A Quilter's Life

The work on Kim Brownell’s quilts gravitate towards animals, nature scenes, and bright colors.  Her techniques include and blend: fabric collage, free form art quilts, raw-edge applique, as well as many others.  Kim has a passion for entering quilt challenges which spark her imagination and inspire her.  She says her dream is to also inspire you to have fun and to help you learn what you can create. 

Here are a couple of Kim's quilts

Connect with Kim:

Website: The Wacky Doddle Quilter

Facebook: Kim Brownell

Instagram: the.wackydoodle.quilter

 

And Thanks to Mel Beach for sending Kim to A Quilter’s Life

Connect with Mel –

Website: Mel Beach Quilts

Facebook: Mel Beach Quilts

Instagram: melbeachquilts

Pinterest: Mel Beach

YouTube: Mel Beach Quilts      Don't forget to subscribe to her YouTube channel

And Mel’s episode on A Quilter’s Life: Mel Beach

 

This remarkable interview with Dana Jones is a little longer than the average episode of A Quilter’s Life, but you know how it is when you get chatting with quilters.  Dana loves teaching quilting from beginning classes to advanced techniques, from teaching her own designs to teaching quilts designed by others.  And she shared with us many of her wonderful insights.

We talked about Dana's Peace Cranes Over Hiroshima

Here are her Warp Speed and Don't Call Me Girl quilts

Connect with Dana

Website: Dana Jones Quilts

Facebook: Dana Jones Quilts

 

And Thanks to Mel Beach for sending Dana to A Quilter's Life!

Mel's episode on A Quilter's Life: Mel Beach

Website: Mel Beach Quilts

Facebook: Mel Beach Quilts

Instagram: melbeachquilts

Pinterest: Mel Beach

YouTube: Mel Beach Quilts

Christa Watson is passionate about all things that have to do with domestic machine quilting.  She is an award-winning quilter, pattern designer, author, and digital educator!  After the interview I remembered I should have asked Christa about the sewing cabinet that she co-designed with Arrow.  I’ve seen it demonstrated and it looks fabulous.  Then a little later I received an email from her and she shared that her Colorful Chaos quilt that we talked about was juried into the quilt show in Paducah.  I’m so happy for her!  So if you’re able to get to that show make sure to look for it.

Here's Christa's Colorful Chaos quilt

I had the privilege to meet Christa in person at QuiltCon 2024

Connect with Christa

Website: Christa Quilts

Facebook: Christa Watson

Instagram: christaquilts

Pinterest: Christa Quilts

YouTube: Christa Quilts       Don't forget to subscribe to her YouTube channel

Bea Byrne is a quilter, artist and entrepreneur living in Oakland, California.  She has a love of anything to do with textiles but her real passion is quilting. After a career in tech and events Bea realized that organizing and hosting an online conference would be the perfect way to merge the two worlds.  She has created the Quilt n Learn events which include teachers from all over the world.  And if you’ve been listening to A Quilter’s Life for a while you may even recognize some of the teachers at this event.

Here's Bea's quilt Self Portrait Triptych

To connect with Bea for the Quilt n Learn events

Website: Quilt n Learn

Facebook: Quilt n Learn

Instagram: quiltnlearn

YouTube: QuiltnLearn

 

To Connect with Bea about her teaching and lectures

Website: Bea Byrne

Facebook: Bea Byrne

Instagram: beabyrneartist

 

And Thanks to Mel Beach for sending Bea to A Quilter's Life

Connect with Mel –

Website: Mel Beach Quilts

Facebook: Mel Beach Quilts

Instagram: melbeachquilts

Pinterest: Mel Beach

YouTube: Mel Beach Quilts

And Mel's episode on A Quilter's Life: Mel Beach

You'll probably noticed before you start listening, this episode with Theresa Benson is about twice as long as our average episode.  Theresa has so much to offer!  Her workshops are a fusion of art and technology, where quilters of all levels discover that color theory and AI can go hand in hand.  Whether she’s unraveling the mysteries of tech for the quilting community or sharing her passion for fabrics and patterns, Theresa’s enthusiasm is infectious.  It won’t take long for you to join in her enthusiasm on this episode too!

Theresa's portrait quilts

And some of her animal quilt designs

I just love Theresa's smile!

