Member Spotlight: Paul Krampitz

February’s Member Spotlight features Paul Krampitz!

Paul is a long-time VMQG member who is the mastermind behind many of the challenges we’ve done as a guild over the years.

When did you start quilting?

I think I finished my first quilt in 1986.  It all started when I saw the owner of the quilt store that used to be on Dunbar Street using a rotary cutter and rulers.  Suddenly quilting looked fun with the cool tools and new techniques.  The oldest quilt that I made that is still local is from 1998.  The older quilts were all made for people who have moved away with the quilts.

Why do you quilt?

I love the creative part of quilting.  I love figuring out how to reproduce something I’ve seen online and then changing it up to make it my own.  I love the geometry that’s involved in patchwork.

Where do you get inspiration?

I get most of my inspiration from other quilters.  I happily “steal” ideas I see in other quilts.  I love the guild show and tell time.  There’s so many great ideas presented and I immediately think of ways to adapt them to the fabrics I have or for a niece or nephew.  I read lots of quilt blogs and check out modern quilts on flickr all the time.  Sometimes a photo makes me want to try something in its colours, or a floor or wall suggests a great pattern that might work as a quilt.  I have saved photos of the Large Hadron Collider that would make a great quilt.  I really like the style of Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr.  They have published several books on quilting and have a great quilt design magazine that comes out 4 times a year called Modern Quilts Illustrated.  And, they’re going to be at Quiltcon!!

Hadron Collider

What is your favourite project?

Whatever I’m working on is my favourite project.  I have so many quilts on the go at a time and usually work on all of them.  I do usually get the tops done and that’s were they stay.  I move on to another project.  There’s very few quilts that don’t get that far.  I am trying to come up with complementary ideas that would work for the back of the quilt.  It’s the only way I get the tops actually quilted.

What the one tool/notion you couldn’t possibly do without?

I love finding out about new gizmos that make piecing easier.  I love my collection of wedge shaped rulers.  I have 72 degree, 60 degree, 45 degree, 36 degree, 30 degree, 18 degree and 10 degree rulers. I really love the shapes you can get to interlock with them.

Where do you create?

My sewing area and bedroom are side by side with a large connecting open area.  It’s a sunny (in Vancouver?) room with huge windows facing west, and north and south. I just need to figure out how to organize my stash and work area so that things are easy to find and not such a pain to put away.

I do most of my piecing on a little Featherweight 221.  It’s so old fashioned, small and does only one thing – stitch a straight line.  What else does a quilter need?

I do my quilting on an old Singer my parents bought just after their wedding in the late 50s.  It’s the only machine I could get to properly work with a darning foot.

What is one thing that VMQG members may not know about you?

I bought a condo with a friend 3 years ago.  It’s in a converted 100 year old historic building that used to be a reform school for girls.  Each Halloween we put up a display on the front arcade of the building that tells a bit about life in the reform school 100 years ago.

What do you do when you’re not quilting?

I don’t understand the question.  Not quilting? I’m in a community band that meets in the Oakridge Seniors Centre.  I play the euphonium.  It looks like a small tuba and sounds euphonious.  I work at BCIT in their Educational Technologies area supporting our learning management software and other Ed Tech software.

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Thank you, Paul! If you’re interested in being featured in our Member Spotlight, drop Felicity a line at socialmedia AT vancouvermodernquiltguild DOT ca.