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Monday, September 7, 2009

I love my job!






I have the greatest job in the world! I get to see new fabrics before the general public and design great quilts with them! I am working on a couple new collections from Hoffman that are so fantastic (but aren't they all), I wanted to give you a sneak peak at the collection and the quilt that I am currently working on. The first one is called Treasures from the East. The block I am using is Rob Peter to Pay Paul.

I love designing quilts with curves. They add so much movement to a quilt. When I am teaching a class many of the quilters tell me they are afraid to sew curves. After much frustration myself in trying to keep the edges together when sewing, I have developed my own unique pinning method for perfect curves every time and I get so much satisfaction showing it to my students! After taking my class the quilters tell me that it wasn't as hard as they thought. I will post photos of this technique tomorrow.

I am the first quilter in my family. I do come from a long line of sewers. My grandfather was a tailor and my mother a home ec. teacher and seamstress. I started crafting at a young age, teaching myself to knit and crochet and then started sewing at 13. I made a lot of my own clothes. I took my first quilting class in 1985 from Jackie Robinson, who owned the local quilt shop in St. Louis, Missouri (before she became famous). My mother took the class with me. That summer I got hooked on quilting, but sadly to say, my mother didn't. I didn't start designing my own quilts until I worked in a quilt shop in 1995 and began entering contest. It was so exciting to see one of my quilts in print in Miniature Quilt Magazine and then winning a prize in the Hoffman Challenge! That spurred me on to design more.

Well, got to get back to sewing. I hope I whet your appetite to learn more about me and to see what I am working on. Please be sure to visit my website http://www.gatewayquiltsnstuff.com/ to see my gallery of quilts and lots of wonderful products.

Everyday do what you love and love what you do. 'Til tomorrow, Toby






2 comments:

laura west kong said...

Welcome to the quilty blogosphere! What a great color palette. I love designing quilts with curves, but my curves usually come from applique. =(^_^)=

So Easy Quilts said...

Very nice start. I'm glad I'm not the only one starting a blog. I started one this week too. It's soeasyquilts.blogspot.com. I also love your website.

Geri