Week 27: An Introduction

Hello everyone! I'm so excited to be here blogging for 52 Quilters!

Camille and Tony

My name is Camille Ainsworth and I wanted to introduce myself to everyone. My husband, Tony, and will be married for 6 years this September. We have 3 dogs: two Yorkies, Chewie and Mara, and a yellow Lab, Katy. We live in the beautiful Willamette Valley in Oregon, where wineries abound.

Katy

Chewie

Mara

I've been quilting off and on for about 15 years. Some years more off than on but it finally became something I enjoyed about 3 years ago. The reason why I tried quilting was because my mom did it and I was emulating her. So as a teenager, I'd just sit and watch her. Watching is a big part of my learning process and I usually watch a lot before I jump in and do anything. When I was 20, I designed my own paper piecing pattern with a little help from my mom, pieced it, and my mom quilted it for me. This was the first finished piece I had ever done. The quilt is a depiction of the family dog at the time, a Greyhound named Posie.

 From there, I typically only made quilts for people for a specific reason, someone was having a baby, housewarming gift, friend having surgery. But something happened, not sure what, but I started enjoying the process more and I have been learning more. I mostly do traditional piecing but I'm starting to branch out. I have done some paper piecing but haven't enjoyed the process as much but I keep trying and I just started doing English Paper Piecing this year which I never thought I'd like. It has helped me with doing better at binding quilts. I'm also branching out and starting to do some of my own machine quilting. My mom has a longarm so by default anything throw size or larger goes to her.

I wanted to talk a little bit about style and influences, as well. I started out making traditional patterns, more traditional colors because that's what my mom and her quilt group did. But as things have evolved, I'm trying to figure out what is my style. I'm part of the Corvallis Modern Quilt Guild but I wouldn't say I'm strictly modern. I love Pam Kitty, Bonnie & Camille, Thimbleblossoms and Lori Holt, too. And I L-O-V-E batiks. I don't think I could ever get away from them. So I'm at a point where I'm still trying to figure out my own style but I don't want to pigeon hole myself as one specific thing so for right now I do a little bit of everything.

I'm looking forward to sharing with you the rest of my week. Since it's Wednesday some of you have already seen the photos on Instagram from the Tula Pink class I took at Quilter's Affair in Sisters on Monday. I had a lot of fun and learned something new in the process. I'll be headed back to Sisters on Thursday for a couple lectures and then the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show on Saturday. Hoping the weather holds for now!

Post by Camille - Week #27: 

Native San Diegan living in the Pacific Northwest. I'm married to a wonderful man and we have three dog babies; Chewie, Mara, and Katy. I've been a quilter off and on for about 15 years and I made my first complete quilt at 20. Quilting finally "clicked" for me about 3 years ago and I've been going ever since. Visit me on instagram atopalcreekstudio.