Tag: #igquiltfest

BERNINA Ambassador Blog Tour Day 4

Today we bring you four BERNINA Ambassadors: Annie Smith, Lori Kennedy, Kari Carr and Catherine Redford who bring a wide variety of style to the quilting world. Annie is the original (and still my favorite) quilting podcaster; Lori just published a new book (more on that in a moment); Kari has a great angle on quilting, Clearly Perfect; and Catherine approaches quilt making with a modern flair.

Becoming BERNINA Ambassador is in 2013 one of the highlights of my work as a quilter. To say I longed for this would be an understatement, and worked hard to achieve this goal. Well, part of it was achieving this goal, part of this as developing my career as a free motion machine quilting teacher, with something of an art-y bent. Having a quilting career takes a lot of hard work, day by day, stitch by stitch, word by word. Making what I hope are the right choices to keep me doing what I love. Teaching and helping quilters grow in their own confidence.Growing in confidence as a quilter takes a lot of work.

Reviewing books, and hosting blog tours are part in parcel with my work as Blogger-in-Chief and Community Editor for Generation Q Magazine. Seeing people I’ve known for a while achieve success in writing, in getting the words and experiences from their head to the page thrills the soul. Often it is in reading the Intro where I find blog the words for the blog post. Lori mentions in her book Free-Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3 of the influence of Diane Gaudinski in her own work as a quilter. Diane is one of those quilters who influenced a lot of us of a certain quilterly age and by that I mean how long we’ve been quilters rather than our chronological age. The cool thing is that while Lori and I have both been influenced by Diane our quilterly paths are incredibly different. Like Diane, Lori is orderly and organized; I, on the other hand, not so much. Lori’s book is great for building skill, thinking through the stitching path, and chock full of motifs that will carry any quilter for years to come. Good work Lori!

And now it’s time for a quick visit to the other Ambassadors. Oh have fun with them. PS tomorrow I am going to post a give away, so stay tuned.

Monday March 20
Lynn Carson Harris harrislc@gmail.com
Kelly Ashton kelly@kellyquilter.com
Diane Doran info@dianedoran.com
Melody Crust melody@melodycrust.com

Tuesday March 21
Kathy Delaney kathy@kathydelaney.com
Christa Watson christa@christaquilts.com
Mandy Leins mandalei@gmail.com

Wednesday March 22
Sandy Fitzpatrick hissyfitz@earthlink.net
Beth Ferrier beth@applewd.com
Cheryl Sleboda cherylsleboda@gmail.com

Thursday March 23
Annie Smith annie@anniesmith.net
Lori Kennedy lckennedy@hotmail.com
Kari Carr kari@newleafstitches.com
Catherine Redford catherine@catherineredford.com

Friday March 24
Joanne Sharpe jzsharpe@yahoo.com
Cherry Guidry cherry@cherryblossomsquilting.com
Jenelle Montilone jenelle@trashn2tees.com

BERNINA Ambassador Blog Tour Day 3

BERNINA Ambassador Blog Tour Day 3

Sandy Fitzpatrick, Beth Ferrier, and Cheryl Sleboda are today’s featured BERNINA Ambassadors. Please don’t tell Beth but I’ve wanted to be her for a long time. Not her really but she’s been part of my quilting life for as long as I can remember.  Cheryl has become a friend, and mentor listening, sharing, offering advice as I approach some new things in my quilting life. Sandy has stylized appliqué patterns that are so fun, bringing delight to the maker, and viewer.

A few years ago a friend and I participated in an online art class. Part of the fun was learning about different styles of art. How a new style will be considered “outsider” art, until it’s accepted by the general community as something worthy of owning. During the course we made different kinds of art, including mail art.  Thinking of art reminded me of my uncle Bill Harris, who worked for the Boothbay Register, and created lots of art. (Art runs deep in our family.) The author references my uncle’s successful sale of powdered (freeze-dried) Maine Seagull Poop. This story is legendary and once appeared in Readers Digest. One of us has photos of the chalk board art he did for a local bakery every day on his way to work. This gift of art lives on.

