The Quilting Episode | A Soothing Sleep Podcast for Overthinkers

Looking for a sleep podcast to fall asleep fast, reduce anxiety, and quiet an overactive mind? This calming episode of The Insomnia Project is designed for insomnia relief, stress reduction, and gentle nighttime unwinding through slow, soothing conversation.
Marco Timpano welcomes guest Lois Keating for a relaxed discussion about quilting, handmade crafts, and the comforting rhythm of creative work. From stitching quilt blocks to exploring patterns, fabrics, and textures, this episode offers low-stimulation, easygoing content perfect for bedtime listening.
The conversation gently drifts through the traditions and techniques of quilting, highlighting the patience and care involved in creating something by hand. With soft-spoken storytelling and unhurried pacing, this meandering podcast episode helps ease racing thoughts, reduce anxiety, and create a peaceful environment for sleep.
Whether you’re searching for a sleep podcast for insomnia, calming background noise while you work, or a gentle way to unwind at the end of the day, The Insomnia Project offers a comforting, reliable escape.

​The Quilting Episode
(Original aidate: Sept 28, 2016)

Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a conversation about the mundane. One thing we can promise is that our conversation will be less than fascinating so that you can feel free to just drift off. Thank you for joining us. Hope. We certainly hope you will listen and sleep. Write us a note, rate us on itunes or leave a comment. We love that.


Marco Timpano welcomes Lois Keating to talk about quilts

I am your host, Marco Timpano and joining me is Lois Keating. Welcome Lois.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Hi Marco.

Marco Timpano:  Lois, I wanted to talk to you about quilts. I know that you're in quilt what into quilt making what brought you to quilt making?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Well, I should say I'm a novice quilt maker. Yet to finish my first quilt. I've been working on it for six years.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, wow.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Um, there's a lot of quilt makers in my family on my side and my in law side.

Marco Timpano:  Who's the first that you remember?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: My Aunt Lillian, my dad's sister.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: She gave me a quilt when I was very young for my bed. And it was all patchwork and they were not in any particular pattern. And it was all made from 70s polyester, so it was made from, you know, found material, not material from a quilt store.

Marco Timpano:  Sure. And it was multi colored.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah. It was trimmed in pink, but all the patches were all different colors, like burgundy and brown and white and pink and yellow and patterns and florals and no rhyme or reason, just patchy patchwork.

Marco Timpano:  Patchy patchwork. And do you still have that quilt?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: I do.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, you do? I do.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yep.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, that's awesome.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah, it's really awesome.

Marco Timpano:  So then who else or what, what other impressions do you have from a child with quilt with regards to quilt making?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Well, um, this same aunt made quilts for everyone in our family, and I know she did them. You know, uh, she spent a lot of time at them, and they're very heavy and very warm.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: So that experience of having a very heavy quilt was something that I really liked because I like heavy bedding on my bed. Um, and then I noticed that a lot of people do quilt making and do patterns and things.

Marco Timpano:  Right.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: And so, um, I got to my first roommate in Toronto. She made her first quilt that she finished the year that we moved to Toronto.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: And so I got to be experienced with a quilt from, like, new material being made. And so, um, throughout my life, there's been a bunch of different people that have made quilts or I've seen them and different things. So. Yeah.

Marco Timpano:  And what is it about quilt making that brought you to become a novice quilt maker?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Well, I think there's something about the journey of it and the making it. Um, one of the other early quilt experiences I had, I'm just remembering now, is my friend sue. Her mom had a quilt that she stitched all by hand, and she would have her quilt stand set up in her living room or her room. And anybody who came to visit Kate be invited to put a stitch in the quilt. So I don't know what quilt that was, but I put a stitch in a quilt of hers.

Marco Timpano:  Was that the first stitch you made in a quilt?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yes, it was. Yeah. And, uh, that was on this giant frame, like, big setup. Sorry, um, I lost track.

Marco Timpano:  No, you were saying that this was another experience you had.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Right. So that was part of my early quilt making. And then, um, so I decided that I wanted to, um, make a quilt after my husband passed away, and I kept all his clothes, and I wanted to make a quilt for my daughter from his clothes for her.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, what a neat thing.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah. So I took all the clothes, and the first part was to open to cut all the material off the clothes. So no buttons or pockets or that kinds of thing.

