Amanda interviewed Ashelyn Downs of Urban Dwell Studio and The Grateful Thread podcast. Ashelyn is a wife, mom of five, pattern designer, podcast host and artist.
From an early age, Ashelyn was always creating. From playing “art school” with cousins and forcing her younger sisters to practice dance routines and plays for hours on end to constructing mini homes from Q-tips and glue, there was always something to transform or beautify. As an adult, her love for textiles flourished as she found herself making her family’s house into a home.
During the pandemic, she began transforming vintage quilts into useable products and a small business was born. Upon working with so many incredible quilts, Ashelyn decided to try her own hand at this artform that was such a large part of her life; so, she made her first quilt in March 2022. Then, she made another. And another... and another.
While she is fairly new to quilting, her sewing experience, pattern writing and design background have culminated into creating beginner friendly quilt patterns that represent the styles and the spaces of the people that get to use them.
Pulling inspiration from the full evolution of 20th century architecture, 90’s grunge, street art, travel and pop culture, she combines minimalist color pallets and artistic concepts to her work, which she hopes will inspire the next generation of quilters so that, when they discover the joy that is quilting, that there is an entire subculture corner of the quilting world with their names on it- waiting, with arms wide open.

You can find Ashelyn's amazing work here: 
https://www.urbandwellstudio.com/
https://www.instagram.com/urbandwellstudio/
https://www.instagram.com/thegratefulthreadpodcast/

Want more? You can also find Amanda here: 
IG: https://www.instagram.com/sweetpeadesigncompany 
https://www/instagram.com/notyourgrannysquiltshow

 Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetPeaDesignCoShop 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtEPHeSuFjeQNIUPfk78ynA 

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notyourgrannysquiltshow at gmail dot com