Look out for the purple flames! Terri Sontra is in the Hotseat!

I'm so excited to put my good friend Terri Sontra, owner of Purple Moose Designs online shop and designer of some crazy awesome original pattern designs, in the Hottie Hotseat today!

  

Terri Sontra

Head Moose at Purple Moose Designs, Mirror Lake, NH

Serving your quilting needs since 1999

Current Project: While there are always many projects at various stages - the one currently at the top of the to-do pile is a video series. Each short video will cover some aspect of basic quilting such as rotary cutting, setting seams, the quilt police, etc...

Question 1. If I came to your house unannounced, could you give me a tour of your studio, or would it be such a disaster you would make up an excuse as to why we couldn't go in?

Neatly organized stash cleverly averts the eye from the mess

You most definitely would NOT be allowed in. My pigpen studio is off limits to everyone. There is so much proprietary stuff around here, I wouldn't want anyone to steal one of my ideas. OK, reality check...it's simply a disaster zone. Even the dog has a tough time finding a spot to lay down. That being said, I can usually put my hands on anything I'm looking for fairly quickly. I also have two treadles and a modern machine set up and they can all be used at any time without having to move too much! The ironing board may take a minute...

Question 2. What do you love about your studio? What would you change?

Walk-in closet. Please excuse messy counter.

 When we designed our house my studio was originally the master bedroom with a small bathroom attached. We turned the bathroom into a walk-in closet that has lots of shelf and drawer space for storing all the stuff that goes along with quilting and other crafts. The only thing I would change is to add back in the extra can-lights that the builder talked me out of (he wasn't a quilter, why did I listen to him???) and I would add the optional fairies that come in during the night to clean up and finish your bindings. What, you don't have some?

Question 3. What was the worst job you ever had?

 Ooh, that's a tough one. In my past professional life I was a corporate Accountant. I was good at it but it was the most boring job I ever had. I gladly went through childbirth to give it up. It did pay the bills nicely though.

In my younger years I worked in the fishing industry. I worked on a party fishing boat in the summer and a fish market the rest of the year. I liked the work but it was the most physically demanding job I ever had. And the smelliest. When I would come home from cutting fish all day my Mom would make me get undressed outside. My jeans would be so stiff from slime that they would stand up all by themselves. There is something very gratifying though about working on a boat filled with big burly professional athletes and they can't pull the fish in but this skinny girl can. Oh, to be that skinny again...minus the smell...

Is this what it was like, Terri? - BH

 Question 4. What is your favorite meal to feed your family when you are desperately trying to meet a deadline?

Hands down...Dog Food Burritos (or Velcro Burritos for the squeamish). When my hubby and I were dating, my Mom only fed her dog people food. She would cook up veggies and meat for the dog in big batches and serve it to him each day. If we happen to be there my hubby would snitch stuff from the dogs food and eat it (he didn't cook). So whenever I make Dog Food Burritos it's simply a matter of taking whatever leftovers I can find in the fridge, mix it all together and put it in a tortilla, similar to what my Mom made for her dog. They never come out the same way twice and anything goes - Chinese food, leftover BBQ, couscous...whatever flies out of the fridge and sticks (like velcro) to the tortilla. Easy peasy 10 minutes start to finish.

Question 5. What is the ugliest fabric in your stash?

Terri's stash of uglies in her "ugly" fabric caddy.

 I don't have any. Uglies that is, I have a stash. Are there fabrics in there that I would never use as a focal fabric? Absolutely. Are there fabrics in there in colors I'm not fond of? Yup, the orange and pink piles. If I want to make a fall or Halloween quilt it would be hard to do without using some orange yet it's one of my least favorite colors by itself.

My guild had an ugly fabric challenge awhile back. We each brought in a piece of ugly fabric and traded with each other. You were then challenged to make something out of it and give it back to the original owner. I brought in this putrid yellowish check print that I could never get to play nice with anything. My friend Libby had just finished making something for her daughter and had some leftover geometric print that went very nicely. She made me this cute caddy. I love it and it sits proudly at my workstation. Just about everyone who participated was surprised at how nice their uglies looked in the end. So no fabric is truly ugly - it just hasn't met its life mate yet or it hasn't been cut up into small enough pieces!

What a fantastic way of looking at it, Terri. 

Thank you, Terri, for being my hotseat victim this month! 

Please be sure to visit Terri's online shop, Purple Moose Designs. I mention it frequently on this blog and my FB page because I truly do love it. Fantastic prices on my favorite piecing thread, cool notions, and always purple moose kisses with my order. What more could I want?