Marco Timpano:  Right. And do you have to look for a specific, um, piece of fabric when you're doing that? Like, are you looking for a certain shape or a certain. Obviously, you're avoiding buttons, but there's other, like, trimmings and stuff. Do you have to avoid that?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Well, there's a bunch of different, um, quilt styles that I've learned. So basically, as I get to each part of my quilting, I'm learning and reading about it on the Internet and talking to different people about how to do it. And there are different styles where some people choose to include those pieces, pockets and things in their memory. Quilts, which is what usually they're called, I think, when you make it from clothing for somebody who's passed away. Um, and so. But I chose particularly to just get the material that wasn't, uh, trims or edges or that kind of stuff, interior material. So I just cut all the material into big pieces and then decided I would cut them into additional pieces after that. So I just made prepped my material as the first step.

Marco Timpano:  And does it matter the sort of texture of the fabric? Because some pieces will be, like, thick. Let's say you use a corduroy versus a cotton or flannel. Does that matter, or does that affect placement?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Well, for me, um, it doesn't matter. But as I've been reading about it, there are a lot of serious quilters who are. Who take it very serious and will encourage you only to sew same kinds of material together. And I didn't understand why until I started piecing my quilt together. And piecing is when you start sewing your pieces together. And if you have different kinds of material, it's very difficult because, you know, a stretchy T shirt versus a corduroy versus a nylon dress pant, um, they don't lie flat and. And smooth when you sew the different pieces together.

Marco Timpano:  I see.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: So. But I encountered that firsthand as I started piecing my quilt together. And so I decided that it wasn't important to me, and that was actually going to be part of my medium of my quilt, was that it would be all these different pieces of material and how they behave together. So I don't think I'm going to end up with something very flat and smooth and crisp, like, as if you made a quilt from, like, all quilting cotton. Those lie very flat, and you can press the seams really smooth.

Marco Timpano:  Sure.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: But mine's got some bumps and ridges and different things. But I feel that's, like, part of the. What's m going to be the experience of my particular quilt.

Marco Timpano:  I think it is also what takes quilts to the next level.


Most quilting is based on squares, and it being these squares

Whereas, you know, sewing or knitting, you've got, you know, a blanket or whatnot. But quilting takes it to that level of art where by doing this, you actually create something that's more than just something. A covering of some sort.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah. So for me, it was definitely a choice to be like, it's going to be a multimedia kind of experience, and it'll be the combination of all this stuff together. So it's turning out to look and feel very different that we. What I imagined in my head when I started.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: And so I showed some of my pieces to some experienced quilters to get some, um, ideas, because I was also making my pattern as I go. But most quilting is based on squares, and it being these squares that you piece together. So even within your abstract pattern, for some patterns, they're very square, but mine is not very square. So they encouraged me to square it all up, to join it together. And, um, that's when I discovered it was going to be a big challenge with the, um, different kinds of material.

Marco Timpano:  I see.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: So, um, but then as I read about that and the importance of that in that style, if you're working off a pattern, then there's also this patchwork scrappy quilt technique, now that it's very random and they call it scrappy.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: So, but that's, to me, what patchwork quilts were in the beginning, where there's no rhyme or reason. It's just patchy and patches. Um, and then, you know, then there's this other version of quilting with lots of patterns and squares and shapes, like, shapes and geometry. And.

Marco Timpano:  Yeah, like, I've seen quilts where it's like, um, it's sort of from the center out, it goes into a bit of a triangle, almost like a fishbone pattern on one side and a half moon pattern on the other side. Uh, and it's repetitive, and I guess they use the same kind of, um, material but in different shades. So you've got a gradient effect and things like that. And they can be quite expensive. When you go to a store and you find these, uh, these handmade quilts. Right. I think they're all handmade or at least the ones that I've seen.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Well, it's interesting because handmade too is there's, then there's different techniques about whether you hand sew them or machine sew them.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, I didn't realize this.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: And so that one I was telling you about where I stitched at my friend's house, that was a hand sewn quilt, but I'm actually machine sewing mine together, um, which will make it a bit faster and, and uh, different experience, but that's closer to what the first quilt I received was a machine quilt. And then the actual quilting is when they take the quilt sandwich, which is the top, the batting and the backing, and they do that patterned quilting throughout it. That's the quilting part. Oh, because there's a top layer called your top, and then the middle of the batting, whatever kind of stuffing or layer you going to put in between, and then a backing material and then a border that goes around the edge.

