A Newsletter From Meg Cox

April, 2023

Dear Readers:


I'm constantly on the prowl for fresh and deep stories to share with my subscribers. Andi Settlemoir Barney has been on my radar for awhile, and I'm excited to tell you about the fascinating work she's doing, her astounding resilience and her vision for the future.


Thanks for all the great feedback on the last issue about Textile Travel. I hope it leads to some wondrous adventures for you. Meanwhile, the five subscribers who won an Indian Kantha quilt were very excited.


My April giveaway includes two books, including the latest from Kaffe Fassett and Quiltfolk Dogs. Grab a coffee or other beverage of your choice, and settle in.


Quilt on!

Meg




Andi Barney is the Sewing Doc


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"For many of the people who stopped by our booth at QuiltCon in Atlanta in February, it was the first time they saw the inside of a sewing machine ever," said Andi Settlemoir Barney, with a chuckle. "We were trying to raise awareness of what we do at the Sewing Doc Academy and we had four sewing machines with covers off for people to examine. It attracted a lot of attention."


Even without her trademark green hair, Andi is starting to get noticed for the unusual and worthwhile work she's doing. Having been a professional sewing machine repairperson in Georgia for years, she is now in the business of teaching people how to take care of their own machines. Or, for those who become as geeky about sewing machine repair as she is, they might consider going into business themselves. She would especially love that! Andi started the academy because she believes there is a serious dearth of sewing machine "doctors" these days and because she loves teaching what she loves doing.


"From having run a brick-and-mortar repair shop, I know everybody is tired of schlepping their machines off to some shop that is miles away," Andi told me during a long Zoom interview. "As for owners of vintage and antique machines, there is almost nobody left who fixes those. Our shop used to specialize in vintage restoration and we were working 12-hour days trying to keep up."


She began about 15 years ago by learning how to repair and restore Featherweight machines, which is the focus of some workshops she runs. But right now, the academy's most popular workshop is called "Remove Your Covers." Andi said that a huge share of the repair jobs she used to do on contemporary sewing machines (post 1980s) could have been avoided if their owners had taken better care of the machines. But it's daunting to even remove the outer shell on a mechanical or computerized machine. The Sewing Doc Academy teaches how to remove the covers safely, without damaging the computers inside, along with how to clean and lubricate the mechanical parts. "Essentially we teach preventive maintenance, showing the methods we used in our shop."


During Covid, demand for sewing machine repair was so off-the-charts that Andi and her husband Paul (also her partner in business), would sometimes sleep on the shop floor. Starting a formal program to teach sewing machine repair has been a long-time dream of hers, so last fall they closed down their physical shop to concentrate purely on virtual teaching. Andi had already begun to build up an archive of video lessons, but now it's becoming more formal and organized. Between the free and paid courses, the academy now has well over 1,000 students and that's likely to grow quickly. When Andi taught "Remove Your Covers" in her shop in person, there was so much demand she offered the workshop two times a week.


And the industry is starting to take note. "Recently we were invited to attend the convention of the Vacuum & Sewing Machine Dealers Trade Association in Las Vegas," Andi said, where some referred to the couple as "industry interrupters." Indeed, they are. Most businesses that repair sewing machines also sell them, but Andi never wanted to be a dealer. Which means she has no built-in conflict of interest: she's only ever been interested in fixing the machines her customers already had.


She had long noticed that this trade is male-dominated, and that she's far from the only woman ever to have been patronized by a mechanic. "I've got so many memories of being dismissed by technicians. I paid $120 once for a service guy to tell me my issue was that I was using the wrong bobbin. But he didn't even tell me what was the right bobbin! Often techs don't teach you the right way to do things if you are doing them wrong. We never did that in our shop and we always took photos of the insides of the machine so the customer could see what was wrong."


Andi feels strongly that what she is doing now empowers women. Most of the academy's students are women aged 65 and over. Says Andi, who is about to turn 47, "I really love that!"


"I never thought of myself as mechanically inclined, but after my husband bought me my first Featherweight, I saw the local quilt shop had a class on how to service it. That first machine really sparked something in me and since Paul and I spent a lot of time in antique stores, I started collecting old machines." While her itch to fix her machine took her by surprise, Andi later realized that maybe her apple was pretty tree-adjacent: her father spent a career building new cars at Chrysler, and for fun, he restored old cars at home.