Connect with Theresa

Website: The AI Quilter

Facebook: The AI Quilter 

Facebook Group: The AI Quilt Guild

Instagram: theaiquilter

YouTube: The AI Quilter

If you want to connect on her professional level

Linkedin: Theresa Benson

Website: Radiant Meatball

The podcast that Thresa and her friend, Amy Redbird host on the importance of laughter and strength in personal development and mental wellness:  Healarious

Sondrasa has found quilting to be the perfect pallet for her creativity. Playing with the mediums of fabric and thread to create her own unique brand of fabric art for international quilt shows and also creating her own quilt patterns which are designed to help even a confident beginner create beautiful quilts. Sondrasa sees every quilt as a work of art knowing that the maker has made it out of a labor of love.

Here's Sondrasa's Desert Spring BOM

Connect with Sondrasa

Website: Art Quilts by Design

Facebook: Art Quilts by Design

Instagram: sondrasasews

YouTube: Art Quilts by Design

Twitch: Sondrasa

 

I knew when Mel Beach shared that at a young age she had memorized who the artist was of each sculpture in the museum near her, that she was going to be sharing some brilliant information with us and I wasn’t disappointed.  We can easily see how her life experiences molded her into an inspiring quilt teacher.  I loved the quote from her coach that “If you had fun, you won.”

This is Mel's Emerald Gardens quilt.  I still can't believe it's only 12" x 12".

  Connect with Mel -

Website: Mel Beach Quilts

Facebook: Mel Beach Quilts

Instagram: melbeachquilts

Pinterest: Mel Beach

YouTube: Mel Beach Quilts

 

Again my thanks to Carolina Moore for encouraging Mel to be interviewed.

Here’s where you can find Carolina:

Website:  Always Expect Moore.com

YouTube: Carolina Moore

Pinterest:  Carolina Moore

Instagram:  craftmoore

Facebook:  Always Expect Moore

Podcast: I Love Notions

 

Tonya Dunning started her business to get the word out about fidget quilts. Since then she has expanded her line with other fidget items. She learned how to write quilt patterns and realized that she loves editing and writing. So she not only writes her own patterns but is able to edit patterns for other quilt designers.

Examples of Tonya's fidget quilts.  The last picture is the marble fidget.

Connect with Tonya

Website:  Memory Barn Studio

Facebook: Memory Barn Studio

Instagram: memorybarnstudio

YouTube: Memory Barn Studio

 

I want to give a shout out to Danelle Howard for encouraging Tonya to share her story on A Quilter’s Life.

If you missed Danelle's interview on A Quilter's Life - Danelle Howard

Here’s Danelle's links:

Website:  Cottage Path Quilting

Instagram: cottagepathquilting

YouTube: Danelle Howard – My Gathering Basket

 

I’m excited to share the favorite quilting tools of my guests on A Quilter’s Life podcast from 2024.  I love how this list changes from year to year.  You’d think that they were sharing the new and improved tools that we all love to get our hands on.  But it seems we are all so thankful that we have some basic quilting tools that allow us to make our beautiful quilts.

 

Computer Software - Design quilts

Seam Guide - Seams So Easy by Lori Holt   You don’t have to draw the lines for half square triangles or flying geese.  It makes it easy.

Needle - Brand new sharp applique needle.  Hand needles get dull also and it stitches like butter when it’s brand new.

Oliso Iron 

Thimble - Handmade leather thimble

Seam Ripper - Seam Ripper to correct our mistakes

Quilting Hoop - A Norwood frame that sits on a pedestal with a ball joint swivel

Design Wall - Fons and Porter has grommets to hang it

Scissors

Karen Kay Buckley little red handed scissors 

Karen K Buckley scissors for collage 

small scissors to get in small places

Sewing Machine

Juki to sew fast

Quilting Machine

Digital dual foot on sewing machine.  Has special censors and keeps everything neat

Stiletto

Stiletto it makes tricky piecing go so much better

Stiletto helps grip fabric,  Been indispensable on art quilting.

African porcupine quill stiletto  Not going to harm your machine like a metal or wood one might.

Light box.

Helps make pet portraits to get the colors and shapes right.  

Also for paperpiecing.  

When drawing patterns when making mosaics.

Light desk to create nice applique patterns.

Rulers

Stripology Ruler -

 Easy to make squares.  For instance you can lay it on the fabric and cut the size you want your square.  Then turn the fabric a quarter of a turn and lay the ruler on again and cut the same length again and you have perfect squares.

Efficiency

 to cut lots of small pieces especially 1 in squares

Lock Bloc Ruler helps to make perfect half square triangles.

Basic ruler and rotary cutter - With this simple tool the possibilities are endless.