Marco Timpano:  I didn't realize that the quilting is actually that stitching pattern on the material.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Right. And so that's a whole other area of expertise and skills. And there are, um, to do the quilting of these quilt sandwiches. Um, there's a bunch of different ways you can do that too. Like, um, and I've really just been learning as I go. Um, you can do this free motion quilting where you just do it in any kind of pattern and your needle goes around and you can draw particular patterns and you use a special foot on your sewing machine. Or you can do this, um, straight line and then if you do it between the seams and you sew into the seam, that's called stitching in the. Stitch in the ditch.

Marco Timpano:  Okay. I love these terms.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: I know, they're very fascinating. So there's all different things.


So, um, so are you with this memory quilt, are you stitching in the ditch

Marco Timpano:  So, um, so are you with this memory quilt, are you stitching in the ditch or are you doing a free form?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Well, I'm not to the quilting part yet. I'm still working on the top layer. And this year my goal, I put it out there, then I have to finish, if I have to finish the top layer and then I have to pick my middle batting and then I have to make my backing, which normally the backing is like a plain material or one big piece sometimes or one material. But I'm actually going to make the back into kind of a T shirt quilt. So if you've seen those ones where people make quilts out of all the different T shirts.

Marco Timpano:  I haven't, but this is fascinating.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: I'm going to make the back of my quilt be the T shirt quilt. So it'll kind of be really sort of like a reversible quilt.

Marco Timpano:  Right, that's. That's great. So how big will your quilt be?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Well, I'm aiming to have it be a queen size quilt and it's a very big quilt for my first real quilting experience. Um, but I feel that that'll be something that Briar could, um, have later and would fit a standard kind of bits. Right. Versus just a twin one. Because then when you're older, you move out, if you have a big bed, it doesn't fit.

Marco Timpano:  We should mention that Briar is your daughter.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah.

Marco Timpano:  Who's kind of dancing around as we do this podcast right now. So if you, uh, hear some creaks and squeaks, it's because Briar and my wife are sort of dancing around us as we do this podcast now.


Your quilt has taken six years to make

How often do you soak your quilt? Because it's taken six years. I know you're a busy person, so I'm not.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah. So I probably spend three to four days a year. Oh, at it. Not actually that long.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, so you spend three or four days at it. A, ah, year. Just working on it.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah. So over evenings and days. So it's not like I'm at it all day every day for, you know, it's a hobby and I'm fitting it in between. And Briar helps me with it too. Like she's been part of the whole process, so that's kind of good. And, uh. So yeah, so that's why it's taking so long. I could hurry it up. But I also want to enjoy the experience of it. And I think having it go longer into the time now since I started it, my feelings and my experience of working with the material is very different. And ideally, I'm gonna try to put a book together to go with the quilt. Pictures of my husband in those clothes from the samples so that you can be like, when I touch this piece of material, this blue material, I know it's from this dress shirt, but I have a picture of that so I can put that in and be like, well, this was from your christening. Or this was from his T shirt about beer. You know, different things like that.

Marco Timpano:  And so you've got a quilt and a book that reflects the making of the quilt and. And the sort of beauty, um, of this particular piece that. That accompanies it. That's quite awesome.


You've made a quilt that is evocative of your cottage life

Now, the reason I brought up quilting is because you made, uh, us a beautiful quilted, and I think it's right here.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Oh, my gosh.

Marco Timpano:  Yeah. So I'm going to describe it, if you don't mind. Um, so this is one of my favorite things that has been given that we have brought to our cottage, because I feel as though, um, it really is reflective or evocative of, uh, why I love coming here. So it is a placemat, and it has 1, 2, 3, 4, about six different pattern patches. I don't know what you've got materials, um, in blues and grays, and those are the colors of this, as you. As you see of this particular college. And then we've got, um, images of puffin, which is, if you're not familiar with what a puffin is, it is a bird that is found in the north, uh, Atlantic, or the northeast part of Canada. And you're from Newfoundland, where puffins live. They're also in Iceland and the north, uh, northern, uh, countries like that. I would imagine that, uh, you would find them probably even in, uh, Sweden and Finland and areas like that. But certainly puffin is a. Is an animal that one finds in Newfoundland. So this brings sort of your tie, uh, to the cottage. And then I love. This would be the quilting, the little pattern that you've done here.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: So, yeah, here we can see that this is made from all new material and all particularly quilting cotton.

