On the Set with MJ Kinman - TheQuiltShow.com

Ricky and Alex meet MJ Kinman. A corporate job at a Fortune 100 company kept her busy, but it was quilting that tugged at MJ's heart. In 1991, an advertising mailer featuring a gem captured her imagination. She wanted to see if it was possible to create a gem using fabrics.

MJ has designed a freezer paper technique pattern based on the 12 birth-month gemstones. She shares tips on working with the pattern and shows examples of gems that include different color combinations.

In order to replicate the colors and fire in gemstones, MJ had to learn how to paint her own fabrics. She shows Ricky how fun and easy it is to paint your own cotton sateen fabric. After discussing tools, it's on to adding paint to create blending and movement of color (the perfect fabric for gemstones).

We wrap up the show with a Tour of the Iowa Quilt Museum. Iowa Quilt Museum Director, Megan Barrett, shares the history of this gem in Winterset, IA, that opened its doors in May 2016.

Watch MJ in Show 2407 when it debuts Sunday, March 24, 2019.

Comments

#2 MJ Kinman 2019-04-08 19:14

Hi, Patricia P! You asked, "can a designer keep someone from teaching a class based on the designer's pattern?" Of course not! My intention in developing the Gem Affiliate program was to create a program that's a respectful collaboration between my brand and a teacher's business. My goal is to provide teachers with the underlying information about the technique and my philosophy in creating these patterns so that their students can find joy and success in making them. I also strive to empower women business owners. I have built in a number of financial incentives that, I hope, will help teachers strengthen their bottom line. Not only do we talk about the patterns at my retreats, we talk about marketing the product, building one's business, gaining confidence, inspiring success, and mentoring one another. I believe that the 20 teachers who attended my first sold-out retreat might suggest that the experience was far from "meaningless".

#1 Patricia P 2019-03-22 14:16

Question - can a designer keep someone from teaching a class based on the designer's pattern?
http://www.mjkinman.com/gem-affiliate-program
If they want to come up with some fancy-but-meani ngless "certification" like "Gem Affiliate", for a pattern that is PUBLICLY-AVAILA BLE, seems like a money grab to me. (Compare this to anyone who teaches zendoodle versus Zentangle® - fancy, expensive name for the same thing.)
If they only sell their patterns through a set of registered and qualified teachers or stores, then maybe they have some control of their "brand". But then they risk alienating those who don't take their courses. So anything that prevents selling more patterns (and again, these are publicly-availa ble) seems silly.
But either way, certified or not, no-one will see a poorly-made quilt and think it's the designer's fault. Unless of course the pattern really is a bad one (which I don't think is the case here). And no certification is going to fix that.

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