TV where the other people
in the house hang out.)
<AmiSimms>  03 I have piles of fabric all over the floor, on the cuttingn
table, oozing out of laundry baskets, falling out of the cupboard.
<scooter> lol sounds familiar
<AmiSimms>  03 I let it go for many long times and then clean it up and get
to work. I hate tiddying up so I wait until it really bugs me. A form of procrastination.
<auntie-em> Gee I don't know anyone else who has a messy quilt room LOL
<AmiSimms>  03 I wish I could be better at it, but find that it must be genetic
because I just can't overcome the slob in me. Other parts of the house are much
better (if you keep the lights out) but
<aunty> sounds like me
<AmiSimms>  03 my sewing room is always the messiest part of the house.
<octopelius> What inspires you to create?
<AmiSimms>  03 Everything and anything. Fabric, words and phrases, imagery
on the highway, other quilts. I get most of my ideas in the shower for quilts and
for other things as well. I tend to
<AmiSimms>  03 take LONG showers.
<Spencer> I love your michigan mink pattern. Does the strips have to be cut
on bias.Can i use the straight line grain?I saw you on QNN your great!ty
<AmiSimms>  03 Thanks! One of my favorite patterns. YES! Double YES. The strips
must be cut on the bias, otherwise
<AmiSimms>  03 they weill ravel and really muck up your washing machine. It
will get stringy over time and you'll look like a rag muffin.
<scooter>  4 mary_aster_maine what is your question?
<mary_aster_maine> some ladies like to brag about there stash and sewing machines.
would you tell us about your stash and what you use for sewing machines. do you
own a singer FW?  thank you.
<AmiSimms>  03 I have a fairly modest stash. (fingers crossed) I keep it behind
two 4 foot wide design doors. Where the fire place used to be in the lving room
I took over.
<AmiSimms>  03 I jammed 3 qulit batts up the flu, put styrofoam insulation
over the doors to the fire place,
<AmiSimms>  03 duct taped the sucker shut and then have shelves built across
it. I sew facing the door/stash. The doors are my design wall and keep the fabric
inside from fading. They don't do much for the fabric everywhere else in the room,
but that's my story and I"m sticking to it.
<AmiSimms>  03 I sew on a Bernina 1260 and I love it. I would like to upgrade
to the new BSR machine and
<AmiSimms>  03 test drove one on Monday. Awesome.
<Blockit> on a Lone Star quilt, after you piece the star pedals in a row and
join with the other rows to make one of the 6 points do you cut all angles at 45
degrees or just one side  sorry it's hard to desricbe
<Blockit> or type
<AmiSimms>  03 You are SO asking the wrong person. If you have ever read my
How NOT To Make A Prize-Winnning Quilt, you will see a photograph of my one and
only Lone Star. I should have renamed it "LAME Star." Read the pattern
again. I'm sure they'll tell youj.
<Lucy> what hs your agenda been lately.......have you been to the east coast
lately......your were at a seminar in western ny many yeaars ago ....and the speaker.......I
had signed up for Marshar Mc  will catch you one of these days....:)
<AmiSimms>  03 I'm also the worst person to ask about my schedule. I know
where I'm going next (Wisconsin) and maybe the next month. I might remember where
I've been recently, but the rest is just a happy blur. I am usually jugglingbetween
24 and 36 upcoming teaching jobs, booking now for 2008, for example. I've been doing
that for 20 years. I just can't remember all the places. Sorry.
<AmiSimms>  03 Best to see where I'll be on my web page. www.amisimms.com
<AmiSimms>  03 (Good questions, you guys!)
<alaska-op> for a begining quilter,,,,what sort of rulersa and thread would
you suggest they invest in ?
<scooter> yes they are  :)
<alaska-op> rulers even <:)
<AmiSimms>  03 Rulters and thread.... I think the best rotary rulers are Omnigrip.
They're the newer Omnigrid rulers with the bright green markings. I love them. Plain,
straightforward and they have a
<AmiSimms>  03 new one that is 6" x 14" which is much better than
the odl 6" x 12" for cutting 44" wide yardage folded in fourths.
<AmiSimms>  03 Thread? I've had excellent results with Mettler/Metrosene thread.
I've used some wonderful Superior thread and Sulky and YLI. Lots depends on the
needle and tension so if you have problems look there first.
<shel> loved the latest newsletter Ami    as a fellow Law & Order fan,
all I can say is that you hit it all right on the nose!  Dumb Dumb  for sure. I
sit and watch and sit and watch some more. (Dumb, Dumb)  Also, thanks for coming
in to chat with us.
