Margie of Raven Stitches

Today's featured designer, is our very own Margie Medeiros of Raven Stitches. Margie, is one of our many talented local designers and has created many a pattern over the years. An avid quilter, painter, fiber enthusiast, thread-work afficionado, and gardener, she is fantastically creative gal.

I'm sitting here with Margie this evening and looking over this great new pattern, Kavi, by Raven Stitches. While looks can be deceiving, this relatively simple design has fantastic visual impact. Margie was just telling me that the secret here is the fabric literally does all the work! Sounds wonderful to me, and I love projects that can be completed in an afternoon! Enough about me though....

Margie what is your theory on quilting?
In developing my patterns and designs I strive to meet the goal of offering simple, visually stimulating patterns for the everyday quilter. The patterns may look intricate but believe me, they are not extremely difficult - and the key to it all? Lot's of straight-line seams, fabrics that do 99% of the work and as a bonus, designing those patterns that end up having secondary designs that infuse the project with visual interest and make things look more complex than they really are!

The other element I feel is critical in designing, is creating patterns that assemble in a relatively reasonable amount of time - i.e. a few afternoons, a weekend, etc. We all juggle very busy lifestyles and yet we all need time to satisfy the creative urge within us. I love things that assemble quickly and yet make an impressive visual impact.

Would you tell us a little bit about Raven Stitches?
I have been dabbling in the fiber and textile industry for many moons now, but Raven Stitches is only about two years old. It's a small business and I do everything from the sketches, to cutting and piecing the projects, quilting them, creating the electronic files, taking the photos, producing the final artwork, and finally packaging and distributing them.

I really don't have a certain look or style for my designs. I find inspiration surrounds me - a cloud, the skyline, flowers, birds and animals, the mountains...it's endless! My latest muse I found on recent trip - a piece of a palm tree. Though a bit rough around the edges, this piece was partially worn away and you could see the fibers going one way and cross ways...I found the piece very irresistable. I flew it home with me and rubbed and cleaned, buffed it with some metallic oil sticks, and then really buffed it! It is very pretty and sits on a shelf in my sewing room....still inspiring.

Margie, tell us about your newest pattern, Kavi
Well, I had someone surreptitiously drop off a beautiful collection of fabrics - Memories of Kandesh by Art Gallery Fabrics. Actually, she dropped off all but one piece of that collection. I stared at them - having already fallen in love with the colors and designs...they were sort of speaking to me, not saying anything but speaking Hindi initially. It would be a few days before the "catalyst" fabric would appear in my home...but I knew that collection was definitely speaking. I had already determined the large floral medallion would be the focal point in whatever project was to come of this collection. I found myself beginning to cut and layout fabric pieces. I kept moving fabrics around on my design wall...cutting them and rearranging them until the design started emerging.

The real catalyst though was the last piece in the collection - the one with the graphic flower. Once I received it the rest of the design quickly fell into place in terms of size and placement of pieces. I will add though, that the placement of the colors in this design was critical, they really made all the difference in the appeal of the final design itself.

I began my search for an equally suitable name for this new pattern - the fabrics being heavily influenced by designs from India, meant my research started in India. Kavi, as the pattern is titled, is the first name of a poet from the Kandesh region of India. A little bit of trivia for you, I found it very interesting that Kandesh is the largest cotton growing region of India. Imagine that!

In keeping with the spirit of saving time I forewent the tradition of using batting and this runner has a nice clean finish. Place the top and backing right sides together and stitch around the edge, envelope style, and leave an opening of 6"-8". You then turn it right side out, whip stitch closed and voila! The logic? Table runners are generally decorative, there is no real need for the batting. Although, you could always finish the runner with the batting if you so chose.

So, what can we expect to see in the future from Raven Stitches?
I'm currently finishing up a clever little tote bag. A very quick and easy project - with exceptionally great handles by the way. Great for using all those scraps and fabric stashes we all have! The design board has several new ideas on it, all in various stages of development, and still more ideas surface daily. Keep an eye out for our website in 2009 and maybe I'll get brave enough to even set up a blog!


Thank you Margie for spending time with us today and for sharing the story on how Kavi came to be.

Stop by our website, we have Kavi Runner Kits and of course all of the Memories of Kandesh fabrics available.

Until next post - Stay in Stitches!