In the early years, Andi just fell into the work of fixing machines. As a new mom, she had a side gig sewing t-shirt quilts for money. But when she got heavily involved in local guilds, news of her expertise spread fast. "Someone at guild would say, I've inherited this treadle machine from my grandma and it's heavy. Can you come to my basement and take a look?" Andi would charge a token $25 for the house call.


Andi didn't take up quilting until the age of 33, when she got pregnant and decided to make a baby quilt. She realized right away her sensibilities were more modern than traditional. "I love bright colors and negative space." She attended the earliest meetings of the Atlanta chapter of the Modern Quilt Guild and became its first president. She still loves quilting, but has been too busy with work to make much lately. Like many, she rediscovered the joys of handwork during Covid and is hand piecing a Dear Jane quilt with all modern fabrics. "I call it Covid Jane," she said.


Andi's life is tightly concentrated on sewing machines and family. For the past four years, she and her husband and their son (now 13) have been living together in an RV. During Covid, the couple bought an old ambulance with the idea they could fix it up into a mobile sewing machine repair business and make house calls. It needs more mechanical repair itself to be safely drivable, but the inside has been fixed up to become Andi's workshop and recording studio. She has taped quick social media announcements here as well as recording tutorials for the Sewing Doc Academy. Not only does she have a workspace just feet from her home, but the ambulance helps convey her suggestion that future sewing machine fix-it businesses could easily be mobile, for example using an old school bus. (The photo below will show you my view of Andi during our recent interview.)


"One big reason we went virtual with our instruction programs is that we don't just want to give people a course, even a 3-day intensive, and then just send them out into the world," Andi said. "We are creating programs with lifetime access and also making a structure so we can continue to help our students long term."


Her vision includes providing targeted training to a very particular audience: people coming out of prison. "I am a previously incarcerated person and we really want to build programs for ex-prisoners. Most prisons don't give you any tools or real training and it's hard to get a job with a record. I made this path for myself with very low investment. My goal is to teach a program on how to do this work and provide scholarships for the training. This will take a village and grants to accomplish and won't happen overnight. l'm talking to possible partners, especially organizations that teach a variety of after-prison life skills."


This isn't an article about Andi's 18 months in state prison, but that experience shaped her priorities and deepened her determination. She's never hidden this part of her past but it is something that happened almost 20 years ago. About a decade ago, she wrote some blog posts about prison and what landed her there: if you want to delve into the details, you can click here. What impresses me about Andi is her work ethic and her resilience (she also survived a brain tumor right after she got married in 2008.) I think her business plan and goals are brilliant and creative. As sewers who often have trouble getting our machines serviced as well or as quickly as we would like, I think we can all agree her work is valuable. I think Andi Barney has a lot to teach us.


For starters, I'm totally ready to be empowered by Andi's excellent virtual lessons. Whether you just want to be able to clean and lubricate your own machine or someday start your own sewing machine repair business, I urge you to check out the Sewing Doc Academy website. Here is a link to a free 40-minute video with 5 Tips on using your Featherweight, but you can also sign up for a thorough Featherweight Repair workshop for $149. And here is a video providing a 20-minute introduction to her Remove the Covers virtual workshop. And here is a video testimonial from one of the academy's students.


Last but not least, here is a link to some upcoming live events, including this week. In about a month, Andi will be doing a live talk online about "what it looks like to have a service-based business, from a retirement income at the kitchen table all the way through working for a service shop." Sign up for her list and she'll contact you with the date and details.

After 14 years of corporate sponsorship, this newsletter is now supported by its readers. Just by reading and subscribing you are supporting my work. For those who are able and interested in doing more, please click on the yellow bar above or the link below.


When you click on my profile at the BuyMeACoffee website, you'll see that you have an option to buy me one or more coffees at $5 each. (I really love the subscriber, an industry insider, who bought me 8 coffees - she explained it was one coffee for each year she has enjoyed reading this newsletter.) Or you can become an annual member of my Inner Circle by paying $2 a month, or $20 for the whole year. The benefits of membership include things like exclusive short videos, links to articles I've written and the occasional pattern. Recently I hosted a Zoom open house of my quilt studio for members of the Inner Circle, sharing quilts I've made and collected. I just sent the members a poll about what they want to attend next: Zoom cocktails, a session where we all show our latest Passion Project, or a tutorial on quilt labeling. I'll also be doing some mini versions of my most popular lectures.



