Hello My Quilting Friends

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027. Quilting Along with Margaret Leuwen Aug 23, 2017

Show notes

Today I'm chatting with Margaret Leuwen the business owner behind MissMarkersQuilts.com. Margaret is a longarm quilter, shares YouTube videos, and hosts fun quilt alongs throughout the year. For the past few years Margaret has shared quilt along projects online. This year instead of one massive quilt along, she's sharing Quilt of the Quarter - four different quilts which take a quarter of the year to create and are made with fat quarters! Her last Quilt of the Quarter will be this beautiful Christmas tree quilt using Kaffe Fasset fabrics. All of the Quilts of the Quarter are projects Margaret designs herself to tackle her fat quarter stash. She designs the quilt patterns so you can make multiple sizes depending on how many fat quarters you start with. This is great because fat quarters are often something I collect, but find hard to use up! Margaret shares the How-To information of her quilt alongs on YouTube and shares any written directions on Facebook. She has trouble with the written directions, but can easily show you how to do something in video. She learned how to do this when her daughter was in Idaho and wanted to learn how tie a quilt. Margaret tried to write out the directions, but that didn't work so she grabbed a camera and shot a video of Margaret, her sister, and her mom teaching her daughter how to tie a quilt. Margaret started a blog and kept it going for awhile, but just didn't feel like it got traction. She was focusing more on her longarm quilting business and her YouTube channel and her fans kept asking for a Facebook Group which really took off this year. Margaret is most looking forward to watching her grandchildren grow up, being apart of her loving family, and continuing to teach and share quilting. Learn more about Margaret Leuwen at her website http://www.missmarkersquilts.com/

026. Running an Online and Brick and Mortar Quilt Shop with Amy Johnson Aug 09, 2017

Show notes

Meet Amy Johnson, the creator of Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures where she's shared many videos on machine quilting with rulers. She's was one of the first quilters to try longarm rulers on her home machine and she's taught two Craftsy classes on this topic as well: Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine and Creative Quilting with Rulers. She started by simply blogging her quilting adventures, then taught the Craftsy class and opened an online store to carry the tools, rulers, and feet that support the classes. I send everyone to Amy's website for ruler feet because she will know what foot will fit your machine the best. Amy was a stay at home mom, but then her husband was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and this changed their lives completely. Now he works repairing the sewing machines at Sew Simple, the machine dealership they own in Lynchburg, VA. They've just recently moved the shop to a new building that has a separate classroom so Amy has space for teaching and machines. We worked together last year on the Tunic Challenge. Each week we shared our progress on a tunic from The Tunic Bible in blog posts. Come to think of it, I need to make another tunic for the summer! We talked a bit about the challenges brick and mortar quilt shops are going through with competition from online stores. Many store owners feel like people are "show running" the shop and looking and checking things out, but then buying online to get a better deal. That trend is driving brick and mortar shops out of business because it is VERY expensive to run a physical quilt shop. Amy is working so hard to manage her two businesses and we talked a bit about burnout. Working super long days, taking care of three kids, a household, and a storefront is so much to manage. I've struggled with burnout myself and I know there's only so long you can run fast and hard before something breaks. Moving forward, Amy wants to focus more on her online business, be able to spend more time quilting and be able to step away from cutting fabric in the quilt shop. I keep telling her she needs to write a book, but as you'll see from the intro - that's a lot of work too! This episode was sponsored by April Wells from SewDarnCuteQuilting.Blogspot.com. April is a longarm quilter who can help you finish your quilts with beautiful machine quilting.

025. Teaching Sewing and Quilting Online with Laura Coia Jul 26, 2017

Show notes

Laura is a freelance educator and pattern designer and the creator behind Sew Very Easy, her YouTube Channel that has new videos coming out every Tuesday and Thursday at 2 pm. Her first video was about her tablecloth quilts - yes, she eats on her quilts! Honestly that's a great idea so we can see and enjoy more quilts around the house. Laura shares videos on sewing and quilting and plans her tutorials around seasonal projects and items she's curious about and wants to create. She occasionally will publish a series of videos like her three part how to sew on buttons, but for the most part you only need to watch one video to see the entire tutorial. Her process for creating a video is pretty simple - she gets an idea, then researches the materials required, and designs the pattern. As she's writing and planning, she's also acquiring the materials and keeps the entire project organized in a bin on her shelf. Once the bin is filled and she has all the materials and pattern created, Laura starts making the video. It takes her about two days to create the video tutorials from start to finish. She only sews one item while making the project from beginning to end so she doesn't end up with lots of half finished projects. Find Laura's YouTube Channel right here: https://www.youtube.com/SewVeryEasy

024. Graffiti Quilting with Karlee Porter Jul 12, 2017

Show notes

Meet Karlee Porter, the creator of Graffiti Quilting, a method for free motion quilting and combining designs to create unique textures for your quilts. Karlee teaches classes and has written and published two books on Graffiti Quilting. Learn more about Karlee at http://www.karleeporter.com/

023. Growing into Longarm Quilting with April Wells from Sew Darn Cute Quilting Jun 28, 2017

Show notes

Meet April Wells, a professional longarm quilter who started out making a simple baby quilt for her son. Hear how she transitioned from a home machine to a Gammill longarm and balances longarm quilting with raising her kids and homeschooling.

022. Writing Quilt Fiction with Frances O'Roark Dowell Jun 14, 2017

Show notes

Frances O'Roark Dowell is best known as the author of such novels for children as Dovey Coe and The Secret Language of Girls. More recently, she has been publishing fiction for quilters, including last year's novel, Birds in the Air. Frances is also a long-time podcaster--her podcast The Off-Kilter Quilt has been on the air for seven years now. Learn more about Frances at http://offkilterquilt.com/

021. Quilt Pattern Writing with Sheri from Whole Circle Studios May 31, 2017

Show notes

Would you like to design your own quilt pattern? Meet Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill, a quilter and pattern designer and learn her process of designing and writing patterns. Sheri specializes in designing modern quilts and patterns and believes that design and content have a symbiotic relationship. You can learn more about Sheri at WholeCircleStudio.com

020. Podcasting with Modern Sewciety host Stephanie Kendron May 17, 2017

Show notes

This week I'm chatting with the host of the Modern Sewciety podcast, Stephanie Kendron! Stephanie is a terrific quilter, business owner, and has just recently released the 120th episode of her podcast. You can find her podcast and learn more about Stephanie at http://www.modernsewciety.com/

019. Make Monochromatic Quilts with Andi Stanfield May 03, 2017

Show notes

What is a monochromatic quilt? Learn more about it in this latest podcast episode with Andi Stanfield, author of the book Monochromatic Quilts: Amazing Variety. Discover how Andi got into making quilts that highlight a single color family and how she co-authored this book with her mom Mary McElvain. Learn more about Andi at https://truebluequilts.wordpress.com

018. Quilting Superwoman Jackie Kunkel Apr 19, 2017

Show notes

Meet Jackie Kunkel, a true quilting Superwoman because she seems to be doing so much at once - teaching, writing, designing fabric and more. Learn how she balances all these different creative outlets and runs her quilting business successfully. Learn more about Jackie at https://cvquiltworks.com/

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