Setting Her Own Course: Trunk Show With Robin Ruth Long

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The Mariner’s Compass is considered challenging by some, impossible by others. Robin Ruth Long has made it downright easy. She shares a few of her quilts with us, and talks about how she charted her own course as a quilter.

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Robin Ruth Long calls it a modern Mariner’s Compass. “I’m trying to bring the block into the 21st century,” she says. Her system for Mariner’s Compasses has two paths, one based on 45-degree angles, and the other on 60-degree angles; both styles rely on strip piecing, not paper piecing. “I’ve had to convince people that my patterns are truly strip-pieced. They’ll see my quilts displayed at a show, and I’ll say, ‘This pattern is strip-pieced,’ and people will still shake their head and say, ‘I don’t do paper piecing.’” The Mariner’s Compass quilts she designs are so precise, and so complex, the fact that they’re strip-pieced is that unbelievable. (To see Long’s video of Kaffe Fassett talking about her quilt, Maha Surya, click here.)

The system uses a standard rotary cutting ruler with the 45-degree or 60-degree markings, and then brings in her specialized ruler to cut pie-shaped wedges, which then form elaborate Mariner’s Compasses. “It’s as easy as pie,” she jokes. (To see a few intro videos of her method, click here.)

When she first started, she was aiming to introduce an easier method for Mariner’s Compass. She didn’t anticipate the clamor for patterns that would follow, and has since been working hard to develop a line of patterns. She has even expanded into more intricate designs including New York Beauty and Pickle Dish. Many of Long’s patterns showcase new collections from fabric designers, with whom she works directly. She travels the country teaching workshops and presenting trunk shows, and her classes at both Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show in Sisters, Oregon, and Empty Spools Seminar in Asilomar, California, routinely sell out. And it all came from a quilt she wanted to make in 1992 for her husband, David, a newly commissioned naval officer, when they were stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. “I mean, a Mariner’s Compass—he’s in the Navy, right?” She took the traditional approach according to what a book told her, drafting the shapes and then trying to put them together. Things were changing around that time, with the rotary cutter just coming into common use. New rulers were being developed to work with the snazzy new cutters, and it occurred to Long that she could create a ruler that might make this whole Mariner’s Compass pattern far, far easier. She came up with a ruler, cobbled together from leftover Plexiglas and some tape to mark the angles.

Inventing a ruler to solve such a puzzle seems a step beyond “hobby” to most people, but that’s just how Long was raised. Her deeply ingrained problem-solving skills developed as a young girl growing up on a ranch in eastern Washington state. “If things went wrong—and they go wrong all the time—you needed to figure out how to make it work. We were miles from town.” After attending a quilting class with her grandmother, Zella Miller, in 1985, Long began making quilts, primarily as gifts. At first, she made simple quilts, like an Irish chain, but swiftly she began to tackle the more complex designs.

“I was a prolific garment sewer, so quilting techniques didn’t really daunt me.” She had the ability to look at a pattern and, once she had the technique down and the tools in hand, just figure it out. For 16 years, Long ran a gift shop, called Sun Prairie Trading Co., alongside her mother, and quilting remained a hobby. The experience of owning a retail store gave her a deep understanding of how the business worked, which gave her a leg up when she finally did come back to her ruler. “I had expected in all those years to walk into a quilt shop and see [a version of my ruler] in there, but it just never happened.” So when it came time to start a new business, that DIY ruler was re-surfaced. The business part went smoothly. She knew how to develop a plan, how to approach manufacturers, and how to network. “I’m not shy. If I want to know something, I’ll just call people up and see if they’re willing to talk to me.” The harder part turned out to be pattern designing. Because she could personally take a tool and a technique and “figure it out,” she assumed most people did that, too. “I figured everyone would want to do their own thing.” Instead, she was surprised that students wanted detailed patterns that incorporated her methods. So, as is her nature, she boot-strapped herself into learning the software and writing patterns. “I’m sure I’m not the only pattern writer to feel this way, but I wish I could spend more time in front of the sewing machine.”

She also didn’t have experience as a teacher, which is shocking given how well Long does it. “I’ve always been very methodical, that’s my nature,” says Long. “I spent a lot of time on the retail floor, and people absorb things in different ways—aural, visual, some need demonstrations, some can just look at a picture—and with experience, you see right away what’s working.” Her classes are structured in steps, with strict rules that everyone moves to the next step together. “You can repeat the step—make two blocks!—but you can’t advance to the next step.” This allows her to give more in-depth and individualized instruction, which is invaluable. Probably the most amazing part of her work is that with her strip-pieced Mariner’s Compass method, most students report that their first Mariner’s Compass took anywhere from 1½ to 3 hours, and you only get faster after that. “It takes me half an hour to make a Mariner’s Compass,” Long says. “Unheard of, right?” Well, until now. Happy quilting! Vanessa

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