<Lucy> is your little booklet on Hand Quilting available....?  if so I recommend
it to all who are trying to learn to rock the needle to achieve better quilting
stiitch......  the photos step by step are great
<AmiSimms>  03 OK, well you'll like this bit of news.... in the newsletter
I half-jokingly suggested that S. Epatha Merkerson (Lt. Van Buren) should make a
Priority: Alzheimer's Quilt for auction since she is a quliter.
<AmiSimms>  03 Well, somebody did some diggin and got me a phone number. That
started me on a hunt to finfd her and I finally got a hold of a public relations
company in Hollywood that represents her. Long story short, she's going to sign
a piece of fabric and I'm going to make it into
<AmiSimms>  03 a quilt. I just found that out today. I'm waiting for the address
to send the Pigma pens and muslin.
<shel> wonderful!!
<scooter> wtg, how cool
<Lubie> awesome!
<bamse> good job
<maudie-mae> <Lucy> is your little booklet on Hand Quilting available....?
if so I recommend it to all who are trying to learn to rock the needle to achieve
better quilting stiitch...... the photos step by step are great
<AmiSimms>  03 Thanks very much. That was my first book and there are still
some copies at www.AmiSimms.com and I'll be happy to autograph one for you. Just
click that bo when you order. I'm glad you liked the book.
<luv2qlt> cool
<merrybee> I just wanted to thank you Ami for your support for the Alzheimer's
association my mom is 91 and is home with me she also has alzheimer's
<merrybee> I also recommend  to all beginners who come here when I am in your
book on hand quilting :)
<AmiSimms>  03 You're very welcome, merrybee. As you know, it is a vile disease
and we need a cure. Yesterday.
<Blockit> How do you keep from getting the "V" when cutting material
folded in fourths?  I like your idea for S. Epatha Merkerson too. Maybe you can
get others to do the same and call it a "celebrity" quilt?
<aunty> Ami would you consider making some DVDs so those of us Downunder and
others far away could have the pleasure of a lesson with you, and YOU wouldn't have
to travel!
<AmiSimms>  03 Thanks for your support. If anyone else thinks this is a good
idea, add a line to your email signature that you support the AAQI. YOu don't have
to donate anything or make a qulit. Just your virtual support in an email statement
with a link to www.AlzQuilts.org will do a tremendous amount to spread the word..
<scooter> sorry AmiSimms, I got ahead of us
<AmiSimms>  03 When you fold your fabric, don't just bring the selvage edges
together
<AmiSimms>  03 rather, hold the fabric from the center (where it was folded
from being on the fold) and roll it between your fingers until the selvage edges
are
<AmiSimms>  03 parallel. THEN fold it and bring the selvages to the fold.
Smooth with your fingers to make sure there are no wrinkles. That should help. You
might
<AmiSimms>  03 loose a little in the trimming, but that's because it is impossible
to cut fabric off the bolt that is really straight.
<Blockit> ty, I have tried ironing, starch and pressing hard on the cutter,
still get it though
<AmiSimms>  03 Ouch; how that didnt hurt.
<scooter> <aunty> Ami would you consider making some DVDs so those of
us Downunder and others far away could have the pleasure of a lesson with you, and
YOU wouldn't have to travel!
<AmiSimms>  03 I have done some lessons on QNN, but it is very expensive to
do that on my own. With such a huge investment, and looking so dorky on camera,
I don't know that I really want to do that. I'd MUCH prefer to go back to Australia
and New Zealand and teach there again.. hint, hing
<AmiSimms>  03 (Just don't ask me to teach typing!)
<Lucy> as a national teacher.........what is it that as the teacher to you
find some students do that can be most annoying in a class............ I teach ..coming
unprepared is my pet peeve.........how do you  deal with that?
nd you must have come here before I started qltg, would be great to have you here
<aunty> sorry i didn't ask first
<AmiSimms>  03 My pet peeves are rarely with my students. In fact 99% of them
are absolute treasures. In workshops when proper materials are essential, i just
started offering kits. That seems to help. YOu just have to take everyone where
they are. I've learned that many quliters
<AmiSimms>  03 come to class to get away. They're lives are full of troubles
and this is an escape. Sometimes it's not what I teach but just being there to let
them do what they want that they find is the most helpful.
<scooter> well-said
<AmiSimms>  03 That's not most cases, but there are usually reasons why people
come unprepared.