Marco Timpano:  Okay. So you would buy this. This is like quilting cotton. You specifically buy it to quilt with.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yep. And then, um, so the backing has all one material piece. So this is actually kind of a microcosm for a bigger quilt.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: So. And that's actually how I started to. I did placemats or these single placemat trivet things. And, um. So, yeah, you can see that there's no real rhyme or reason to the pattern. Exactly. Except there's squares and rectangles. And then this stitching along here would be the stitch in the ditch. And this is the stitch that lines between squares.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, I see. So it's the stitch in the ditch is the stitch that connects the two pieces of fabric, the two different pieces of fabric. Is that correct?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: No. Well, there's additional stitches where the pieces are sewn together and you can't see it. But then, um, when you attach it and then you sew through through to stitch through the three layers. That's the stitch in the ditch. And then this pattern stitching through the pieces, which often you do in a contrasting thread so that you can see it visible. So if the light blue is on this darker puffin fabric, that's the quilting. And this is free motion quilting where I just took my sewing machine and I swerved it around in a random pattern of my own making and didn't follow a pattern. This was very my loose creativity in my free motion quilting.

Marco Timpano:  What's lovely about this free motion pattern is that you've created so many little loops and circles that it almost seems impossible to do with a machine. Like, it's just so like you've got a figure eight here and you've got a loop de loop, almost as if you were watching a plane. You know those planes that sort of do smoke? Um, patterns in the sky. It kind of looks like that and it has a very sort of, um, wavy feel to it. And so does this pattern here. So it's very evocative for me anyways, of the beach and cottage life. And I really love it.


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Lois Tucker:  Keating: Introducing store to door switch and get

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Lois Tucker:  Keating: Oh, but you should, because life is too short and you should use your fancy china and you should use your trivet and then if it gets dirty, wash it. And then if you're like, oh, I got it dirty, I need a new one, then we know what to make next time.

Marco Timpano:  Well, there you go. So I will, I will use it because I love it. And you're right, it is sort of like a part of the family or living piece of fabric. You know what I mean? There's something about it that there's so much, there's so much going on in a quilt. Um, does your mom quilt?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: No, my mom doesn't quilt at all. She does a couple of different crafts, but my mother in law quilts and um, you know, I'm just looking at it now, but this border, people who do borders on quilts. It's a very special skill.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, is, uh, it, it's really hard. Is it difficult?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: That part I find hard. I don't know why.

Marco Timpano:  What do you find easy in a quilt?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: I like doing the free motion quilting and having no pattern and just having it come out. But then sometimes, like, sometimes I'll put little special patterns that I could almost

Marco Timpano:  sign it with your name.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Well, you know, I was thinking of that. I know sometimes I put people's initials in or different little messages. And, um, I haven't done that, but I've also seen now that you can do that people do that on purpose or you can sew in a little message on the quilt like a tag. And I haven't started doing that, but that's a good idea too, so that you know when it's from or who did it.

Marco Timpano:  Right. The year. Oh, that's really cool. Um, I know that, um, the further out east you go in Canada, the more you'll find quilts. At least that's been my experience. Is it something that you kind of, you find in Newfoundland you grew up with or that it's, it's.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah, the quilting's pretty. Um, there's lots of it going on and it's still very popular. And it's so fun because you can make different things and people make them for different events. Like we were there at this, uh, come home year, and there was one that had all different pictures of Newfoundland on it.

Marco Timpano:  What is a come home year?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: We should look at come home year. A come home year is when the town has a festival and they invite everybody to come home who's moved away. And so it's like a party in the town. A reunion. A town reunion.

Marco Timpano:  Okay. And they did a quilt for that?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah, somebody made a quilt, uh, and sold tickets as a fundraiser and it had all different, um, things from the area quilted into it, and then someone

Marco Timpano:  would win the quilt. Oh, that's great. Now, if you were to give advice or tips to someone who's just, like, who's listened to this podcast and said, I'm gonna start quilting.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Oh, I would go on the Internet and YouTube and I would watch quilting videos.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Because I talked to my people who I know who quilted, and we talked to them a little bit. But then, um, there's so many great resources out there now, and there's one that I really love.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: The Missouri Star Quilt Company, um, has a pod. I don't know if they've not podcasts, but they have YouTube tutorial videos, and they're awesome. Like, they show you exactly what to do, and they tell you all about, like, act like, quilt techniques and different things. So sometimes I just spend a lot of time watching those videos, and then if you're getting to something, you can, like, use it or whatever. So there's a lot of information on, um, the Internet about quilting and how to. So I would just get familiar with that. If you're someone who can learn on your own. And as you go, I would, uh, that's what I would do. And then find your local quilt shop and go there.

