Featured Quilter

 Since we haven't been able to hold guild meetings during the pandemic, one of the things our quilt guild started doing was having a "featured quilter/artist" every week or so.  It's been fun to read about our guild members and get a little glimpse into their life, work and sewing space.  It was my turn last week so I thought I'd share it here too...

Hi there!  I’m Lisa Alley, your featured quilter this week.  I’ve been quilting since 1991 and have been a member of Forsyth Piecers & Quilters Guild since about 1999.  I moved to Winston-Salem from Raleigh in 1997 but I grew up south of Greensboro and have lived in North Carolina all my life (though I’m sure you can’t tell that from my accent AT ALL).   After 20-some years working as a civil engineer, I was given a gift of losing my job.  Well, that day it didn’t seem to be much of a gift but looking back it was most definitely a gift because here I am living the dream as a quilt pattern designer, longarm quilter, quilt judge, guild program lecturer and teacher and quilt show vendor.  One thing about the COVID-19 lockdown is my job title has shortened quite a bit and though I do miss the quilt shows and people, I am digging being home.  I am blessed to have a wonderful studio space that we built when it became obvious that professional quilter person was going to remain my title and I needed a serious workspace.

How about a little studio tour…

 So… keep in mind, I did not straighten up my studio for these photos.  It is what it is...a full-time-wide-slam-open-in the middle of deadlines-sweat shop.

 

This is from the front door.  The studio is behind our little Ardmore house and is actually bigger square footage-wise than the house.  When I told the builder (my dad) what I wanted (which was basically four walls, a floor, a roof, a couple of windows and a couple of doors), he responded with a plan that included a second floor.  He said I would need the storage space and he was right.

To the left out of the picture is my desk and office space...which looks like a paper mill exploded.  I would say it’s because the Hoffman Fabric fall catalog is getting ready to come out and I’m frantically writing patterns (and that’s true) but it basically looks like explosion aftermath all the time.

Here’s what’s directly in front of you...sweat shop central.  I’m always piecing two quilts at a time.  I use one as the “leader/ender” for the other until one is finished then I cut out another quilt and it becomes the leader/ender.  If you’re not familiar with the concept of leader/ender, check out Bonnie Hunter’s website. 

Here’s a little swing to the right so you can see the fabric stash.  Frightening, huh?

I’ve been longarm quilting for folks throughout the lockdown which has been a godsend since all income from judging, programs, quilt show vending and teaching gigs vanished. 

Big swing to the right and here’s my little sitting area. Out that door is a little deck and lots of birds, squirrels, chipmunks and the occasional rabbit.  I get a text from my husband, David, almost every day as he leaves work requesting drinks on the veranda….and here we are doing what we do.

Ugh...COVID hair...

So, when the shelter-in-place order began mid-March, I was already sequestered at home and I don’t know about everyone else but for me, I started to feel like I was living my own Groundhog Day.  I felt like I was getting nothing accomplished so I started keeping a list so I could see I was being productive.  I kept the list until I left the house in mid-June to go to Bonnie Hunter’s to COVID safety test Quiltville Inn.  Here are some stats because I just can’t help myself...I do love data:

· Cut out and pieced 22 quilts

· Quilted 34 quilts

· Bound 9 quilts

· Made 250+ masks

· Wrote 6 patterns

· Stuffed a few 1,000 patterns

· Sent projects to 4 fabric companies

 Here are a few of the quilts I finished...

Aliquot went to Florida via Hoffman Fabrics.

 

Animal Crackers was in the Children’s Special Issue of Quiltmania and is somewhere in France right now.

 

Fa La La is hanging at Sew Original.

 

Gathering is staying home with me.

 

Solstice with an owl is staying home with me.

 

Tidings

 

Driftwood

 

Solstice with the swans—actually made two of these.

 

Beloved

 

Facet

 

Tidings, Driftwood, Solstice Swans (both of them), Beloved and Facet all went to California to Hoffman to tour around with reps or trunk shows.  They will all (except one swan) eventually come back to me.  Even before COVID, my quilts travel more than I do!''

So that's it...lock down life in a nut shell!