Quilters Stitch Way Into High-Tech Era

For the uninitiated, quilting may seem like a low-tech hobby, with the biggest concession to modern convenience being the electric sewing machine.

But for several Valley quilting enthusiasts, quilting is moving into the age of technology. Some members of the Valley Quiltmakers Guild are using computers to create designs, and a few said they probably won’t work the old way again.

“It improves on precision,” said Agoura Hills resident Pat Turner. “You can see the end result without actually making it, and run the risk of ruining fabrics.”

Normally, quilters sketch out designs on paper, then figure out measurements for each of the squares and make templates of the shapes based on those. They cut the fabric using those templates and then start sewing.

That way, the quilters said, the designs often remain simple in order to avoid mistakes.

With software programs like Quilt-Pro and Electric Quilt, quilters experiment with colors and shapes, and can see the finished product on the screen without sewing a stitch. And the computer provides a printout of precise templates to use, making for cleaner stitching.

Although the majority of quilters use the older method, the computerized design method is catching on. But the women, who meet on the second Thursday of each month, said they are always working on one quilt that is designed and sewn by hand. “That’s my therapy,” said Northridge resident Barbara Thornton.

The old-fashioned quilting circles also have gone global, with a growing number of World Wide Web pages, Internet newsgroups and chat rooms devoted to the hobby.

“We’re taken the old country house on the prairie and making it worldwide,” Thornton said.

And what would their great-grandmothers think about the new quilting world?

“I think they would love it,” said Calabasas resident Debi Onken. “They were thrilled every time a new invention came along. And you can’t assume that the old ways of doing it are the better ways.”

For more information about the guild, call Shirley Ostby at (818) 706-0645.