An Interview with Lisa H. Calle

Lisa Hagstoz Calle and I met sometime ago on facebook.  We met in person during the MQX – New England Quilt Festival in Manchester, NH.  Lisa greeted me with great enthusiasm and I had that, “who on earth are you” look on my face.  Seriously I did not recognize her from her photo.  Yiyiyi!  I’m now thinking that everyone should put their facebook photo on their name tag, it would make recognizing our facebook friends so much easier. Later on we laughed so hard that neither one of us could  speak.

TL: How did you get hooked into quilting?
LHC: I made my first quilt in 1997… I enjoyed it but really didn’t get hooked until I started longarming.  Then everything clicked for me.

TL: Do you have a favorite quilt or two?  Tell me about them (design inspiration, how long they took and what makes them special)
LHC: My two favorite quilts are Playing Hookie which was my first real show quilt.  It is black and orange, I made the top in a beginner piecing class.  It was really on this quilt that my method of Divide and Design started so it holds a special place in my heart.
Hula Hibiscus is another favorite.  It is currently on a tour with Hands all Around which started in Houston last year.  Ronda Beyer designed the center medallion along with the challenge of only using our stash.  This was difficult since I don’t have a large stash,  this one took well over 100 hours to just quilt.  I have no idea how long it took me to design.  This one holds a very special place in my heart as it won two BOS, one at AQS DesMoines and the other at PNQE!

TL: What are your favorite fabs?
LHC: I love Moda’s fabrics.  I also really like hand dyed.  I don’t have a large stash and really buy per project.

TL: So I see you don’t keep a large stash of fabric.  I knew there were quilters who kept their stashes small, but I’m curious: do you keep a much larger thread stash?
LHC: Not a huge stash of threads.  I have my favorites and like to stick to them,  I love YLI silk on my show quilts.  I has to be my favorite thread.  I am trying to slowly gather the entire line.  😉

TL: What machine/s are your faves and why?
LHC: Piecing I have a Bernina for my piecing…. no real reason, it just seemed like a good one
Quilting A1 Elite…. I wouldn’t quilt on anything else.  It just glides along and allows me to do alot of the small intricate work that I have fun with.

TL: The quilting community has strong opinions about thread and batting, having good reasons why they use this or that.  What thread(s) do you use for piecing and quilting?
LHC: I love to use Auriful 50wt for my piecing.  Quilting, personally YLI silk, customers SO Fine

TL:  What batting do you use for quilting? I use Quilters Dream batting for almost everything.  I did however try Hobbs wool and LOVED it.  
LHC: Do you use a different batting for competition quilts? I use QD for my competition pieces as well as customer quilts.  

TL: Do you use more than one layer of batting for your competition quilts?
LHC: I always use two layers of batting on my competition pieces.  It is much easier to get great tension.  I always use a layer of wool of top.  This helps give more dimension to the quilting.

TL: How did you get into the world of quilterly competition ?  
LHC: I am a competitive person, always have been.  So when I found out about quilt competitions, it was a natural fit for me.  I think it makes me stretch creatively and work outside of the box.

TL:  Is there one show that you would just like to win?  
LHC: Why, Houston of course…. also Paducah… it would help if I could remember the deadlines.  

TL: Favorite quilting beverage?
LHC: I drink water all day long as I quilt

TL: Do you have a personal blog or website?
LHC: I have a wordpress blog lisacalle.wordpress.com and a website.  www.stonehousequilting.com

TL: Can you tell me a bit about your classes?
LHC: Currently I am teaching design (drawing classes) that can be taken by all quilters no matter how you finish your tops.  Divide and Design is the method I use for all of my custom work.  I also teach a mini wholecloth class that the techniques can be used to create a larger quilt as well.

TL: I just read the class description for “Divide and Design” cleverness, cleverness I say!  Quilters Agoraphobia oh I love the phrasing and the concept.  I’m sure you love those aha moments the students have along the way.  How can quilters take this class with you?
LHC: The aha moments are the best.  Especially when someone is skeptical.  I am teaching in my studio  and I am available to come to guilds to teach as well.  I will be doing select shows next year as well.  Here’s a link to Lisa’s Classes.

The Quilter’s Groove Rulers were born out of my desire to have evenly spaced lines without having to measure.  I am all about simple and really don’t like to measure.  I had been working on Hula Hibiscus and did straight lines without the aid of a ruler.  Just eyeballing the distance and was unhappy with the results.  I figured if I needed them and liked them then maybe others would too.  I just came out with the curved lines as well.  It has been fun but I guess the best part is seeing what others do with them and hearing how easy it has made their quilting.