Author: Emily Smith

Tomato

Happy October!

It’s been a wonderful summer of spending time in my happy place and quilting quilting quilting! Just being in the sewing room decreases any stress and makes me joyful.

Until recently I have purchased my batting wholesale from Hobbs. This was great because I not only loved their products, out I could drive to Waco and pick it up, and not pay shipping. Sc I was able to pass that savings on to my customers. This changec when Hobbs began requiring purchase of $5000/year worth of batting to be a wholesaler.

Of course I am now having to pay shipping, which means that for the first time since starting Red Tomato in 2018, I need to raise prices to cover that. But, as always, if you prefer to provide your own batting, I’m happy to use it on your quilt.

Please look over the price list for changes… before it was $0.25/ linear inch for 80/20 batting, now it’s $0.28/linear inch for the 80/20.

I hate having to increase prices, but will close with my new daily mantra… “Live every day fully, with joy and gratitude, we aren’t promised tomorrow” So keep quilting, do what you love and make quilts for those you love!

I am now a wholesaler with Quilters Dream and Warm and Natural. I haven’t purchased from Warm yet, but have been purchasing from Quilters Dream, and I’m impressed with the variety they offer and the quality. I will now be carrying bamboo and 100%cotton batting, in addition to the 80/20 and wool I’ve carried before. The bamboo is amazing… very thin and soft!

Wow, I cannot believe it’s been 3 years since we moved and I last posted. It’s been a very busy 3 years,

To recap:

2022 I joined the Highland lakes quilt guild which meets in Marble Falls. They have a show every 2 years. At the show in February 2023 my quilt won first place viewers choice. What an incredible honor!

Then, because of this, I was asked to chair the committee to create the donation quilt for the 2025 show, which would raise money for the guild. What an amazing experience. I was blessed with 4 talented committee members who all worked incredibly hard. We made kits for the guild members to make the blocks and the appliqué borders. we completed it in December 2023. Different committee members pieced the center tree of life, coordinated and oversaw the appliqué, quilted and bound the quilt. I put it all together once the pieces were completed. Here’s a photo:

This quilt brought in over $4500 and was eventually won by a quilter from San Antonio.

During all this, I continued to quilt for others. The business was growing nicely and so much fun!

In October of 2023, I decided to purchase the computer quilting system for my APQS Millie. I installed it all myself. What a steep learning curve! Apparently most computers for long arms do not have a manual. That was a surprise and so I took an online class, which helped. I also hosted an awesome instructor and 10 quilters at my house for a weekend of instruction on using the computer. At this point, I’m still faster doing free motion. And often do a combination of free motion and computerized quilting. The computer has become much more of a friend over the last 1.5 years, but I continue to love free motion quilting with Millie.

In 2024 I quilted 90 customer quilts, and made several memory and tshirt quilts for customers. A very good year.

After completing the donation quilt, I volunteered to co chair the silent auction for the Highland Lakes Quilt Guild April 2025 show. We were blessed with incredible donations. Spent a huge number of hours during 2024/early 2025 sorting, folding and creating baskets, kits and bundles. And the silent auction brought in over $12,400 to the guild. So a big success.

But now I listen when my friend tells me to sit on my hands at the meetings.

It’s been a wild ride! This year multiple quilts I have quilted for others have won ribbons at various shows. Which is very rewarding. And I was blessed to quilt a quilt for a Judy Niemeyer instructor which is featured on the pattern, so my business is named on the pattern. I am excited about that… here’s a screenshot of the page from Judy Niemeyer’s website

And then….. to cap it off…. My quilt won best of show at the Burnet County Fair in June 2025! Very unexpected and so exciting! It’s just amazing to get honored for doing something that brings me such joy!

I am so blessed to be able to quilt for others, which has made me stretch and learn. And made me a better quilter.

Hopefully I will be posting more regularly now! Keep quilting and remember that life is short… find joy in it!

In early May we moved into our “new to us” home in Burnet, Texas. Let me just say that I NEVER want to move again. Mostly because moving is just really hard, but also because I love the new house. It’s over twice as large, we now have guest bedrooms, and more than one bathroom, plus I have a fabulous quilting space. Which is (of course!) the most important thing.

Burnet is close enough to Liberty Hill for me to keep quilting for my wonderful customers, yet far enough away to avoid the traffic on a daily basis. I still frequently go to Georgetown and Liberty Hill to pick up and deliver quilt projects for customers. The drive is just long enough for me to contemplate how to quilt that next quilt! The obsession continues.

Things are messy in the studio, but that’s because I’ve been working, and it’s definitely my happy place!

I hope you are finding time to create something!

Just finished this quilt. It’s a Judy Niemeyer pattern that I got years ago. It’s time finally came. It’s going to be a wedding quilt for a very sweet couple. But, since no wedding dates are set, I get to keep it for awhile and give it some love. I had so much fun quilting it and learning new techniques. With that much quilting it’s definitely not something they will be sleeping under. More a “put out for company” quilt. Have to admit that I am really glad it’s finished

I am so blessed to have a hobby that I can enjoy while socially isolating (pretty much!), and it’s good therapy too! Just completed this T-shirt quilt for a friend out of garments and shirts she collected over 30 years of work. So many shirts that I put them on the back too. Not sure I would recommend that…it’s very heavy.

She’s making me a scrapbook with pictures of all the quilts I have made. I counted 187 quilts! And I’m sure missed some. Can’t wait to see my scrapbook. I have always planned to make one, but guess I would rather sew!

This quilt has just gone to its new home. The customer requested a Japanese fan quilt, she picked out homespun indigo Japanese quilting fabrics and it turned out awesome! I had never used the homespuns , so I enjoyed the new fabric experience. Who knew there was a type of quilting fabric I had never seen before? I really need to shop more!

Though my passion is for quilts and all things quilty, when the pandemic started my sister, who is an advanced practice cardiology nurse, requested I make masks for her . At her request we tweaked the online pattern and added a wire to the nose and elastic rather than ties, for better fit, and comfort.

I have to admit that I was resistant at first. As a retired RN I was concerned about giving a false sense of security . But she persisted, and the idea of her being on the front lines with only a bandanna (what the hospital was recommending when the masks ran out), pushed me over the edge. Along with the articles that she sent me about the effectiveness of homemade masks. Especially masks made of quilt shop quality cotton. Which I have plenty of! (Ok… I admit that I have a fabric fetish and am a bit of a hoarder) I decided to use interfacing to add more layers of filtering. And to make them reversible, and pretty. We all need something pretty right now. And,of course, I don’t have any ugly fabric.

So I made masks for her, then for her coworkers. And for friends. Then I started getting requests to sell them. Apparently people were having difficulty finding masks. So I made them until I ran out of interfacing and elastic.

I had recently opened an Etsy shop to sell quilts ( can’t stop making them!), so, when I got more supplies I decided to start making masks and selling on Etsy. My shop is redtomatoquilting.

I am still making masks to donate to first responders and those on the front line that request them. I am so thankful to be able to do something that might give a little comfort during this time. Please stay safe out there.

Made these rope bowls for my sister, who did such a beautiful job of filling them for gifting!

These hand embroidered towels were made by my brother-in-law’s mother many years ago. Her embroidery is incredible, down to the details of the edges of the towels and the tatting. At his request, they are now made into a quilt for his sister to enjoy. One of the many things that I love about quilting is the joy the quilt brings to the recipient!

Had so much fun making this scrappy quilt! And now it’s been adopted and looks right at home, along with the scrappy pillow shams requested by the customer. Think I might make another one, no shortage of scraps in my studio!