OMG people…. we are getting so damn close that I wake each day and yank on my readers ( I am blind like that) and look to see where our number is resting… at this very moment it is 15,765….  Oh so VERY close to 16 thousand… like so close that I need to let you in on a little secret.Â
When the clock strikes 16 thousand we are going to be celebrating! Â Party hats and tassels for everyone (where you put the tassels is up to you!).. after all you are going to need a way to show your excitement since we are giving away the goods when it comes to this event.
We will have 4 winners in all… Â One grand prize winner and three very lucky runners up!
We are very excited to be teaming up with some amazing companies who have always been there for us supporting the BAQS mission. These companies include but are not limited to ( hint hint – that means if you have a company that wants to get in on the fun drop me a note!)
Aurifil –
Persimon Dreams – Host of  Project Quilting
Sam Hunter – Hunter’s Design Studio
Paula Reid  – Batts in the Attic
Are you excited?… do you want to hear about the prizes?
In the meantime, if you have a moment and can do me a big favor.. will you let me know what the BadAss Quilters Society means to you?  I often have other advertisers  ask WHY they should get involved with us and what is in it for them … they opposed to our event sponsors  seem to be missing out on what BAQS means to people and I need help putting feelings into words… your words.
What say you???
Just visited your shop for the first time yesterday. We were passing through Chattanooga on our way to Nashville. What a lovely shop! And what warm and friendly owners. I wanted one of everything. The shop is full of beautiful fabric and fabulous samples. I am so inspired. It’s not that far of a drive from Atlanta so I will be back!!
Badass Society to me is home, surrounded by caring, encouraging women and the best smiles at the end of the day. Just watching any one of your videos just lifts my spirits and propels me to finish that seam, sew that next row and no matter my skill level be proud as hell of it.
Because I Don’t want to be an “old” quilter. Embrace the new techniques, fabrics, tools and sometimes speD a little quality anarchism. I love what you have to say about the world around us Maddy. You keep typing. Ill keep reading. Someday I want to visit the shop. Bucket List! It’s a long way from Oregon.
Badass is acceptance, on all levels. Love the diversity, inclusive not exclusive and QUILTS!
I just found the site today. I subscribed because this place sounds like home to me. I was in the Navy for 20 years being the ‘first woman…’ several times over and fitting into little boxes is not my style. Thanks for being here.
Fifteen years ago, I moved to small town, conservative America. Let’s clarify that I am neither conservative nor American. I attended my local quilt guild meeting once and felt so out of place that I never went back. Not that they weren’t nice people, they just weren’t like me. I clearly did not share their outlook on life or on quilting. I have quietly doodled along alone since then following quilt blogs and ogling quilt shop websites wishing forlornly that I could find a place to belong. I knew people like me were out there somewhere, but where were they hiding? Well, along came BAQ! Eureka! Open minded, diversity-celebrating Maddie and a group of people challenging traditional ideas and opening the skies to anything and everything! I was so happy to find a community to be part of! Thanks, BAQ!
BAQ….means because I can…do whatever I want, when I want, and how I want…with no excuses to anyone for my attitude. By the way, I am coming to visit on Monday! So excited!!!
Acceptance. Not much else matters.
I love being part of the BAQS! Why? Why not? I can be myself and don’t feel I have to please anybody. Maybe being a Harley rider (behind hubby) already gives me that Bad Ass attitude but I have found since finding you I am moving into a different realm of quilting. From traditional to some abstract to doing more landscapes like I was back to my oil painting only with fabric.
Maddie,
Because nothing is too important that it can’t be laughed at. I need your place of humor, and snark, and position of diversity. And inspiration.
Everyone has a little bad ass quilter in them. Some more than others. I have a whole lot of badass inside.
For me, being a Bad Ass Quilter is all about attitude and freedom, no matter what style of project is under your needle. I’ve had enough of people who look like they suck on lemons every minute! Can you just imagine what a retreat made up of Bad Ass Quilters would be like?? We’d “blow the doors off” the retreat center and prove that it’s possible to quilt 24/7!
BAQS people do not look at my non traditional art quilts with puzzled expressions. Nor do they call them “blankets” and expect to put them on their beds, or wonder why they are not big enough for their bed.
