The Industry Loses a Legend

Rep David, CEO Ken, VP Sales Frank, Rep Michael - Spring Market 2008

It is with deep sorrow that we share this post with you. Michael Hersh, a longtime rep for Robert Kaufman and several other fabric manufacturers, passed away Saturday, July 30th after a long, hard-fought battle with cancer. Despite his failing health, and a testament to his dedication, Michael  attended his last Quilt Market this Spring in Salt Lake City in order to meet with his valued customers one last time.

Michael was an important part of the Robert Kaufman sales team. His sales territory combined much of the north east coast, including New York, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania. He was a dear friend to many, including our own Harvey Kaufman who had this to share after receiving the news of his passing:

I will miss Michael.  We shared a journey together that I feel honored to have made with him.  We both shared the enthusiasm and passion to build the business.  He was with me from the beginning.  We pioneered together in building the company into what it is today.  His passion was contagious.  He was a dream come true in my eyes.  I feel very lucky to have shared my life with Michael.  I will miss him so very much.

Our Vice President of Sales, Frank Cappiello, Jr., who also enjoyed a close relationship with Michael, was the first to learn the news, and explained to the rest of the company here, "Our industry has lost a legend and Robert Kaufman a dear friend. He will truly be missed."

Here is the obituary from his family:

After a long battle with colon cancer Michael passed away on July 30, 2011 at the young age of 60. Born in Belle Harbor, NY, raised in Valley Stream, Long Island and has resided in Pennington, NJ since 1978. Predeceased by parents Nathan and Pearl Hersh and is survived by his wife Alice (Alie) Verbeyst Hersh, son Matthew and wife Marinn, son Phillip and fiancée Allie Gelfand, brother Markam and wife Sherry, and brother Jeffrey and wife Annie. Michael has many other surviving members of a large, loving family.

Michael graduated from Florida State University and was hired by Concord Fabrics as a Textile Sales Rep. He had the honor of working 35 years for Robert Kaufman Company and helped expand the business into cotton prints. During those years the company developed into one of the largest fabric companies in the industry. Michael enjoyed being a part of that journey. He also represented Andover Fabrics, Henry Glass, Michael Miller Fabrics and Oriole Textiles.

We're honored and grateful to have been a part of Michael's life. Thank you for letting us share a bit of his legacy with you.

Swinging with Seuss

On the way into the office a few mornings ago we spotted this handmade hammock crafted by some of our very own warehouse employees!

Fabric comes in from the mills rolled on long tubes just wider than the width of the fabric. When the fabric is folded onto bolts, sometimes there are just a few inches of fabric left (such as when the total yards on the roll isn't a perfect multiple of 15).

Using scraps of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, he created this adult size hammock by knotting them together in a diamond-weave pattern. With the temp reaching a sunny 70 degrees at 9am this morning, this is just in time for summer!! He even took the time to color coordinate - how fun!

We did a little searching and found some instructions for you to make your very own hammock for those lounge-y summer days...

Snow Fence Woven Hammock at ReadyMade via Craftzine

Blanket Hammock at Apartment Therapy

Stiched or No-Sew Hammock at Outside Mom

Happy Sewing!

Kona Charm Pack Challenge - STLMQG {Guest Post}

This is a guest post written by the lovely Kristy, President of the St. Louis MQG.

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Hi Swatch & Stitch Readers, Kristy here from the St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild.  I wanted to share with you some of the amazing quilts that our guild made as part of the Kona Charm Pack Challenge.

We went with the Classic Palette and could only add 1 - 2 additional solids, and while we had 6 months to complete the challenge, many of us were still sewing on the binding at the last minute; yet as you will soon see it was worth it in the end.

While I would love to show you each and every quilt up close and personal, a small sampling will have to do; yet I encourage you to hop on over to our STLMQG blog for even more loveliness.

Quilt by Jessica who won 1^st place.

Quilt by Wanetha, who won 2^nd place.     

Quilt by Juli Ann, who walked away with 3^rd place.

Over 40 members participated in this, our 1^st guild challenge, and as you can see in the below photo, even standing on a chair wasn’t enough to capture all the talent in the room.

Just some of the quilts shown during the June meeting, courtesy of Cindy.

If you want to see what some of the other guild’s around the country made, make sure you stop by the RK Challenge Flickr group and don’t forget to check out more of what we at the STLMQG are doing here.

Our thanks to Robert Kaufman for allowing us to showcase their wonderful Kona solids.

Around the Block Playmat {Tutorial}

Suzy Ultman's new collection, Appleville, celebrates a tiny orchard town full of happy apples, friendly neighbors, and welcoming homes. The colors are super bright & cheery which make for very happy projects!

{this was the plan}

We made the Around the Block playmat to feature one full repeat of the panel in the center, bordered by small strips of each of the other fabrics in the line! It's finishes at 38" x 42", so it's the perfect size for tummy time or for practicing the ever-tricky roll-over!

We had this quilt at Market, right between Julie's Chopsticks quilt made from Just Dandy and Alllison's Off Track quilt made from our Good Life collection. Right between two very talented gals - what a place to be!! The gorgeous quilting is by none other than the insanely talented Angela (who also happened to quilt 8!!! other quilts that were in our booth). 