Marco Timpano:  Right.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: And, um, I would say also try not to get sucked into the commercialism of quilting, because there's a lot of, like, buy kit and buy kit, buy new material. Do this stuff. I would, like, use your own creativity and. And just try to make something. And start by just making something.

Marco Timpano:  Would you say start small, like. Like a. Like a placement like this?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah, I would. Because then that way you can learn a little bit of all the techniques before you get into a big project.

Marco Timpano:  Right.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Um, I didn't really do that before I started into my big project, but I think that's also the joy of it. You know, it's a. It's a learning piece. It's not going to be a perfect quilt for a quilt show where they judge it or read it, but, you know, for me, it was. It was fine and it fit my need, but I would just make something.


Lois Keating has been working on a quilt for six years

It's part of that, just being creative.

Marco Timpano:  And don't be afraid of making mistakes.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah. Because to me, I look at this placemat, and I can tell you, you know, 10, 20 things right off the bat. Oh, really? That I would be like, ugh. But you probably don't even notice.

Marco Timpano:  No, I don't notice. I love it. Like, I particularly love that there's, like, this kind of newspapery, um, fabric in here. Like, it looks like there's newspaper, and it just. The colors kind of complement each other so well. Did you select these or was. So you're like, I want that fabric. I want that fabric, and I want that fabric. Great job.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Um, and so this would be the styles and the. This would be, like, close to what I would consider a modern quilt technique. Like, you're picking your fabrics and your pattern that all kind of go together with new materials. That's an example of that, for sure. And so I hadn't really done any like that. So this was part of another project I did, um, with these materials, so you can see how that works. But, yeah, it's really fun because you get to pick four or five things that go together, and then you arrange them and how you want.

Marco Timpano:  Yeah, and I love that. The quilting, I don't know if you'd call it pattern, but the cutouts are very rectangular, um, and square. And I will take a photo of this, uh, particular piece that we've been talking about, this placemat here, and I will put it on our Twitter so that people who are. Who are listening can sort of see the. See the image that we've just been talking about. Because sometimes you talk about something and people like, what is it they're talking about? It's nice to actually see something. And who is the quilter you most admire?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Probably my Aunt Lillian.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah. She made so many quilts, and. And she got all her material from found material.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Like, just from the family or people who threw away material. And the materials she used were reminiscent of the time that she was in. So it was a lot of 70s polyester, early 80s.

Marco Timpano:  Sure.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: You know, that's not a material used in modern day quilting, but it was what she had and what she used. And those quilts will never die. You wash them, they'll last forever. And we all have them. So when we're using them or we're together and we talk about them, it's just such a part of, like, her creativity and, like, how many hours she must have spent. I find she's a real inspiration to me when I think about my quilting.

Marco Timpano:  Oh, so there's even that connection with. With your quilting, is your Aunt Lillian?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah. Wow.

Marco Timpano:  Well, Lois, I want to thank you so much for being part of, uh, part of our podcast here and talking about quilting. I've certainly learned quite a bit. I don't think I could do it.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: You never know.

Marco Timpano:  You should, I guess, you know, it's just, it seems so meticulous and it seems so. It almost. It has a puzzle making aspect to you. Do you like doing puzzles?

Lois Tucker:  Keating: I do.

Marco Timpano:  Okay.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Yeah.

Marco Timpano:  So I'm not very great at puzzles. But you know what? I would love to, once your quilt is done, the one that you've been working on for the last six years, to do another podcast and we'll actually like, do sort of a celebration, uh, the quilt is done podcast if you're up for that.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: That's exciting. That might make me get it done sooner.

Marco Timpano:  There you go. So stay tuned for our follow up quilt episode. Lois Keating, I want to thank you so much for being part of the Insomnia Project. Thanks, Marco, as always.


The Insomnia Project is produced by Drumcast Productions

The Insomnia Project is produced by Drumcast Productions. We invite you. Rate us and, um, leave a comment on itunes. We really appreciate that we've been getting some great feedback. This particular episode was recorded at the, uh, foot of the great Lake Lake Huron here in Ontario, Canada.

Lois Tucker:  Keating: Sam.