Cutting board - we compared that she used to use scissors and made templates from sandpaper

Quilter Select Rulers - These rulers don’t slip or slide when cutting. 

2.5x6in ruler.

4”x10” ¼ inch ruler to use on longarm.

Cricket that cuts fabric

I hope you have enjoyed another year of favorite tools.  I am looking forward to 2025 to hear more stories of the wonderful people behind all the beautiful quilts.  And I’m sure you are too!

Sharing a tip has always been a question for each of my guests on A Quilter’s Life podcast.  But this is the third year I have put them into an episode sharing just the tips from the year..  This year I’m going to add who gave the tip so if you want to look them up you can.

We received so many great tips this year.  I wanted to have a top 10 list, but I ended up with 12.  These first eight are tips that just one person gave this year.

Wash batiks before cutting.  Those fabrics tend to bleed more because of the process used to create them.

When making covered corners, also known as snowballed corners, instead of following the normal directions of sew, trim, press.  Change the order to sew, press, and trim.  The bias edge won’t stretch as it does with the first way.

Take a picture which helps, but also go the next step and change the picture to black and white and it helps with color placement.  I have been amazed when I’ve used Jan’s tip.  Certain blocks show that they’re out of place when using this process.

 Make sure you read through the instructions completely before you start the project and measure things thoroughly before you cut them out.  We’ve all been there when we’re in a hurry and we’re so sure we understand and measured correctly.  But taking that extra step to double check is always worth it.

 Try a new fabric that you’ve never used before in quilting and mix it in with the fabric you have.  Repurpose a pillow or something simple where you can experiment.  I still haven’t reached a comfort level to try this.  Have you?  Maybe I just need to take that leap.

Don’t over think.  Instead when you think about it just do it.

Don’t be afraid.  Robyn’s tip could probably apply for me to try Lisa’s tip.

Suggested the book Walk by Jacquie Gering because Jacquie’s explanation of how to get a good sandwich and how you get a good stitch is like nothing else Mary has ever seen. 

Gave two tips.  First - Slow down.  Dora’s second tip is to make a template out of batting.  She also has a no baste quilting method. Don’t need to pin it because cotton sticks to cotton.  

Make sure you have a good ¼ foot on your sewing machine.  Makes a difference on your pattern and your seams.  It’s a personal preference if you want to press the seams open or to the side. 

Make sure you have your quarter inch seams good!

When you pull your thread off of the spool.  Use the end that you started pulling to go through your needle and knot the end that you cut.  Because of the way it’s wound on to the spool this will help your thread not to knot as much.

Threads are wound in two different ways.  Stack wound thread is just wound (kinda looks like a stack of pancakes) and cross wound thread will look like shoe laces where you can see an x or a v shape made by the thread.  The stack wound goes on a vertical pin and the cross wound thread goes on the horizontal pin.  If you put it on the wrong pin the thread will get too twisted and break.

Starch will make you more precise.  Makes it easier to cut and sew.  

You should Starch and Iron your fabric before you cut them.  It makes life so much easier.  Then big picture, try new things.

Starch your fabrics before you cut them.

Trust your gut on what you’re making.  If you want to make it a certain way, make it that way.

Start out with what you love.  If it’s an advanced pattern, figure out the building blocks.  Instead of feeling like you’re drowning in a style

Keep learning.  Audra tries to incorporate something new in each quilt she makes.  Find what works for you.

Quilt what you love.  Seems like the projects that were purchased because others were doing it were the projects that didn’t get finished.

Don’t sew when you’re hungry. (being silly)  Unless you’re getting paid for your quilting, don’t feel like you have to follow someone’s advice.  Consider it, but decide for yourself if it’s something you want to do.

Relax and have fun.  Also buy the best fabric, thread, and needles that you can afford.  So many times the sewing machine doesn’t work correctly only to find out we just needed to change the needle.

There’s no right or wrong.  Play outside the box and do what you want with quilting.  

You are the only person that has to be satisfied with the work that you’re doing on your quilt.

When you show your quilt don’t point out the mistakes.  There are no mistakes in quilting.  Just say Thank You and that you’re glad you finished your quilt.

Break the Rules.  You’ll discover new ways to do things.

Make the quilt you want to make.  If you don’t like it you won’t finish it.

If you’re sewing curves, the less pins the better.

If you’re thinking of giving up on quilting, but you’re enjoying at least part of it, keep doing it.  Finish that quilt.  Each quilt you make will get better.  You don’t need to keep ripping out to try to make it perfect.