{one wall of our Market booth was dedicated to our Urbanista fabrics where we showed quilts made from Laurie's Pooches & Pickups, Josephine's Just Dandy, Suzy's Appleville & Wooster & Prince's Good Life Collection - such a great assortment!!}

Suzy sells limited edition prints of her adorable artwork in her Etsy shop, so get your Garden Party print here before they're all gone!

If you want to make this playmat quilt, here's a list of the fabrics you're going to need...

Shopping List

3/4yd - ASD-11465-195 Bright (panel)

1/4yd - ASD-11467-195 Bright (brown homes/border 1)

1/3yd - ASD-11466-70 Aqua (aqua apples/border 2)

1/4yd - ASD-11467-108 Fuchsia (white ground/border3)

1/3yd - ASD-11467-47 Grass (green homes/border 4)

1/3yd - ASD-11466-108 Fuchsia (pink apples/border 5)

1-1/8yds - Shannon Fabrics Candy Stripe in Watermelon/Topaz

46" x 50" piece of batting (for machine quilting, or cut to size if you plan to use a different method like Rae's Cheater Method - which we LOVE!)

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You can download the rest of the instructions here. If you want to see more projects made from Appleville the gals at Sew to Speak in Columbus, OH made a trio of pretty projects. And if you're as smitten with Suzy as we are, you can find more of her work on all kinds of products like scrapbook paper, note cards, journals, paper dolls, home dec prints, and now even letterpress cards - dreamy! Now, if you really can't get enough, check out the ADORABLE bath collection that Suzy designed for Target...the inside tip is that Suzy's next fabric collection (coming to stores in August) may or may not share a theme with "Give A Hoot" so stay tuned!!

If you make something using Appleville (or any RK fabrics) we'd love to see! Please share them with us on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter! You can follow Suzy on Twitter, too!

A Little Birdie Told Me... all about Quilt Backs

Do you think about the back of your quilt?

Do you buy extra fabric at the start for the back?... or wait till you are done?

The back of a quilt can be forgotten space... but it doesn't have to be!  You can make a simple quilt back from one fabric pieced large enough or you can get creative.  I've done a range of things with the backs of my quilts.

The number one thing I do these days is that I piece my label into the back. Unfortunately quilts do get lost sometimes or even stolen.  Thieves will remove the label if possible to hide the original creator's identity.  By piecing the label into the backing & then having the quilting done it is impossible to remove the label without making a hole in the back of the quilt.

All of the quilts shown below were quilted by Angela Walters.  If you send your quilts to a long arm quilter check with your quilter first as some do not like working with pieced backs.  I try my best to make my backs have "wiggle room" in regards to size and never place my label too close to an edge where it might end up getting cut off.

I have a full tutorial on my blog for printing your own custom labels with spoonflower.  By printing my labels ahead of time I always have them when needed & they already have all my basic contact info on them.

I picked the photo above on purpose to show you that the fabric from spoonflower is not a white white.  The fabric on the sides of the label is the white from Pure Organic.  When the label is not placed next to a white white fabric you don't see the yellow hint as much.

The back of Pink Chopsticks.  I used a mix of Quilter's Linen and some of the extra fabric I had from making the quilt top.  It's scrappy and was a good solution since I didn't have enough of any one fabric. 

The back of Blue Chopsticks is simple.  I put a small frame of Quilter's Linen around my label and pieced the rest of the back from one fabric.

I went with a horizontal stripe across the back of Hugs & Kisses.  The quilt is also bound in the same teal as the backing.  In order to make sure I'd have enough for binding I cut the binding fabric first and set it aside.

I made a second Blue Chopsticks for the Robert Kaufman Quilt Market booth.  This time I chose a lighter print and did a horizontal stripe of the blue dot. I also framed the label in teal. {Now I just need to get this bound asap!}

 

The back of Carnival is very scrappy.  I used a mix of the extra binding, background, layer cake & border fabrics to create a blue & white mix.

 

The back of Unwind is one of my favorites.  I just adore this green print.  I added a stripe of blue and white that also happens to match my logo perfectly.

Kona Crush is a favorite fabric of mine & I used it here on most of the back.  The label is framed in scraps from the front.

This is the back of Plaid Parade.  I framed the label in the same brown used as sashing on the front and put it into a horizontal white bar.

Using scraps from the front I created a coin strip for Off the Rail.  I placed my label somewhat in the middle of the strip & picked two fabrics for the remainder of the back.

Robert Kaufman also wanted Off the Rail for their booth so with the help of Candi I now have twin quilts... or the fronts are twins at least.  For the second Off the Rail back I framed the label in a green print and offset it to the side in a horizontal stripe.

The last back I have to share today is my Raspberry Dessert quilt.  I wanted something simple but still wanted the label pieced in and somewhat near the center.  I decided on a light pink vertical stripe with a bit of detail near the label.

I know making pieced quilt backs can be a scary thing for those that don't like math, but I promise it isn't that hard.  I'm almost done with a tutorial that includes a few ways to make one and it'll be posted on my blog this weekend.

While I finish the tutorial... I want to know what you do right now?

Do you piece your backs?

Do you piece your labels into them?

Do you do something totally different that I haven't mentioned?

Let me know!

Also... If you are coming to Quilt Market be sure to stop by Booth #2644 to see these quilts in person!

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I'll be back on May 13th with A Little Birdie Told Me!

Volume 2 post 8 

{ Julie Herman blogs at Jaybird Quilts }