Sewing With Nancy

It is estimated that there are 21 million people who enjoy quilting in the United States, yet there are only a select few who are considered masters of the art. Today, I have the honor of introducing you to one of those masters who's considered to be one of the top 30 quilt artists in the world. Please welcome Diane Gaudynski, who lives in Wisconsin, and is here to share with us on Sewing with Nancy some of her excellent quilting designs. You're going to be impressed. Welcome, Diane. Thank you, Nancy, it's good to be here. Diane, you started quilting in the '80s. I did. And give our viewers a little history-- progression of where you started and then where you... Ended up. - Excelled. Yeah. I started quilting because I liked the idea of taking sewing, which I had done since I was-- well, as long as I can remember. Very little girl. Uh, into a different form, where I wouldn't just be making things for the house or clothing. So, sewing was always a love. I liked sewing the pieces together in a quilt. I liked the colors, the designs, the fabrics, the threads-- everything, but I didn't really like hand-quilting, so I was in this limbo situation where I thought, well, I'm gonna move on and not do quilting, because the hand-quilting was just not enjoyable. It took so long. It wasn't what I wanted in-- that I saw in my head. Uh, and then along came Harriet Hargrave and the-- - Sure. Um, the how-to's in machine quilting, and I thought, well, you could never put a big bed quilt in a little sewing machine that we quilt on at home, but by lowering the feed dogs and repackaging the quilts and struggling and fighting it and figuring it out... Sure. - And using the right materials, I was able to transition pretty smoothly to machine-quilting my pieced tops. And machine quilting not just with your average stitching. Please look at Diane's work, and it's breathtaking. I feel honored to be touching the beautiful work, and I'd like you, also, to notice colorations, because Diane's signature color, I once read, is quote-unquote "mud."

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I--I think you say that affectionately. I say it very affectionately. It was-- it was all of the colors that other people really... Uh-huh. - Never liked and wouldn't put in quilts. - Sure. And I always liked them, and I thought that they worked so well with the primary colors... Oh, they do. The brights, the pastels, and made things have a certain richness. They ground your quilts. And so I've continued using them, but I do use more bright colors now than I did in the past. Well, in moderation. - Right, in moderation. This one does tend to run towards quite a bit of mud. -

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I like this kind of mud. This picture--these pieces are all what I call mud colors. Yeah, they're lovely. We have another big quilt to share with you, our viewers, that is a full-size quilt, a large quilt, and give us a little history of that, Diane. Well, that quilt was made-- I started it before the 9/11 attack here in this country, and I worked on it throughout that. And I--it was so depressing of a time that I tended to gravitate towards very deep, somber colors. And then I realized that the American spirit is strong; we need the light, the bright, and I got on the Internet and ordered more fabric-- bright yellows, pinks, lavenders, blues and greens, and put them with it and sprinkled those yellow colors-- the golds and the yellows-- across the surface of the quilt, much as you would see sunlight coming through a stained-glass window. It has a great name and a history to it. The name of the quilt is "Through

a Glass Darkly

An American Memory." So it alludes to that particular period in our history as well as the log cabin quilt itself, which is a milestone quilt for this country. It was everywhere. It's--it's an old favorite. We reinterpret it all the time. That's probably my sixth log cabin quilt. I mean, I always like that design. It's very graphic. Yes. - Very simple. Linear. Strong. Yes. It has a foundation to it. Absolutely, it's just a wonderful, uh, quilt block, and you can do so much with the blocks and the colors and the designs. You taught me early on in my quilting career to piece with starch. I still piece with starch. To crisp it... - Right. And then you can definitely get everything-- such exactness in the piecing. - Right. We do that on Sewing with Nancy now, but you I credit to giving me that. Oh, thank you, I didn't realize way back when that I was teaching you anything too. Oh, yes, you have. I don't know how come I started doing that, but it was just my sewing background. - Sure. Where you need to starch certain things to give it stability and then put all fabrics on a level playing field. And that it does. Well, Diane, it's been a pleasure to see you again, to admire your quilts, and thank you for being part of Sewing with Nancy. Oh, thank you, Nancy, it's been a pleasure. I know you've enjoyed this segment. If you'd like to re-watch it or re-watch today's program, you can go to NancyZieman.com and watch online, and you can also join us on our social media-- Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Thanks for joining me. Bye for now.