Week 13 - Introduction

Hello everyone! I am thrilled to be part of this adventure. My name is Andi, owner of True Blue Quilts. I am a longarm quilter, pattern designer and teacher and I will share more about those activities as the week goes on. I live in Phoenix, Arizona with my husband and my school-age daughter.

My mom taught me to quilt. Although she sewed garments when I was a child, I never touched a sewing machine until age 34. Mom decided to open a fabric and yarn shop and I started working with her. The quilting bug (addiction?!?) took over almost immediately.

Here is my first quilt. I fell in love with the Alexander Henry fabric (animals on blue background) and picked other lovelies for a scrappy pattern. It's reversible! A friend quilted it with fabulous animals in the border.

This Crumb Quilt (pattern/technique by Nancy Chong) was a turning point in my quilting journey. 

 I had a vision for the quilting, with a circular element in the squares and a water design in the pieced areas, but I got frustrated with the quilting process on my domestic machine. That solidified my desire for a longarm.

My husband was agreeable and we had the space in our loft, so I bought a Gammill Classic Plus. I joined a longarm group and participated in their yearly challenges, which was a great skill-building exercise.

Although my mom closed her fabric shop in 2009, we continue to work together. In 2015 we published MonochromaticQuilts: Amazing Variety. 

 It was a fun challenge to come up with a quilt design inspired by a color. We both love scrappy quilts, but restricting ourselves to one color family really made us study the tones and values within those boundaries. Here is the cover quilt, Teal Universe:

Please visit my website True BlueQuilts to see what I've been working on recently. You can get daily inspiration from my Facebook page or follow me on Instagram.

Let's create something wonderful today!