Sewing With Nancy

An all-guy quilting class is rather unique. An all-male quilting class in a juvenile correctional institution is one of a kind. Please welcome Roy Mitchell Jr., who joins us today via Skype from Virginia. Roy is a professional quilter turned instructor, who is changing the lives of many young men. Welcome to Sewing with Nancy, Roy. Thank you, Nancy, for having me. It's a pleasure to be here with you this morning. When I read about your teaching in a correctional institution, I thought, "I got to get to know Roy," and when we talked, you gave me a little summary of how you got started. Could you share that with our viewers, please? The Commonwealth of Virginia wanted to bring in new programs to the Department of Juvenile Justice, and I was contacted to see if I would be interested in teaching it. And I came to the facility, and at first, they were optimistic about the young men going to-- uh, learn the art of quilting, but I started in 2012, and I've taught over 150 young men as of the current date of today, and I currently have 22 young men enrolled in the class, and I have a new class that will be starting in January. Now, you take your job very seriously and so do the students, because they have to take a test. Tell us about that. Yes, I set high expectations for the students, and they take a series of 20 tests, and the grading scale that I use in the classroom is 90 to 100. Anything below 90 is not passing. And as--I have yet for any student to make below 90, and the current pass rate-- I have 100% pass rate with all of the students I've taught. Now, those tests, they talk about terminology. Tell--tell the type of questions you ask. They learn 250 vocabulary words that are used in the terms of quilting and the art. They take measurements. They take two weeks of measurements and math-- how to create a pattern and know the dimensions and break it down. They have to learn the straight of the grain, the bias. It covers a lot into that category, and once they've finished the test and they have passed it successfully, they get a final exam, and then they are now ready to apply it, and they go to the sewing machine. And some of the quilts that they make are breathtaking, and you can tell a lot of math is in some of them because of the heavy emphasis on geometry and dimension. Wow. They're amazing. Thank you. You give them a size. Is that correct? Like, "Make this quilt 40 inches by 30 inches," and then they have to figure it out, how-- what size to make the blocks and so forth. Is that correct? Yes, it is. But you're not only just doing geometric shapes, you made a quilt for the governor of Virginia. - Yes, we did. Tell us about that, please. Yes. It took us almost a year. The students had to design the quilt first, and then it took almost a year to be able to do the quilt. And the actual measurements of that quilt are 10 feet by 12 feet, and it has the image of everything pertaining to Virginia-- the dogwood tree, the hound dog, the cardinal bird-- and we made it 3-D. And right now, it hangs in the governor's mansion, is that correct? No, it hangs in the Patrick Henry Building next to the governor's mansion, where the governor's office is. It hangs in the lobby. Well, that's a remarkable thing. Now, when-- you have three young men who have--are no longer in the institution, and tell us about what they're doing with their quilting skills that you taught them. They were artists, and they signed up for the quilting class, and so now that they've been released, they have developed their own website, and they have incorporated their artwork into quilts, and I'm proud of them, and I have-- they sent me their website so that I can look at it to see their work and everything, so they told me I really inspired them and pushed them to continue on with this art. Well, you are an inspiration, Roy. I thank you for your work and your continued work. You have--you've never had an incident in the class. You quilt--how many hours a day does the class run? The students quilt eight straight hours. They even eat their lunch in the classroom. Well, you can tell from their work that they're very glad to be there, and please pass along that I'm very impressed with their creativity. I certainly will, Nancy. Well, Roy, thank you for being with us, and continued success in this program and also continued success as your work as a quilter, because you're doing two jobs right now, correct? Yes, I am. Yes, I am. Well, hope to talk to you again and get an update, perhaps, or see more work of art that you have done, and thank you for being with us on Sewing with Nancy. It's been my pleasure. Thank you for having me, Nancy. You're welcome. Have a good day. - You as well. Well, if you'd like to watch more of Sewing with Nancy online, you can go to NancyZieman.com and re-watch this program or any other program that we've had in the last several seasons. Also, you can click on Nancy's Corner and review this video or many other Nancy's Corner interviews. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now.