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Monday, September 7, 2009

I love my job!






I have the greatest job in the world! I get to see new fabrics before the general public and design great quilts with them! I am working on a couple new collections from Hoffman that are so fantastic (but aren't they all), I wanted to give you a sneak peak at the collection and the quilt that I am currently working on. The first one is called Treasures from the East. The block I am using is Rob Peter to Pay Paul.

I love designing quilts with curves. They add so much movement to a quilt. When I am teaching a class many of the quilters tell me they are afraid to sew curves. After much frustration myself in trying to keep the edges together when sewing, I have developed my own unique pinning method for perfect curves every time and I get so much satisfaction showing it to my students! After taking my class the quilters tell me that it wasn't as hard as they thought. I will post photos of this technique tomorrow.

I am the first quilter in my family. I do come from a long line of sewers. My grandfather was a tailor and my mother a home ec. teacher and seamstress. I started crafting at a young age, teaching myself to knit and crochet and then started sewing at 13. I made a lot of my own clothes. I took my first quilting class in 1985 from Jackie Robinson, who owned the local quilt shop in St. Louis, Missouri (before she became famous). My mother took the class with me. That summer I got hooked on quilting, but sadly to say, my mother didn't. I didn't start designing my own quilts until I worked in a quilt shop in 1995 and began entering contest. It was so exciting to see one of my quilts in print in Miniature Quilt Magazine and then winning a prize in the Hoffman Challenge! That spurred me on to design more.

Well, got to get back to sewing. I hope I whet your appetite to learn more about me and to see what I am working on. Please be sure to visit my website http://www.gatewayquiltsnstuff.com/ to see my gallery of quilts and lots of wonderful products.

Everyday do what you love and love what you do. 'Til tomorrow, Toby






Sunday, September 6, 2009

My first blog!


Okay, I am going to attempt to start a blog. My name is Toby Lischko. I am a quilt designer, teacher, and addicted quilter. I started quilting in 1985 and got hooked after my first lesson. I have my own company Gateway Quilts & Stuff, that I started in 1998 and a website http://www.gatewayquiltsnstuff.com/ that I started a year ago. I am now celebrating my first anniversary. I also have a Facebook fan page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/wwwgatewayquiltsnstuffcom/115836661266?ref=ts. Please consider becoming my "fan". I will use my blog to keep you updated about what is going on with my quilting. My FB fan page will also contain things happening on my website.
I am currently working on a quilt for Hoffman fabrics for fall market with a wonderful fabric collection called Treasures from the East. It will be a free web pattern on their website. I will post the link of it as soon as it is on their website. When I get it done, I will post a photo of it.
Like most quilters, I have many projects going on at one time. As I get a hang of this blog thing (and time to work on it), I will start adding photos of my work. I hope you enjoy reading about my quilting adventures, which get better every day!