Spotlight: Debbie Rodgers, Quilt Designer

Debbie Rodgers found her dream job as a technical editor for C&T, using her quilting experience, strong math skills and attention to detail. She recently launched The Skill-Building Quick & Easy Block Tool, making it easy for anyone to create 110 blocks – with no math! Debbie has an amazing studio for creating her quilts, with always several in different stages of completion.

Tell us your background as a creator. Was there a “moment”?

I’ve always enjoyed creating. Early on it was construction paper mosaics, popsicle stick creations, and making felt clothes for my troll dolls. I loved getting stitchery kits, building models, anything I could put together. I wanted to make platform sandals at 8 years old and got my brother to cut some 2×4 pieces of wood, but my mom caught me just as I was about to nail my sandals to them.

At 11 years old, I began adding triangles to my jeans to make bell-bottoms, sewing them by hand as the sewing machine was too fast. My grandmother sent me kitchen towels to embroider and my mom taught me the stitches. Once I conquered the sewing machine, I made all sorts of clothing, including Halloween and Renaissance Fair costumes, and even my wedding dress.

How has your work changed over time?

My first quilt was a baby quilt for my best friend. It was a yard of white eyelet fabric with narrow satin ribbon woven in-and-out of the holes and quilted in straight lines. I moved on to printed panels, adding borders and trims.

The first quilt with pieced blocks was for my infant son. I hand quilted some of my early quilts, finally learning to use a thimble. When my son was about 4, my thimble fell on the floor and he accidentally stepped on it. I worked to open it back up but before trying to round it completely I discovered the flattened side fit my finger better now. Lucky me!

A few years later, I joined a quilt guild and started making more quilts to donate to seniors, Habitat for Humanity families, etc. I like to use traditional blocks with bold bright colors and novelty prints, designing around a theme or the recipient’s favorite colors. I also enjoy playing around with landscapes, free form cutting, and appliqué.

Tell us more about your dream job and writing a book.

For 23 years I worked as a field technician fixing fax machines, copiers, and printers. When a corporate change turned that job into drudgery, I started looking for something else. Having been a customer of C&T Publishing for many years, I received their emails and I soon read their blog post about the technical editor position. Quilting experience – check. Strong math skills – check. Attention to detail – check. How had I never known there was a job that would pay me to read quilt books?!?! I use all of my creative skills as well as my love of math and drawing. It truly is my dream job.

For The Skill-Building Quick & Easy Block Tool, I explored more than 40 C&T books to find new blocks. We duplicated 3 very simple blocks from the first Block Tool because as the Skill-Building tool, it didn’t make sense to leave them out. I drew the 107 new blocks, simplifying some and adjusting others to fit the grids I needed. Calculating the piece sizes was more math fun. Two of my coworkers helped come up with some of the pattern ideas. It didn’t feel like work as I wrote all 110 patterns, calculated the yardage, and checked all the numbers. Oh, the possibilities!

What is the most important takeaway you want readers to gain from your book The Skill-Building Quick & Easy Block Tool?

Even simple blocks can make striking quilts. Cut some basic shapes and play with fabric. It is fun! Play with the colors that delight you and make a mug rug, placemat, table runner, quilt, something you can use and enjoy.

Who inspires you?

My family. All of my grandmothers worked with fabric, sewing quilts and clothing, including formal wear. One crocheted afghans and beaded necklaces, too. My mom has dabbled in painting, paper crafts, all yarn arts, and sewing clothing, quilts, and home décor. My uncle was a wood craftsman and created toys, games, quilt racks, along with home remodeling, and also made many macramé plant hangers back in the day. My sister is like me; we like to play with all of it; sewing, embroidery, woodwork, painting, tiling, we’ll try almost anything. My brothers can build any type of structure, from a simple shed to complete energy-efficient homes.

What kinds of creative projects are your favorites?

I like to make things that will be used, quilts, clothing, tote bags, backpacks, bins, bowls, curtains, handy items. And socks, I am always knitting socks with the occasional scarf, sweater, or hat thrown into the rotation, plus weaving, too.

If we asked a good friend of yours to describe your work, what would they say?

A crazy variety! Bright, bold, energetic, or soft, gentle pastels. She gives away most of her quilts, tote bags, socks, etc. She once made a quilt to park her motorcycle on for a local bike show. She made a king size denim quilt; it weighed 12 pounds. She loves rainbows and butterflies and playing with fabric. She likes mixing things up; for many years she made a few quilts every year to be raffled off at motorcycle events, with the money raised going to the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate.

When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?

A bit of both; I tend to plan a layout, color scheme, etc., but then as I work, I improvise with what I have available, switching the design, fabric, etc.

Do you have a dedicated space for creating? If so, what does it look like?

I was using the third bedroom in our home, however several years ago my fabric and yarn spilled into the living room and dining room “just while I finish this project.” About 2 years ago, my husband called me out to the backyard and paced out his idea for a backyard studio about 7 feet away from our bedroom.

