Tips & Spikes With Deb Karasik
Here are a few helpful hints to make your paper-piecing experience successsful.
California native Deb Karasik— quiltmaker, designer, teacher, author, as well as quilt maven and paperpiecing queen— embraces spikes; that is, spikes of color, paper-pieced spikes and spikes of her own design.
Early in her 14-year quilting history, Deb saw a quilt book by Karen Stone. It brought her face to face with spikes and foundation piecing. “Of course, I didn't know how to paperpiece or do curved piecing, but that didn't stop me,” Deb said. “After a bit of trial and error, and some truly horrid blocks, I discovered I really enjoyed all things spiky.”
In truth, the prime motivation to begin making quilts began with one word: triplets. “In late November, 2000, our youngest daughter announced that she was pregnant with triplets,” Deb said. “I felt at that point I had to do the ‘grandmother' thing and make quilts.” Grasping the handle of her first rotary cutter, she made a couple dozen Log Cabin baby quilts and moved on to something larger.
She soon found a mentor and friend in Janet Mednick, and together they wrote—and published through American Quilter's Society (AQS)— Quilt Mavens: Perfect Paper Piecing. With Janet's encouragement to make her own designs, and a fortuitous introduction to the design software Electric Quilt (EQ), Deb has never looked back.
In 2009, AQS published Deb's book Quilts With Attitude, and she settled into her niche as designer and teacher. Her quilt journey expanded as well as her world travels.