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!
Fortunately, I am lucky to have a husband who is very handy. We moved into a new (to us) house last spring and my pride and joy is my 19′ x 30′ sewing studio. I really love the big cutting table that Al made for me. It is sized to fit perfectly over six rolling wire basket units which hold part of my sewing stash. (See that door in the background? It opens into a big closet which holds more supplies. There is a matching closet on the other side!)
Fabrics are arranged in the wire bins by color and type. I love being able to slide out a drawer and see everything easily. Even better is being able to remove one piece of fabric without disturbing everything else.
We also bought four 4′ x 8′ sheets of 1″ thick Insulfoam at the local building supply store. Al glued them to the wall using a caulk gun and a tube of glue specially formulated for gluing foam. Then I covered the sheets with a big piece of Warm and Natural. It makes a terrific design wall!
On my design wall right now is a quilt that I am making from blocks exchanged with my best quilting buddies. The title is “You Know You Are A Quilter When. . . ” which I’ll put at the top of the quilt. I embroidered a number of quotes to go with each block. The quote by my block is, You have more projects planned than you could stitch in ten lifetimes.” Oh, how true that is for me! See the give-away below!
I get inspiration from so many talented quilters and am lucky to have Heather Purcell, aka Mother Superior of Superior Threads, as a “partner-in-crime” in many of my quilting adventures. Heather is terrific with color and design and several of my quilt patterns began in her amazing brain. (She once told me that she can actually hear the electrical currents crackling in her brain. It didn’t surprise me one bit!)
I travel to quilt shows all around the country with Superior Threads, where I get to see amazing quilts, meet talented quilters and designers, and share my patterns and designs with others.
Here’s Heather holding a quilt that we designed together. We called it Chinese New Year because it reminded us of a sky full of exploding fireworks.
I used only two fabrics to make Chinese New Year: a solid Michael Miller black and a beautiful hand-painted batik from Bold Over Batiks!. I love their bright, bold fabrics and have used them in a number of patterns. Go to my website to see kits for my Executive Carryalls and Laptop Computer Carriers made using the Bold Over Batiks! fabrics. They are stunning!
I love to teach and was just designated an official “Superior Educator”, having spent three wonderful days teaching at the Superior Threads School of Threadology Seminar here in St. George, Utah. We introduced a brand-new product which is used to easily create texture on fabric. In one of the classes, each student texturized a piece of fabric and used it to make a cute little drawsring bag from a pattern that I designed.
It will be at least two or three months before this fun new product is available. So, watch my blog or subscribe to my email newsletter to be sure that you’ll be notified as soon as it is available for shipment.
Give-Away
Please share your ending to the sentence “You know you are a quilter when. . . “ in the comments section of the blog. We’ll choose a favorite and the winner will receive the pattern of their choice from my website, www.byannie.com. Feel free to include the name of the pattern you’d like when you submit your quote. A winner will be chosen on Thursday, February 19th.
It was a pleasure to share a little of my quilting world with you! Thanks again for the opportunity, Michele.
Happy stitching,
Annie
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