Let me be crystal clear: you will still get the same newsletter as everyone else if you don't contribute, and everyone has an equal chance to win monthly giveaways. Supporters allow me to do more, give more and interact differently and I'm hugely grateful for that. But do me a favor: if you are reading this and don't subscribe, please take a moment to do that: the link for subscribing is here.) And forward this to a friend who makes, collects or simply loves quilts.


Thank you so much!!!!!!!



April Giveaway:

2 Books: 1 Winner

I've been on many a reporting trip for Quiltfolk magazine where we've been delighted by the pets of profile subjects, especially dogs and cats. The photographers would occasionally grab a photo that included these animals and sometimes those shots made it into an issue. But we used to joke about doing a side project called Quiltfolk Pets. Along comes Quiltfolk contributing writer and dog-owner Teresa Duryea Wong, who dreamed up and oversaw the publication of this fun volume. It features dog-themed quilts but also dogs interacting with quilts. I've already bought multiples for my dog-loving friends. If you want to peek inside and possibly buy a copy, go to this link at Quiltfolk.com.


And who can resist a new hardcover book by that master of color Kaffe Fassett? In recent months, his fabric company Free Spirit produced the luscious "85 and Fabulous" collection to celebrate his milestone birthday. That included reprints of some of his favorite fabrics, some in new color ways. His publisher Abrams Books has now celebrated his 85th by producing a handsome volume called Kaffe Fassett's Timeless Themes. So there is a whole section on circles, for example, one on vases and so forth, where you see some of his inspirations for these longtime themes and then quilts (with instructions for making) using those shapes. You can look inside the book and find out where to buy a copy here.

Also, if you would like a sneak peek of a pattern book called Kaffe Fassett's Quilts By the Sea which will be available in August from Taunton Press, click on this link.


How to Enter: Hit reply or send a message to meg@megcox.com. If you are writing to win the books, please write April Giveaway in the Subject line. As always, only subscribers can win, no repeat winners. And shipping only inside the U.S.


If you want to drop me a note with comments or questions, you can use that same address, meg@megcox.com, to say hello, suggest a story idea or comment. Thanks!

Deadline: enter by May 10.



Quilt World News & Notes

Embroidery Extravaganza: 11 Top Instructors + 8 Hours of Instruction

C & T Publishing has put together another thoughtful virtual program where a wide range of top teachers in one topic teach you what they do best. You can watch this live event virtually on May 11 or watch the recording at your leisure. It's a great line-up and I won't list them all, but I especially urge you to check out Sharon Boggon. Her 2020 book for C & T called Creative Stitches is a must-have and her stitch tutorials at Pintangle.com are also a great ongoing resource. Here is a link for info and registration.


Two Cool New Textile Tours To Benefit International Quilt Museum

In my Textile Tours article last month, one of the tour providers I singled out for excellence was World of Quilts Travel. I want to promote two fabulous trips they've added to their line-up since then. Both are amazing and they both benefit the International Quilt Museum. In July 2024, World of Quilts Travel will be cruising from Rotterdam to some charming towns in Norway, Iceland and Scotland. The four quilt teachers on board will include Liza Lucy and Sue Spargo. Here is a link to info on that trip. In September of 2024, there will be a two-week tour of magical Morocco that will include multiple workshops.


Photo Hack for Social Media Quilt Pics? Some Say NEVER

So the latest new thing at Quiltfolk.com is an ongoing blog-like project called Quiltfolk Journal, with mostly staff-written essays on all sorts of topics, some of which are related to the magazine and some of which are not. New articles are added every few weeks. I've begun writing for Quiltfolk Journal and my first piece was about a clever hack I noticed on Instagram that really helped me recently photograph some quilts. I wanted something quick and easy that wasn't a full shot but provided plenty of info about the vintage quilts I mentioned in a Textile Talk. I posted a link to the article on Facebook and I was surprised by the vehemence of some quilters saying they "hate" this way of showing quilts. Later, one of the haters admitted to me that she posted her visceral dislike without reading my piece, which explains why MOST of the time, this method would be a bad idea. Anyway, you can read it for yourself if you haven't. And if you want to read my future articles in the Journal, make sure you are on the e-mail list for Quiltfolk news. (Scroll to the bottom where it says Become a Quiltfolk insider.)



Meg Cox
Author | Quilter | Traditions Expert

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