October 26, 2011
When Bill Maki was a young boy in public school, he would always doodle on his notebooks, it was his second nature. The other kids in his room constantly asked Bill to draw cartoons on their books, which included famous comic characters such as Popeye, Superman, Mickey Mouse and many others. To this day, you would never want to leave any paper, be it a document, ad or unmarked paper, near Bill, especially if there’s a pencil or pen nearby. His family can verify this fact. Our son Al was a cartoonist who’s drawings were very much like his dad’s. He drew cartoons for his university paper. Life caught up with Al and he didn’t have much time to draw.
Ever since I’ve known Bill, (1954), I knew of his love and respect for Charles M. Schulz. First, because Schulz was a Christian; second, he was journalist and cartoonist. Snoopy and Charlie Brown were Bill’s favourite characters.
Bill and I have know Bill N. for more years than we want to admit. He and I both worked at Canada Safeway’s. Every Halloween the two Bill’s would make plans to meet when it got dark at the Pumpkin Patch and wait for Great Pumpkin to arrive. Sadly to this day, The Great Pumpkin has never shown up. Who knows? Maybe this will be the year.
I decided I would make a snoopy quilt for Bill N by printing out a Peanuts cartoon on my Printed Treasures. Heather S., my quilting friend, gave me eight Peanuts' gang fat quarters to make a quilt for Bill Maki. I chose the pattern Snapshot by Mountainpeek Creations, Centinnial, CO. When I finished Bill Maki’s quilt, I used the scrap to make the Bill N quilt.
On the Bill N. quilt,I used Mono Ploy (invisible) thread on my new Husqvarnia Sapphire 835 sewing machine. I quilted it on the grid, my thread kept breaking. I asked my friends to sew a line on my quilt, it broke for them, even the two professional sewers.
I changed the tension all the way down to 0, moved the spool of thread to horizontal then vertical position, on a spool holder, in front, at the back, used sewing advisor “C”. I used every type and size needle available and every type of thread for the bobbin. Nothing worked. The thread still broke. At first I was upset because I couldn’t figure out why the thread broke for me and not for others. Then I was mad, Lastly, I didn’t care, I did the best I could. As Bill Maki tells me, “No one will ever notice from the back of a galloping horse.”
Peanut's Gang Quilt
Label
Monday and Tuesday I made a piece of fabric by sewing together all my scraps from the Peanuts' gang fabric. It measured 19” x 32”. I tried quilting it with the clear thread and it broke after sewing about ten inches.
I informed Eric, the gentleman I purchased the Husqvarnia from and here is his reply.
Hello
If you like you can ship the machine to us make sure to insure it.
I will need the thread and material you are sewing on
We will make it work perfectly and ship it back at no charge.
Eric
I’m off to the American border and now it’s his problem.
In 1970 Bill Maki sent this drawing to Charles Schulz who autographed it and sent it back to Bill. This is something Charles M. Schulz would never do later in his life.
