Meet Judy Martin

The Unauthorized Autobiography of Judy Martin

reprinted here with permission

1969: The first lunar walk, Woodstock, the Amazing Mets win the World Series, and Judy Martin makes her first quilt. All right, so Judy's first quilt doesn't quite rank with the other listed events. It just shows that Judy has been doing it a long time and has learned quite a bit in those 3-1/2 decades. Fortunately she's not shy about sharing what she has learned.

Judy Martin has been earning her sole livelihood from quilting for almost a quarter century. From 1979 to 1987, she worked for Quilter's Newsletter Magazine and Quiltmaker. As an editor, Judy was one of the principal pattern designers on staff, author of countless articles and six quilting books. In 1987 she left to start her own publishing company, Crosley-Griffith, with her husband, Steve. They have published all of her most recent books, including Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts. Their twelfth book, Scraps, was released in early 2006.  Log Cabin Quilts makes 13 books published by Crosley-Griffith (and a grand total of 19 books)!  Crosley-Griffith also manufactures Judy Martin's Ultimate Rotary Tools.

Judy, Steve, and their 2 children, Kate and Will, moved to Grinnell, a small town in central Iowa, in 1993. Grinnell is a safe and friendly community that is home to Grinnell College. They chose Grinnell because it is a good place to raise children, and they haven't regretted the decision.

Judy's interests, apart from the obvious, include volunteering at her kids' schools, sketching architectural and furniture designs, reading good fiction, watching good films, and eating good and often exotic food.

Judy Martin feels like the luckiest person in the world to get to make her living from quiltmaking. She buys more fabric than she'll ever use, serves her family take-out pizza (which is excellent in Grinnell) when she gets engrossed in a quilting project, asks her husband to just pull a sweater over it when his shirt loses a button, irons clothes only for weddings and funerals, and has gotten over feeling guilty about any of this. Judy encourages you to do the same. You'll live longer and be happier.

Here's Judy, Steve, Kate & Will:

She gets a lot of those from her kids!

Check your knowledge of all things Judy Martin by answering with an affirming "Esyay" or a negating "Ixnay."

1. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin's career is on the scrap heap.

Answer: Esyay, if by that we mean, "Her career stands proudly on Scrap Quilts, starting with the classic 1985 book Scrap Quilts and extending all the way to the present with her newest book, Scraps. Any quilter would be proud to stand on Scraps such as these.

2. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin was on the short list of candidates to be nominated for Supreme Court Chief Justice.

Answer: Ixnay, though all quilters, whether they be Democratic, Republican, or Independent are in consensus that Judy Martin would have brought the same common sense to the Court that she applies to every quilt she designs and every pattern she writes. Judy thinks inaccurate or poorly written patterns should be declared unconstitutional.

3. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin wrote the theme song for "Mr. Ed." (You know the one: "A horse is a horse, of course, of course....")

Answer: Ixnay, a resounding ixnay. Now you're not going to be able to get that song out of your head for the rest of the day!

4. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Nostradamus foretold of Judy Martin's existence nearly four centuries ago.

Answer: Ixnay! Nozzie, as he was known to his mates, would have been laughed out of France if he had predicted that one day a quilter would be born who would design and publish more than 900 new and original patterns, the largest body of original quilt design in the world.

5. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Animal Social Behavior from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Answer: Esyay, and you can see all the good it's done her in her chosen career. A well-rounded, liberal education is never a waste, though, and Judy is satisfied with her college experience.

6. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin is obsessed with Gothic literature.

Answer: Ixnay, but she has become fascinated with incorporating shadows in several of her quilt designs. Three of the quilts in Scraps have shapes that look like they're floating above the surface, casting shadows over the fabric. It's a neat effect! And for the record, Judy is not big on Gothic lit, but she did enjoy Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

7. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin is doing her first fabric collection, Rhapsody, by Cranston's Quilting Treasures.

Answer: Ixnay, but it's a trick question. It's her second fabric line, but her first in a long, long time. In 1987, when she was an editor at Quilter's Newsletter Magazine, Judy designed the Rainbow Collection of fabric to go with the book of the same name, which, coincidentally, she wrote. There won't be another 18-year gap between fabrics. Her Living Color line is already out. Judy and Cranston are working on another collection for the fall of 2006.

8. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin won the 2004 World Series of Poker when she bluffed her way through a queen-high hand.

Answer: Ixnay. Judy doesn't gamble. The only chances she likes to take are in trying new restaurants and in trying new ideas in quilt design. Bet you already knew that.

9. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin's career defies simple categorization.

Answer: Esyay. If you want to pigeonhole Judy, which slot do you put her in? Is she the block lady? She's written four top-selling block books, including 2004's Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts. Is she the Log Cabin lady? She wrote the definitive book on the subject and includes innovative Log Cabin designs in almost every book she writes. Is she the Lone Star lady? The dazzling Lone Star on her home page says that almost 20 years after writing the definitive book on that subject, she can still deal. Is she the rotary cutting lady? Is she the pieced border lady? Or.... is she the scrap quilt lady? Most of her quilts are scrap quilts. Her book, Scrap Quilts, is one of the most popular in history. And she's adding to that legacy with her new book, Scraps. Judy Martin possesses one of the richest and most varied resumes in quilting. No single category is big enough to hold her.

10. (Esyay or Ixnay?) "Judy Martin" is a hip-hop term that means "great quilter."

Answer: Esyay. Judy Martin be def, fo' shizzle. No disrespezzy. The girl get her props fo' gettin' her swerve on. You down with that homeys?

11. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin has written many books on good manners.

Answer: Ixnay. If you've seen Judy's children, you'd know that couldn't be true. Judith Martin, AKA Miss Manners, is the doyenne of etiquette. Judy Martin is the maven of quilt design. Judy has written a lot of books, though. Scraps is her 18th.

12. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin makes some of the most pointless quilts in the world.

Answer: Esyay only because she trims points off of most of her patches before she sews them together. It makes it easier for her to align neighboring patches for perfect fit, and it reduces the bulk in the seams when the top gets quilted. Judy is such an advocate of pretrimming points that she invented a tool, the aptly named Point Trimmer, to make it easier.

13. (Esyay or Ixnay?) Judy Martin makes some of the most pointless quizzes in the world.

Answer: Esyay again. You had fun, though, so it wasn't entirely pointless.