I get tons of emails from different quilt related web sites and blogs. The one I always open is your’s. I always find either inspiration, eye candy, and a giggle. There is no traditional/art/modern controversy. We are all creating what we love and you support that. Thanks!!! And Congrats!
I have always marched to the beat of a different drummer. Tell me I can’t and I will show you I definitely can. BAQS has given me a nod of approval that has boosted my creative side to new heights without fear of rejection by the quilting world. I love to experiment with designs and “what ifs.” I love to take an old tired design that has been worn out in a conventional, traditional world and cut it in half or fourths, flip it around and sew it back together. Or take that same design and throw in some lime green or fuschia just to see what it looks like. BAQS is a place where I can show my experiments and get a pat on the back, no matter what the end result is. No rules, no judgement. I love that.
“But though an old seamstress, I am but a young quilter.” I’ve been sewing ever since I could, but just entered the world of quilting a year ago. Now I am almost finished with my fourth quilt, and am scouting quilt shops every road trip I take. For me, BAQS is all about the ‘tude. It’s having the confidence and pure joy in your craft. I am still learning, but I love your message and your method. BAQS is quilting like a boss.
Badass Quilter’s means to me.
A place I can be myself. A place I can get a giggle. A place where I can get inspiration. A place where I can find outrageous fabric that suites my outrageous needs. A place where you can see talent. A place I feel welcomed. A place that makes me feel successful. A place I feel at home…
Growing up with a woman who could sew any garment she wanted with or without a pattern was extremely intimidating to a child who with a ruler couldn’t draw a straight line let alone sew a straight line.
BadAss Quilters Society takes that voice that sighs and the head that shakes negatively and shoves it out into the cold when I am sewing and replaces it with an affirming and reassuring voice telling me that it is okay to explore and that it is my creation, that if I want to add a piece of bright melon colored fabric onto this particular spot that I can. That if I want to sew outside of the lines and make it up as I go along that it is perfectly fine because it is my creation.
As a child born in the Sixties it was still all about following the rules even though so many things were busting out and creating new ways, going to the moon, rock and roll, heavy metal, following the rules was still instilled.
BadAss proves that creativity is not confined to a pre-determined set of rules and that we still get to use the same materials that those who like and enjoy the rules get to use. We just use them differently. We are no longer the people whom society *SIGH* and says will you never learn to cut or sew in a straight line.
It means to me that although I don’t fit the idea of a “usual” quilter, I belong. And it’s promoting the same messages we are trying to teach our children.
I live in an area where traditional quilts in murky colors are the norm. That’s not me. I love the inspiration the Bad Ass Quilters Society gives me. I have others that can see my vision and even if they don’t, they would appreciate my work. Thanks for being here.
BAQS breaking away from the stogey, bursting with brightness and happiness!
This BAQS group is one that reflects inspiration, confidence, attitude and the ability to be proud of whatever style of quilting you call true to yourself.
I see the BAQS as an empowering group of fellow quilting enthusiasts. I find encouragement, new ideas, new approaches to old ideas and some REAL support for the way I personally sew/serge/quilt simply because this group is open to bending, breaking and making rules or no rules. Almost 16K at the moment must say something somewhere about our need for this group of ATTITUDE empowered quilters. I manage to design with my own bit of flair and tweak the patterns I do purchase to suit myself and this group accepts my comments and photos of the results along with those of the current industry stars. Kind of like the old tv show “Friends” I feel BAQS is basically the place where everyone knows me or at least gives me a place to explore who I am –the current quilt project being my schooner!
Maddie what you did for us by creating BAQS is freedom. We come along with knowledge that we will not be judged for our colors or style of quilting. You have helped us find a place that our style is our creativity without being judged. We can be confident that whatever it is whether quilting or lifestyles we each have a voice without criticism. And I m truly thankful!
I usually don’t follow a pattern to the letter. Veering off into my own meander and wondering “what if?” is the way my mind goes…and I follow. BAQS gives me the “atta girl” prompt to see what else the quilting world holds.
BAQ is a place I hang to get my quilting mojo on. It’s a community where I am accepted just being me, without judgement, agreeing it’s ok to disagree. No limits, it’s coloring outside the lines without quilt police coming after you.
I hear the song “Uptown Funk” playing in my head when you ask questions like that! 😉 BAQS is about … what if? and hell yes! and being a BAQ with attitude of clear confidence… in the company of other like minded souls.
