Hi - I'm Izzy from Dizzy Quilts and it's my turn to tell you a little about myself!
I'm a mother, step-mother and foster mother to six children, grand-mother to one gorgeous little girl and wife to my soul mate. During the day, I manage a team of e-Learning designers/developers at a global financial company.
All of this keeps me pretty busy, but I've always made time to be crafty - when I was a little girl, my mom taught me how to knit and I made all my teddy bears knitted sweaters!
During my teenage years, I was a little too busy with school (and with boys!) to craft, but a few years later, when I had my first child, I started sewing. I made some baby clothes and I made curtains mostly. I even took a sewing class to learn how to make garments for myself, but I never got the hang of that - nothing ever really fit right.
About 9 years ago, I walked into JoAnn's to get fabric for new curtains and spotted the cutest little quilt kits. I bought one, put it together and haven't looked back since! I was completely and totally hooked.
The first few quilts I made were very traditional - lots of small pieces, small florals, etc. I really had no clue what I was doing, but learned so much with the making of these quilts.
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| A lap size log cabin quilt made for my step-mom |
I started making these quilts for pretty much everyone in my family. And pretty soon, every bed in the house had a quilt on it.
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| Quilt I made for my sister-in-law - this is Bronx testing it. |
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| I even made quilts as curtains!! |
Through the members of this guild, I learned about modern quilting and I fell in love with quilting all over again.
I started making modern quilts and building a stash of really colourful fabrics and solid neutrals.
When I first started quilting, my least favourite part of the whole thing was the actual quilting. My sewing machine was pretty small and wrestling with a big quilt in that tiny little space was painful and I very often ended up with puckers on the back of my quilts. And then I changed two things: my sewing machine and my basting method.
I purchased my Juki TL-2010Q. It is literally a dream to quilt with. Lots of room to the right of the needle and super consistent, fast stitching.
I also learned how to board baste my quilts - which has saved my knees, my back and to a certain extent, my sanity! :-)
And now quilting is actually my favourite part. I look forward to finishing a top just so I can get to the quilting. My dream is to some day own a long-arm machine, but I would need to get a much bigger house before that could happen!
Last year, I became the Vice-President of the Montreal MQG and that has been a lot of fun. The group is growing and we have such amazing people and quilters. Each meeting is a great source of inspiration and I'm learning so much.
When I was approached to become a FAL host last year, I was so flattered and so happy. I love hosting these link-ups - so much inspiration and so much talent every quarter.
Thanks for reading and if you have questions, please leave a comment! :-)
Izzy
