New York Beauties & Flying Geese Blog Tour Kickoff!
Posted by Carl Hentsch on May 1st 2017
Welcome to the New York Beauties & Flying Geese blog tour kickoff! My name is Carl Hentsch, and I'd like to tell you a little bit about my quilting journey. My interest in crafting started at a very young age. I began my first craft project at the age of six. My first niece was about to be born, and with my mother’s help, I created a quilt for her. Now, this was not a patchwork quilt but was hand embroidered. I carefully selected pages from many of my coloring books. My mother then transferred the images to a piece of fabric, which I embroidered with a running stitch. I used different colored threads and filled in each area with color. My mother heat set the color, and we completed it with a backing and binding. My niece used that blanket until it was tattered and torn, and even then she still carried it in her pillowcase.
As my niece grew, so did my craft and design sense. By the time she was walking, I was designing dresses for her (I must have been about twelve at that time). Needless to say, my interests also grew. I remember one year sitting around while my aunt visited from Chicago. She was knitting Christmas bells, and I was totally enthralled. I asked her to show me, and I learned to knit at an early age.
Well, many years went by, I graduated from high school and university and joined the Air Force. It was during my time in the Air Force, probably around 1990, that one of my friends was knitting booties and I remembered, “Hey, I can do that too.” So, I immediately drove to the nearest yarn shop, bought a book, yarn, and needles and proceeded to knit a cabled sweater. Unbelievably, the sweater was completed, AND WEARABLE! So, I continued to knit and knit and knit!
You must be thinking to yourself, “So, when did he actually start quilting?” To answer that, we'll have to fast forward to the mid to late 90s. I discovered HGTV and Alex Anderson. Oh, what was that she was doing, cutting up fabric and sewing it back together and making a quilt? Oh, wait, now there was PBS and Eleanor Burns, Quilt in a Day. I watched many shows, thinking to myself, “I wish I could do that.” Well, I bought some magazines and continued to watch the programs. Then, one day, there was Eleanor’s son on the show, and he was quilting! Wow, guys can do it too!
After that, I knew I had to try. So I proceeded to my nearest Hancock Fabric store and bought a pattern, fabric, and all the necessary rotary cutting tools. I proceeded to measure, cut, sew, and then quilt my handiwork. After seeing that mess, I am amazed that I tried again. I tried one or two more projects with little to no success. But I wasn’t going to give up! By this time Alex Anderson had a few male quilters on her program. “By gosh, if they can do it, so can I!”
My next attempt was a Block of the Month. I figured, if I took my time, I may be able to make this work. By this time two quilt shops had opened near my small town in Florida. I bought the fabric, and wouldn’t you know, after twelve months, I had my first completed quilt! I took it to a local quilter, and I still have that quilt today.
The rest, as they say, is history! I am now the author of two quilting books, Amish-Inspired Quilts for Today's Home and my latest, New York Beauties & Flying Geese. This book combines a few of my favorite things— foundation piecing, curved piecing, New York Beauty blocks, and Flying Geese. I wanted to create quilts that had standard building blocks— pieced arcs, plain arcs, and fans—that could be mixed and matched in a variety of ways.
For my blog tour, many of the contributors, plus some quilting friends, agreed to join in and help me celebrate the book's release! Follow along to learn more about the making of the book, see some original projects, and read candid reviews. The full schedule is below.
Mon. May 1:
C&T Publishing | http://www.ctpub.com/blog/
Tues. May 2:
Scott Hansen http://bluenickelstudios.com/blog/
Wed. May 3:
Sandy Whitelaw: https://upstairshobbyroom.blogspot.ca/
Thurs. May 4:
Teresa Silva: http://quiltingismybliss.com
Fri. May 5:
Angie Wilson: http://www.gnomeangel.com/
Mon. May 8:
Generation Q Magazine: http://generationqmagazine.com/
Tues. May 9:
Pink Door Fabrics: Instagram @pinkdoorfabrics
Web. May 10:
Melissa Shields: http://www.quiltingroomwithmel.com/
Thurs. May 11:
Sara Lawson: http://sewsweetness.com/blog
Fri. May 12:
Carl Hentsch (me): http://3dogdesignco.blogspot.com/
Oh, and did I mention there's a giveaway? You can enter to win a copy of New York Beauties & Flying Geese right here: a Rafflecopter giveaway. (Hard copy for US winners, ebook for international winners).
Hope you stick around for the whole tour!