Sing it with me…. https://youtu.be/OPf0YbXqDm0
BAQ sing Hallelujah!
Being a bad ass quilter means to me that I get to choose the projects that I want to do and make the art I want to make. And that I don’t have to make whole quilts for people who offer me $100 for one and think they are doing me a favor.
I’ve just started quilting a year and a half ago. I’ve joined my local guild which has a good contingent of rebels. But even there, there’s only one other person who is really a bad ass. Finding this page I realized that there really are more of us and that I probably am not the only one quilting with Hard rock or metal cranked!
I’m hoping manufacturers realize that there is a huge group of us that are not afraid of black or bright colour and want skulls on everything! The under 40 group isn’t being catered to like they should. Drawing them in with great fabric would be a good start. It’s how I got pulled in.
I’m lucky in that I’m in that transition age group between the old and the new, but I always have to wait for things to catch up. Getting your 16,000 is just the beginning. Hold on to your bolts!!! Lol!
Cheers! (And congrats!!)
Robyn
Being a bad ass quilter means no box, no limits, no rules. Working in corporate America I have to be “PC” why should I have to in my art? I am a Misfit never fit into a cookie cutter life and here that is welcomed and encouraged! We all have a story that has lead us to being bad ass and I am proud no honored to have a place where others agree to disagree and just be the quirky freaks we are 🙂
BAQS is the shit!! For the first time EVER in my years of sewing, I found a place that my inner (well, mostly outer) freak can relate to, that speaks MY language. I always felt somewhat out of place in the traditional quilting world. There’s an unwritten rule in a large amount of quilt shops that you have to be traditional. BAQS makes me feel alive in a largely boring and judgemental market and lets me thoroughly enjoy my craft while encouraging to quilt outside the box (or blocks?).
This places gives me somewhere to be weird, some where to fit in while I stand out, some where that I can appreciate each and every special little snoflake for the special fucking little miracle of uniquiness that they are!
Oh, and thanks to this AWESOME place my little steampunk quilt winged it’s way to the other side of the planet and gave me the opportunity to say that I have been internationally exhibited. That gave me the courage to put some of my work forward to a “proper” art gallery where it is currently hanging in an exhibition. Which I would never have done without the BAQS
Even quilters like to ride on the wrong side of the road, push “holy old style” quilter buttons. Use too much red and highlighter yellow together. Although I love to learn new techniques I have a terrible time with patterns, just want to make what I want to make. The rest of my life is structured, this part of my life doesn’t need so many rules. Freedom!!!
I love the fact you can be you. No matter what style of quilter you are. Being an 80’s punker who sews clothes as well as quilts it’s nice to know you can be you.
It’s about having the attitude to not do what someone else’s idea of quilting is. It’s about being your totally beautiful badass self. Be what you are, sew what you love, enjoy and support each other. That is what makes a BadAss Quilter!
!
I didn’t “fit in” with what was going on in the quilting world at the time. The books and magazines were very traditional, with colours that were, to me, bland. While I appreciated the talent and skill it took, it wasn’t for me. I found a Ringle/Kerr book in the library, and that was the first time I heard of Modern quilting.
Looking for MQ sites on facebook, I came across the BAQS. I was in a few groups, where more time seemed to be taken up with arguments about ‘is it modern enough ‘,’ you can’t use traditional fabrics in a modern quilt’, and other assorted bullshit. And yes, I fucking like to swear! I love the lack of quilt police, the feeling of commeraderie, the inclusiveness. This feels like I belong. Thanks Maddie and Bad Ass Quilters everywhere!
I feel at home here! No judgement based on my age or looks. Freedom to know there are other badass quilters out there who are just as non-normal as me!!!
It means which ever way you create is ok. And nobody judges you for not being “modern” enough or traditional enough or whatever their favorite is. We all create and that is the important part.
A place to learn new skills and find new addictions (quilting fabric, tools and toys). I never considered quilting before even though I love to sew, because I associated it with stuffy adherence to rules and form. BAQS showed me that none of that is necessary – make all the gorgeous things according to your own rules!
It means having a place to come where you will not be judged on style, size, fabric mix or color choice but will be welcomed and celebrated for your own ‘brand’ of quilting.
A place where you can be yourself and be welcome even if not traditional
A place where you can be yourself and be welcomed even if not traditional and have fun