Surprise!

January’s your lucky month to get two sneak peekies inside inspirational maker’s sewing bags!

You loved the cleverness of In Color Order’s sewing bag of choice and today’s guest brings you clever ideas on what to pack inside your on-the-go bag 😉

This time we’re heading to New York City to visit with Wendy from The Weekend Quilter.

Wendy and I first met on the gram (as one does) and I was instantly taken with Wendy’s energy. I love passionate people and I could tell she had it in spades. Plus, she designs some über gorgeous modern quilts!

So, of course I had to reach out and invite her to participate in the What’s in Your Sewing Bag? series so you could get to know her and her kit too!

*This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission.

INTRODUCTION

Introduction – tell us a little about yourself! How did you get started on your quilting journey?

I’m the gal behind The Weekend Quilter. I’m based in New York City and design modern quilts and write quilt patterns to share my passion for quilting and inspire a new generation of quilters. I’m also the author of Urban Quilting, and co-host a quilting podcast called Quilt Buzz.

My quilting journey began in 2015 in my parents’ dining room. My sister spent her time there making quilts for friends and family. Watching the process unfold sparked my interest. Which led me to teach myself to quilt with the basic sewing skills from high school home economics class.

I didn’t join the Quiltstagram till 2017. The Weekend Quilter didn’t start off as a business. It was my creative outlet and a way to connect with other quilters to hold me accountable for living a more balanced life between work and play. Hence the name.

In 2018, I got married to an American and relocated to New York City from Perth, Australia. During the first 11 months of living abroad, I was not able to work or start a new business because of my visa status. In those 11 months, it allowed me to reconsider my career in the corporate world and put 110% into creating content and building The Weekend Quilter brand.

Today I have taken a creative career path. You can find my quilt patterns and quilted home goods in my online store. My work has been featured in various craft publications and blogs including Mollie Makes magazine, Love Patchwork & Quilting magazine, LoveCrafts.com and Fabric.com. More recently, I have published my first book called Urban Quilting.

I love that it’s your sister that introduced you to quilting, Wendy! I also remember when you made the move to NYC and thought “gosh, how fun to be kicking off a new journey in NYC!”.

SEWING BAG

What kind of sewing bag do you have? (e.g. did you make it? Buy it?)

Funny thing. It’s actually the same LL Bean tote bag as Amanda’s from Broadcloth Studio. She’s a great sales person. Thanks to her, the Quilt Buzz team each have matching bags. Totes cute, right? (pun intended, btw).

What I love about the tote is, it is light weight, big with some structure to hold up well on its own, but it’s still flexible to fit virtually anything, including large quilts for quilty photo shoots and excursions.

I love a good practical bag! Especially one that fits large quilts 😉 I’ve been eyeing it since Amanda mentioned it during her WIYSB visit!

ALL-STAR ESSENTIALS

What are your all-star essentials? Your tried-and-true must haves that you can never run out of?

The latest quilt (Plaidful Quilt available from Jan 28), camera, tripod and spare battery are on the top of my list when it comes to packing my quilting bag.

I recently got into hand quilting thanks to my summer catch ups in the park with Amanda and Sarah, another quilty friend of ours that Amanda met at a quilting workshop at Gotham Quilts. So, I now also pack these with me:

• Quilting hoop and a hand quilting project. My Empire State mini quilt is currently on the hoop.
• Aurifil 12wt thread – Light Jade (1148) as shown in the photo
• Wooden hera marker and seam ripper from Modern American Vintage
• *Clover Sashico needles
• Sew Fine Thread Gloss in Lush – Mmm yummm!
• Zappy Dots magnetic needle tin
• Zappy Dots needle nanny – This a magnet that clips between your project to ensure the needle doesn’t go missing while you’re trying to thread up or stopping midway.
• Zappy Dots headband
• *Gingher stork thread scissors – Not only are they handy for trimming and cutting threads for your hand quilting project, they’re also convenient to have on a shoot to snip off any loose threads.
• A Carolyn Friedlander zipper couch I commissioned Brittney Frey to make to put all these little goodies in.

Oh, I love Brittney’s work! Lucky you to have your own one of a kind sewing bag! Also, super happy to hear you’ve joined the hand quilting lovers club 😉 It truly is a wonderful creative technique.

FAVOURITE ITEM

What is your favourite item in your kit? Why?

My camera (*Fuji Film X100T). I bought it about 7 years ago for travelling. It’s a light compact DLSR with a vintage look. The Wi-Fi function is so handy when you’re on the road and want to transfer photos straight on to your phone to post on Instagram.

I also love the remote-control phone app. You simply attach the camera on the tripod, connect the camera to your phone via. Wi-Fi and put the timer on and snap away! This is perfect for photos when you don’t have a second pair of hands to take photos, and you and your quilty friend can be part of the frame. Here’s an example of when I used this function:

I’m controlling the camera from my phone in my left hand 😉

So COOOOOOL! I’m going to have to check this beauty out! Light weight and has a remote – yes, please!

SURPRISE ITEM

What’s one thing we’d be surprised to find in your bag?

My headband.

I always break my hair ties so I keep a headband in the bag just in case, to put my hair back while I’m working on my hand quilting projects. It also doubles up as a face mask. 

Ok, we need to schedule a chat about all these double duty products you’ve got going on. A headband that’s also a mask – genius! Plus, it’s cutie petutie! My big question is, does it give you a headache? I stopped wearing headbands because they’d dig in behind my ears and give me a headache ☹

QUILT KITS WILL TRAVEL

When do you find yourself using your kit the most? (Travelling, on the sofa, attending sew-ins?)

When I’m out and about taking quilts in the wild shots. Though there’s been a lot less of that since the pandemic. I hang out with my quilty friends virtually these days and my husband doesn’t really have the patience when it comes to taking quilt photos.

I get it, hopefully we’ll be back to road-trippin’ soon and taking all the quilts in the wild shots!

TRAVEL MEMORY

What’s your favourite travel memory with your sewing bag?

Hands down, taking the train out to Philly with Amanda to meet Anna from Wax and Wane Studio. It was a great trip because I finally met Anna in person after talking to her on Instagram DM for nearly a year, and it was my first time in Philly. The three of us had so much fun roaming around the streets, admiring the architecture and taking quilty photos around the city.

This is us at lunch (from left to right: Anna, Amanda and I). And of course, my quilt bag makes it into the photo!

I love it! Both Amanda and Anna shared the same story during their WIYSB visits and I’ve been jelly ever since – ha! Seriously looking forward to the day all 4 of us get to hang out – our Quilt Buzz chat was the closest we came – but I want face-to-face IRL!! 😊

WHERE CAN WE FIND YOU?

Tell people where we can find you?

You can find me on Instagram and Pinterest (@the.weekendquilter) or through my website the-weekendquilter.com

Anything else you’d like to share?

Hang out with Amanda, Anna and I every other Thursday on Quilt Buzz. Listen to the latest and previous episodes on all the major podcast directories including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Stitcher.

And you can grab a copy of Urban Quilting from major retailers including *Amazon, Walmart, Target, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository and many more. I also have signed copies in my online store. But you’ve got to get in quick, because they’ve been walking out the door and I’ve limited stock of it.

Congratulations on publishing your first book, Wendy! She’s a beauty and I’m so thrilled I was able to play a small part in helping you test the Landmark pattern.

Thank you for sharing your quilt journey with us and giving us so many fun gadgets to consider stocking in our own sewing bags!

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For more What’s in Your Sewing Bag fun, check out these guests:

 Happy stitching!

xo,

Shannon

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