Angels, saints, sinners, strange beasts. Fire eye-browed women and prickly landscapes step out of the air and into my work. I can’t help it. These odd characters and scenes aren’t predetermined, they just happen. I don’t use patterns, rarely make sketches, refuse to pin, never measure (except at the very end), sometimes I don’t even worry about the back of my quilts and the knots and snarls that bedevil us all whether we admit it or pick them out or not.

Let’s get one thing straight here at the start. Many (most?) of you reading Quilting Gallery are traditional quilters. You are the backbone of the interest and the audience and most of the quilt store customers and you are skilled! From reading a number of the other guest bloggers, I suspect I am in the minority here, but I will promise to make this a good read. Maybe even challenge you to give up your perfect points in the next quilt you make. (Sorry, that was uncalled-for.)

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“Busy hands are happy hands,” so Grandmother always said, patiently teaching me how to thread a needle, as I fumbled with the thimble. I have long since abandoned thimble-usage. My rough, calloused thumbs are proof.

My grandmother’s example as she tenderly taught me, has stuck with me through the years. I am able to stick it out as I wrestle with tangled thread and fabric without biting my tongue clear off or tearing my hair completely out. As my fingers work the needle, guiding the thread through the fabric, tight muscles relax, releasing the day’s or week’s tensions…cares easily roll off my shoulders. Ahh…I find quilting to be very relaxing.

I am happiest sewing by hand. I have nothing against the sewing machine. In fact, I like the speed and accuracy a sewing machine offers. Yet, there is something very satisfying about quilting by hand. It’s hard to explain. Go ahead and shout out if you know what I mean. Perhaps, one of you can put it into words better than I.

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your own quilting history, how did you get started quilting

My introduction to quilting was a bit like a religious experience…. Well, I’m not too sure what a religious experience is like because I’m not religious, but…. I’ve seen it in movies and "I want what she’s having"

I was a fashion designer at the time and I was winding down after raring 15 children and running my own fashion business for 20 years…. In fact, I needed a break.

HA, I sort of went from one thing to the next…. Even though I was a designer with a lot of fabric experience, I really had to learn the basics of quilting…. I took to it like a duck to water and many times I sank…. but I learned from my friends and I re-surfaced.

That was 20 years ago now…. Now I travel the world teaching and lecturing and having the most amazing time in quilting.

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Greetings, Quilters! I’m so pleased to be invited to be a guest blogger (thanks, Michele!) and to connect with other quilters.

I am Annie Unrein, a pattern designer and teacher who lives in St. George, Utah, and Sitka, Alaska. (Yes, I truly have the best of both worlds, as I get to enjoy the sunny desert southwest in the fall, winter, and spring and then retreat to the beauty of Alaska when it gets hot!)

A quilter for over 30 years, I have been designing patterns since 2000. In addition to patterns for quilts and lots of fun bags, purses, and fashion accessories, I also have great patterns for organizational items that help you organize all your sewing and quilting supplies. A place for everything and everything in its place is my goal. Of course, if any of you have ever seen my sewing studio, you know that is often a pie-in-the-sky-type goal!

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Hi All!

I am Shannon Menninger of angelicquilts.com and I have been quilting for about 6 years now. I am not a professional nor have I written any books on quilting. I have designed one quilt myself and completed it. I sent it to my husband while he was stationed in the Middle East.

I started quilting when my sister and I walked into a great shop in Chesapeake, VA called The Quilting Bee. All the quilters there were so helpful, whether they worked there or not. It is now the shop by which I judge all others. My first class was a rail fence quilt over the course of 6 weeks. Before the 6 weeks were up my sister and I had taken at least 3 other classes. After the first class I was hooked. My sister and I finished quilts for at least 5 people by the end of that first year of quilting.

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Hello from the beautiful west coast of BC, Canada! My name is Shawn and I’m pretty much a ‘newbie’ in the quilting game when compared to many of the wonderful quilters out there. My first quilt was made during my grade 12 Home Economics class, a simple 9-patch on point and the fabric was polyester Fortrel – the fabric that never dies! I still have that quilt tucked away looking just as new as when I made it.

I did more garment and drapery sewing for many years while I raised my family. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I became interested in quilts again and decided that I wanted a hand-made quilt.

I fell in love with Hawaiian quilts while on vacation and then again with the beautiful hand-quilted works of art I saw in Nova Scotia a short time later. The price tag on these quilts made me think twice and I decided that I could make a quilt myself.

After all, I’ve made and designed clothes and drapery how hard could it be? Well, famous last words of course. After walking into a quilt store and spending a couple hundred dollars, my second quilt was a small lap quilt and I realized that perhaps those price tags weren’t so far off the mark and now that I’ve spent a few years quilting I know that those price tags didn’t include the time, experience and love that goes into them.

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