Early last year we began clearing the space, tore out a deck, had an old spa and concrete pad removed, and leveled the area. We dug and poured 16 concrete piers 1-foot square and deep for the foundation. Then a few days later, while backfilling around the piers, I tripped with a shovel in my hands and broke my wrist. Not on my plan!

My youngest brother created the building plans to include a sloped ceiling with one soaring 12-foot wall with high windows opposite my 8-foot fabric storage wall. He, his son, another nephew, and my oldest brother all converged here last fall to build my 14’ x 14’ studio in 9 days! They installed 2 long LED lights plus a ceiling fan with a light. My brother calls it operating-room bright, and it is perfect. I don’t need any extra lamps. My husband and I finished the interior with paint, door and window trim, and flooring. The fabric storage wall is protected by 4 rolling design-wall doors that we built. They are framed insulation boards and hook over Ikea curtain cables, so I can easily lift them off and move them.

How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time?

I’m really good at starting projects, and usually work on a few at a time. However, I took a bit of a hiatus from sewing and quilting the last four months of last year, due to the studio foundation building and my broken wrist. 6 weeks in a cast and another 8 weeks of physical therapy to get my strength and grip back. Knitting helped, but scissor or rotary cutting was impossible for way too long.

How do you manage your creative time? Do you schedule start and stop times?  Do you create daily?

This year has been so fun to be able to dive back into daily cutting and sewing. I’ve finished two wall hangings for a whisper challenge, two long-promised lap quilts, and have three more started. I try to finish one quilt a month and knit a pair of socks about every six weeks. I knit when watching movies, I carry my knitting with me almost everywhere and knit while waiting anywhere. I sometimes knit on the back of my husband’s motorcycle when the long rides get monotonous.

I usually head to my studio most evenings for an hour or two, and a good chunk of time on the weekends. I tell my husband I’ll “only be out here for one CD” (of music or a book), but it’s usually more. I’ve recently picked up weaving again and have decided Wednesday evenings are for weaving.

Are you a “finisher”? How many UFOs do you think you have?

I’m better at finishing things for someone else with a firm deadline. Many of my own projects have languished for years. On a quilt retreat about 20 years ago a friend posed this question to all of us.

Not counting batting, backing, or thread, how many projects could you finish with what you have at home right now?

My friends came up with 10, 20, maybe 50 projects. I started writing mine down and came up with 104 fabric projects. Mostly quilts, some soft crafts, backpacks, bags, garments, or accessories. Some in process, some kitted, and some just promised with the stacks started. I worked from that list, updating it annually for many years, but finally let it go. I finished many of the original projects, a few have been abandoned with the fabric melded back into my stash, and of course I’ve added many more. I’ve also inherited fabric and incomplete projects from friends and grandmothers. I probably still have more than 100 UFOs, with enough fabric to make still 100 more quilts, and plenty to piece the backs as well. Now that I have a bright, spacious, dedicated space and my wrist has healed, my projects are moving along again.

One of the finished projects from that list was a hexie quilt for my mother-in-law. Her mother had hand-pieced the flowers, but my mother-in-law didn’t want to make more small hexagons. I designed a layout and she appliquéd the pieced flower blocks to large hexagons I cut from a background fabric. Then I assembled the top, hand quilted the flowers, and machine quilted vines and leaves around them. She enjoyed and used the quilt for many years, and now I’ve inherited the finished quilt.

What is your favorite lesser-known tool for your trade? Have you taken something designed for another use and repurposed it for your studio?

Is three too many?

When planning to quilt my brother’s king-size denim quilt last year, I found a laser marker designed for a circular saw at Harbor Freight. It is magnetic, so I just taped a large washer to front of my sewing machine, lined up the laser beam to a seam and easily sewed 105’’ quilt lines right down the center of the row.

Clear plastic meat trays. Before recycling, reuse! These are great for sorting pieces for blocks, and they stack nicely, making them easy to move around.

Jan Krentz mentioned wooden half-round pressing bars in a class many years ago. They are just 1’’ wood half-round molding with a batting and fabric cover. I stitched a strip of batting down one-half of the muslin, then stitched a super skinny bag to cover the molding, placing the batting over the curve and stitched closed. They work perfectly to help press seams open and flat.

Do you think that creativity is part of human nature or is it something that must be nurtured and learned?

I believe we are all creative, in myriad ways. Whether it is drawing, painting, sewing, coordinating outfits, cooking, gardening, decorating a space, designing lectures and classes, etc., it is all a creative pursuit. I think all creativity needs to be nurtured, practiced, and explored.

What else would you like to share with us today?

Sewing or any fiber art is what calms and restores me. I’ve heard many say that they don’t have the patience for sewing, knitting or other handwork, but for me the patience comes in the doing. I need to keep my hands moving and make things.

And those embroidered kitchen towels? I inherited them from my grandmother, still wrapped in tissue in the boxes I gifted them in, she never used them. I also inherited the denim shirt I embroidered for my grandfather. It has a few tiny paint spots and holes, and I know he wore it a lot. That’s what I want for my crafts; I tell my family and friends to love it and use it, don’t save it for special occasions or just to look at. The highest compliment for me is to come back and say, “I’ve loved it to bits, may I have another?”