Super stitcher
Featured quilter to display work
Berl Tiskus
Sitting at her sewing machine near a window that faces north, Kay Krantz works on a quilting project.
Berl Tiskus
The four quadrants of the Tornado Twister quilt are complete, now Kay Krantz needs to sew them together to complete the quilt top.
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
Berl Tiskus
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ST. IGNATIUS — Quilters are a generous bunch — willing to diagnose a problem stitching a quilt block, suggest an easier way to put together a quilt, teach a new technique or volunteer some fabric from their stash of textiles.
Kay Krantz is one of these generous quilters and much more. Kay was chosen as the featured quilter for the Mission Mountain Quilt Guild Show on July 30, 31 and Aug. 1.
She began quilting in 1992 and figures she’s made 300 to 400 quilts, “at least.”
“I had a pattern I really liked. I made it that fall,” Kay said of beginning her quilting career. “Quilting is the most addictive thing I’ve ever gotten into.”
“My first quilt I did I considered real quilting was a log cabin quilt, 1.5 inch strips,” she said, adding that because of that quilt she just about won’t do a log cabin block.
Quilt guild members are amazed at the number of completed projects Kay brings to monthly guild meetings; she’s become sort of a MMQG legend.
She’s a skilled seamstress, and she likes to get projects done.
“Kay is more like — let’s get it done,” said Marina Cheff, friend and fellow quilter. “She’s really good to people. She’s a leader, and she likes to take the bull by the horns and go for it.”
“Kay’s incredibly generous with her time. She’s a real encouraging person, and she’s never afraid to take on a new challenge,” said Rosa Tougas, president of the MMQG. “She takes care of young and old in this guild. A prolific quilter, she’s generous and talented.”
“I like a challenge. I like to be pushed,” Kay said.
The toughest quilt she ever made was a Star Double Wedding Ring.
But the quilt she likes the most of any she ever made ended up being sold.
“I hand dyed the fabric with Jody Opheim,” Kaye said.
The quilt had crinkled fabric flowers and was made of different sizes and shapes of blocks and flying geese, a type of quilt block.
A shop owner in Ferndale wanted to sell it for her, but Kay wasn’t sure she wanted to sell it. “The lady said, ‘What if I could get $4,000 for it?’ Lo and behold, she sold it,” Kay said.
Now it’s in the archives of a museum in Los Angeles.
“That’s the one I’d like to have back,” she said.
Before Kay ever quilted a stitch, she’d been sewing for years. She learned to sew in 4-H.
“I was 8 and made clothes and stuff,” Kay said.
During her school years, she said, “If I wanted new clothes, I’d make something the night before.”
When she married and had five children, she made clothes for them.
“I made the girls prom dresses because I’ wasn’t going to pay $200 for a prom dress,” Kay said.
“I’ve not made a wedding dress, but I’ve made every other piece of clothing known to man or woman,” she said, remembering seat covers she made for a pickup her husband Kenny was rehabilitating, drapes and upholstering furniture.
All that sewing served her well when she became a quilter, although she said Kenny wonders why she cuts up perfectly good fabric.
An early riser, Kay might be up and quilting at 4 or 5 a.m. That’s when she sews, when it’s quiet, the phone isn’t ringing and no one is awake.
“I’m very visual. I see it and comprehend it in my brain. I don’t follow patterns, and I always change a pattern,” she said. “Patterns were made to look at but not to follow. They’re just a suggestion.”
“I like to look at something and see if I can conquer it without going the route of buying the pattern,” Kay said. “I’m always looking for a shortcut.”
A case in point is a quilt she found when she googled twister.
“I can do this,” Kay said as she looked at the photo.
From her stash she selected 70 percent of the fabrics and purchased the rest. Then she cut 430 squares and sewed them together in quadrants, before stitching the entire quilt top together.
She’s going to call it Twisting Tornado. It’s made of batik fabrics — turquoises, purples, oranges and reds —swirling around the top of a quilt.
Just one more reason MMQG members are in awe of Kay’s talent and determination.
“I’ve had failures. I don’t know that I’ve thrown anything away, but it might be stashed,” she said, grinning.
As far as colors go, Kay doesn’t like blue — mostly country blue.
“I like bright colors, true colors, like lime green and red,” she said. “I like color. I like fabric — I like to touch it.”
Kay has an eye for color, too. She can pick up some thread or a piece of fabric in town that will match a project she’s working on at home.
“It’s one of those things that God gives you and you don’t know why, but it’s handy,” Kay said, laughing.
“I’ve known Kay since she was in grade school,” quilter Ayleen Bain, 88, said. “I remember when she and Kenny got married, and I knew her mother.”
Kay took the first quilting class Ayleen offered at the St. Ignatius Senior Citizen Center and wound up being one of the Thursday Quilters, a group of quilters who meet at the center each Thursday to sew.
“Kay’s very efficient,” Ayleen said. “She’s so willing to share her knowledge, and she’s friendly with everybody. I appreciate her so.”
As an example, Ayleen has not been feeling well this whole year and wasn’t going to have a quilt to enter in the MVQG show. She had a bargello quilt top finished “but just hadn’t been able to stand long enough to get in there and do it.”
So Kay and the Thursday Quilters stepped in.
“Linda Halvorsen ironed it and sewed the back together. Marina came and got my quilt and took it to the Thursday Quilters,” Ayleen said.
They quilted Ayleen’s project, and Linda Shoon sewed the binding on. Now she has a quilt to enter in the show.
“That’s how those Thursday Quilters are,” she said, adding that the group would probably have folded if Kay hadn’t stepped in and kept it going when Ayleen’s health wouldn’t allow her to do it.
“Kay likes to fly by the seat of her pants. She’s a fantastic friend, and she is really good about helping people,” Cheff said. “She has an eye. If you are doing something wrong, she can look at it and she sees it right away.”
“She is (also) excellent with math,” Cheff added. “Kay will take this much fabric off and add this much, and she figures it out fast.”
“Right now, I’m in the mode to use up all the fabric I have,” Kay said. “Of course, I’ll have to live to 120 to that.”
She went on a quilting cruise a couple of years ago.
“The cruise was great, but we were a little disappointed with the quilting,” Kay said, since the teacher started with a Lone Star pattern, which is tough for beginning quilters.
She booked another cruise for next year with an instructor from Missouri Star Quilt Company and is looking forward to that since it’s on her bucket list.
“Quilting in not a cheap hobby,” Kay said. Every quilt top, a large one, has approximately 10 yards of fabric. Fabric, good fabric, goes from $10 to $13 a yard. Tools can be costly, too, since a quilter needs a sewing machine.
Kay has a number of sewing machines and embroidery machines.
“You can’t live without a rotary cutter, a mat and rulers,” she said. “A good pair of scissors is a must.”
“Don’t give up,” Kay said, as advice for a beginning quilter. “Don’t say I can’t do this. Can’t is the worst word in the dictionary. It’s a debilitating word. You just have to try.”
