Award-winning quiltmaker Anita Shackelford shares her Pennsylvania Reel pattern in the November/December 2003 (#94) issue of Quiltmaker magazine.
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Excerpts from the Experts
Interview with Anita Shackelford
You have written books, designed tools and fabric lines, and have a very busy lecture schedule. How do you fit it all in? Any new products you're working on now?
I have always been busy -- working as a nurse and raising a family gave me many years of practice in prioritizing, time management and balancing several schedules at once. I am balancing different things now, with a very busy travel schedule, and time at home devoted to family, running a web-business, writing, designing, and finding time to make some new quilts.
I have published three books in the past year: Infinite Feathers Quilting Designs, Ohio Collection and Pennsylvania Plain & Fancy. The last two were self-published and coordinate with the "Pennsylvania Plain & Fancy" fabric collection that I designed for P&B Textiles. I really enjoy writing and am sure I will continue to do that. I've been asked to do a second line of fabric for P&B and will begin work on that soon. I do feel the time crunch now and then, and must remind myself to take a breath, narrow the focus, sit and quilt........
If you could offer one piece of advice for quiltmakers today, what would it be?
I suppose a single piece of advice might be to follow your heart. Make the quilts you want to make. I try to keep a good balance between "users" and "keepers". Many of my quilts are elaborate and labor-intensive and not meant for every day use. But now, with grandchildren, I am making a number of quilts to be used and shared and enjoyed in that way.
Try not to be influenced too much by current trends. It's easy to be caught up in what the rest of the world is doing and sometimes a difficult lesson that we can't do everything. With limited time, we must choose carefully. Give each quilt the time it deserves, do your best work, and most of all, enjoy the process.
---Anita
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