I’ve started working on The Moon is Made of Cheese, Cheddar Cheese.

A post shared by Teri Lucas (@terilucas) on

Oh good golly miss megan I’m thrilled so far.

For now, let’s enjoy the quilters of the day: Cheryl, Beth, and Sandy.

Monday March 20
Lynn Carson Harris harrislc@gmail.com
Kelly Ashton kelly@kellyquilter.com
Diane Doran info@dianedoran.com
Melody Crust melody@melodycrust.com

Tuesday March 21
Kathy Delaney kathy@kathydelaney.com
Christa Watson christa@christaquilts.com
Mandy Leins mandalei@gmail.com

Wednesday March 22
Sandy Fitzpatrick hissyfitz@earthlink.net
Beth Ferrier beth@applewd.com
Cheryl Sleboda cherylsleboda@gmail.com

Thursday March 23
Annie Smith annie@anniesmith.net
Lori Kennedy lckennedy@hotmail.com
Kari Carr kari@newleafstitches.com
Catherine Redford catherine@catherineredford.com

Friday March 24
Joanne Sharpe jzsharpe@yahoo.com
Cherry Guidry cherry@cherryblossomsquilting.com
Jenelle Montilone jenelle@trashn2tees.com

BERNINA Ambassadors: Telling our Stories Day 1

Through the efforts of Jenelle Montilone we’re taking the tour to Instagram and other social media using the hastags: #igquiltfest , and #berninaambassador. Today we get to meet Lynn Carson Harris, Kelly Ashton, Diane Doran, and Melody Crust.

Hosting a blog tour of great talent is humbling and that’s when Mandy Leins posted a link to this article, Why Writers are the Worst Procrastinators (Megan McArdle), commenting that subbing quilters for writers and there ya go. And this paragraph reminded me of a conversation with another quilter:

This fear of being unmasked as the incompetent you “really” are is so common that it actually has a clinical name: impostor syndrome. A shocking number of successful people (particularly women), believe that they haven’t really earned their spots, and are at risk of being unmasked as frauds at any moment. Many people deliberately seek out easy tests where they can shine, rather than tackling harder material that isn’t as comfortable.

Yeah we all thing good golly someday someone will realize I’m a fake and it’ll be all over.

Oh I imagine that no one is really surprised by our thoughts, as all of us have them. Each one of these quilters has muddled through, making quilts, developing technique, teaching, writing, planning, day by day to keep fresh, alive, and active in the quilting community.

Lynn is working on a series of quilts telling the story of domestic violence, is the author of Every Last Piece.

Kelly make challenging angles easy peasy with her techniques. And this woman can sing. Wow.

Diane holy mother of purple she can quilt with her work taking an artistic bent. Simply wow. After reading her blog, head over to her website to check out her gallery.

Melody well I just had a WOW! What?! I had no idea moment. (it’s not what I actually said but we’ll leave that there.) Look HERE.

When we get to Friday I’m going to post a giveaway. I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing yet so…hold on tight!

Monday March 20
Lynn Carson Harris harrislc@gmail.com
Kelly Ashton kelly@kellyquilter.com
Diane Doran info@dianedoran.com
Melody Crust melody@melodycrust.com

Tuesday March 21
Kathy Delaney kathy@kathydelaney.com
Christa Watson christa@christaquilts.com
Mandy Leins mandalei@gmail.com

Wednesday March 22
Sandy Fitzpatrick hissyfitz@earthlink.net
Beth Ferrier beth@applewd.com
Cheryl Sleboda cherylsleboda@gmail.com

Thursday March 23
Annie Smith annie@anniesmith.net
Lori Kennedy lckennedy@hotmail.com
Kari Carr kari@newleafstitches.com
Catherine Redford catherine@catherineredford.com

Friday March 24
Joann Sharpe jzsharpe@yahoo.com
Cherry Guidry cherry@cherryblossomsquilting.com
Jenelle Montilone jenelle@trashn2tees.com