<Lucy> sure are  :)
<DonnaTN> I just started hand piecing a grandmother's flower garden (with
1" hexagons)... I rotary cut them, not using templates, or those plastic thingy's..
so I'm doing a running stitch to join them.  HOW is the BEST way to press the blocks?
<AmiSimms>  03 Interesting....you should have tought of tha BEFORE you started!
(Just kidding.) Most of those are paper pieced where the seams are
<AmiSimms>  03 pressed open. But, since you're hand piecing with a running
stitch you have options. Whatever strategy, I guess just be consistant. I haven't
made one so I don't have any good advice for you.
<mary_aster_maine> do you enter you quilts in quilt shows?   which ones do
you like best?    is there a good show (national) for a beginner to enter for the
first time?  thank you
<mary_aster_maine> your quilts that is
<AmiSimms>  03 I haven't entered a qulit in a judged competition in years.
I might again, but I guess I haven't cared what a judge might think any more. I
like 'em and that's good enough for me. I also haven't
<AmiSimms>  03 exhibited many of my quilts, other than for special exhibits
where I teach, because I'm using them as teaching examples. Of the shows I get to
go to
<AmiSimms>  03 they are all fantastic. I always find qulits that take my breath
away, drive me crazy, exhilarate me, or make me feel like a total slug.
<AmiSimms>  03 ga
<octopelius> Back to pet peeves question: So right!  And many times students
simply want someone to tell them it's okay to go where their hearts tell them to
go!  The snafus in class are always learning opportunities!
<AmiSimms>  03 That's the way it is in real life also. Mistakes can unlock
our creativity. That is after you retrieve the iron you pitched through the plate
glass window.
<sewbeit> I took an all day workshop with Ami a few years ago, and her teaching
techniques are wonderful, humorous, and does not make the newbie feel like a newbie.
I still can't applique worth a darn, but I use her technique of invisible applique
to bind all my quilts.  Thanks Ami
<Lucy> as for coming unprepared.....I mean  there are those that come ...without
fabric and buy it during class disturbing the whole class........that is the kind
of pet peeve I refer to.......   :)
<Lucy> automatic fingers....yikes

<AmiSimms>  03 Ah....I'll take that as a comliment! :)  Do we need a remedial
applique lesson?
<scooter> <Lucy> as for coming unprepared.....I mean  there are those
that come ...without fabric and buy it during class disturbing the whole class........that
is the kind of pet peeve I refer to.......   :)
<AmiSimms>  03 Thankfully I don't get any of those students. Of the top of
my head I would say those students should be flogged, however, there might be circumstances
we aren't aware of, so be gentle.
<scooter> we have time for one or two more questions, ladies
<Lucy> I do my best.... also with humor
<AmiSimms>  03 I'm know I have made numerous social blunders myself and would
hope that people would give me the benefit of the doubt.

<Lorraine> notice alaska-op yw, it has gone very well, and such a good crowd,
makes it all worth while
<AmiSimms>  03 I think we might have time for 3 or 4.....when it's over where
will I go; what will I do?
<Lubie> AmiSimms thanks for doing this for us and im a newbie to quilting
. what books would you say i need. something easy to understand
* Lorraine hangs head in shame . .
<scooter> that is great
* octopelius says come to Nebraska, Ami!
<AmiSimms>  03 I would say you need ALL of mine, of course!
<frankie> When will you come again?
<AmiSimms>  03 Seriously, you should buy the books that inspire you. I've
never been one to say you
<mary_aster_maine> what is the next thing on your plate?  a new book,   more
patterns any thing in the pippeline
 <scooter> wait to be called on please, lol
<AmiSimms>  03 should make qulits (or buy books) in any particular order.
Do something that grabs your attention. Buy books that you can't wait to sit down
and study.
<sewbeit> do you belong to a quild ami?
<AmiSimms>  03 No, I see enough business meetings when I travel. Besides I'm
never home at the right time to attend my local guild meetings.
<scooter> here is mary_aster_maine's question, ami: <mary_aster_maine>
what is the next thing on your plate?  a new book,   more patterns any thing in
the pippeline
<AmiSimms>  03 I'm going to put my energies into the Alzheimer's Art Quilt
Initiative for the next three years. I'll continue to teach, but I'm having a really
good time making the small piority qulits. I also want toget a qulit or two done
for the rtraveling exhibit. Personally, I want to spend more time quiltig and being
creative. It's a gas.
<AmiSimms>  03 What happened to my fingers on that one!!!!?
<scooter> good answer
<Pepper> Have you noticed that quilting has evolved into an extreme art form
with long arm machine and thread work vs traditional hand quilting
<Pepper> making it hard for a lot of us to try to enter quilt into shows
<AmiSimms>  03 I think it's all an art form. I love the traditional quilting
because I learned that first, but I also think the wild and funky machine work is
awesome too. I want to become a better machine quilter.
<AmiSimms>  03 wait, there'smore
<Damia> You can stay right here with us Ami! You are always welcome!
<AmiSimms>  03 Don't be afraid to enter a quilt show just because you think
you won't win.
<Pepper> not that's not it
<Pepper> it's that it is so intimidating 
<AmiSimms>  03 Do it to learn what the judge might say and to share your qulit
with people who go see the show.
<Pepper> who could compete ??
<AmiSimms>  03 It's a GOOD thing that our art is growing and getting better
and reaching in new directions.
<Pepper> seems there aren't any traditional catagories any more lol
<Pepper> I agree with that
<Pepper> thank you
<AmiSimms>  03 It's always going to be competative and initimidating, that's
life.
<Lucy> and it is art
<Damia> You can stay right here with us Ami! You are always welcome!
<DonnaTN> Ami, you came to our guild for a lecture in Tuscaloosa, AL a few
yrs ago, and I enjoyed it thoroughly!  (I brought you that BBQ'd sandwich for lunch.)
I was also in southern Italy in the late 1950's & early 1960's (1959-1961) too,
so I really loved your book about the floors of Ancient Rome!  You are so right,
they (the mosaic tile floors) all look like patchwork quilt patterns!  Amazing,
there really is nothing new under the sun!  Please
<AmiSimms>  03 Just don't measure the worth of your work by someone else's
yardstick. It's YOU that you must please not some judge. Do it for YOU.
<AmiSimms>  03 Thanks, Damia. And thanks Donna for the BarBq. I love that
stuff.
<merrybee> I think there will always be room in the quilting community for
it's roots and for traditonal quilts  even though some shows  are more art quilts
I think it is more chooseing a venue that honors the traditional
<scooter> well-said, merrybee
<scooter> are there any more questions, ladies?
<AmiSimms>  03 This is very true. Some shows look for qulits that are cutting
edge and way out there. Others prefer traditional enries and the judging reflects
this.
<shaffida> Ami  thank you thank you thank you
<AmiSimms>  03 It was a hoot, quilters! Glad I could come tonight!
<Lucy> thank you Miss Ami   :)
<scooter> Ami this has been delightful and I think we have all learned something
and have loved hearing your take on the world of quilting!!
<maudie-mae>  4T hank  4Y ou [ 4AmiSimms ]
<AmiSimms>  03 Thank you for inviting me and for asking such thoughtful questions.
<Lorraine> thank you for giving up your valuable time to chat with us AmiSimms
<Lubie> AmiSimms please stop in again
<bbwneedlovetoo> thank you so much for this AmiSimms
<aunty> thanks heaps it was great to talk to you
<shel> stop in anytime  AmiSimms
<scooter> yes, please do!
<sewbeit> Woo hoo from another Michigander ami!
<merrybee> ami you will always be welcome in #quiltchat as a chatter
<alaska-op> thank you AmiSimms  and thank you Lorraine !!!!!!!
<scooter> for sure
<suzee> ty so very much, Ami, what an enjoyable evening
<thread4u> thanks AmiSimms..
<merrybee> feel free to come anytime
<bamse> thank you so much for sharing with us, its been my honor and pleasure
to be here tonight
<mary_aster_maine> thank you for the chat
<mary_aster_maine> very nice
<bbwneedlovetoo> yes ty so much Lorraine
<AmiSimms>  03 Thanks to all of you! I'll pop in again.
<scooter> in short, you were a big hit, AmiSimms!!!!
<scooter> thank you
<aunty> let us know it's you though
<matty> Thanks very much for you comments and  sugestions ami
<slm> see you in Nashville...in August
<scooter> ()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()<---clapping
<shel> thanks to you also Lorraine   
<AmiSimms>  03 I think I hear another Law and Order starting....gotta run.
<sweetjessy> ty ty Lorraine
<wattiepoo> ave enjoyed ty
<bbwneedlovetoo> bye AmiSimms
<scooter> lol bye AmiSimms, have a good evening
<Lubie> huggers AmiSimms
<shel> bye AmiSimms
<scooter> thank you again!
<sweetjessy> bye AmiSimms
<thread4u> bye AmiSimms
Session Close: Fri Mar 24 22:08:16 2006