Mr. April in #NGAQB — John Adams
Yup…April in August! And late August at that…..can September really be just around the corner??
This summer has been soooo hectic with graduations and weddings and teaching and yard work and kids moving out and yard sales and yard work and pattern writing and planning for next year and this fall and yard work…
You get the picture…..
So anyway, that April in August statement above…yeah, this post has a couple pictures in it. Some of Anna Maria Horner‘s line Pretty Potent which is, as usual from Anna Maria, simply awesome.
And this photo (from my phone) is of the Feather Blocks that I made for John, Mr. April, in the #NGAQB (no girls allowed quilting bee) that I signed up for last winter. LOVED making these blocks. I had wanted to try them ever since I saw Anna Maria’s original quilt.
As part of the #NGAQB we each were going to post a little bio about ourselves…..Here is John’s:
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Please allow me tell you a little bit about myself. I am a father of three, originally from Brooklyn NYC but now living in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina. I live with my 9 year-old twin girls, my 8 year-old son, and a crazy German Shorthaired Pointer named Bristol. Though I often wish it could be, quilting and pattern-writing is not my full-time job; by day, I lead branding and brand marketing efforts for a global software company. I am a completely self-taught quilter (thanks, blogs and internet!) and have been sewing for about 7 years now. I earned my undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of North Carolina and, when I’m not sewing, enjoy cheering for the UNC Tar Heels.
I was originally inspired by the blossoming worlds both of craft blogging and modern fabrics back in 2004. I was living in Charlotte NC at the time and began mixing and matching fabrics and buying fat quarters in my local quilt shop even before I knew how to sew a stitch. I was really drawn to the creative process of mixing and matching colors and prints. That was when Amy Butler’s Lotus line had just come out, and the options for bright modern fabrics was growing like crazy. Before long, I decided I was going to make a quilt and read free tutorials online until I felt comfortable with the basics.
I started my blog, QuiltDad.com, in 2008 on a whim, mainly to be eligible to join a swap at the time but ultimately to share my love of patchwork with others.
Since then, I’ve remained very active in online quilting communities through swaps, virtual quilting bees, and guilds. Today, I try to apply my own quilting aesthetic to designing original quilt patterns for both fabric designers and companies and frequently contribute to creative blogs, books, and other collaborative endeavors. I’ve contributed to several collaborative quilt books, have two book titles of my own (Pretty in Patchwork: Holidays and the soon to be released Beyond Neutral: Quilts Inspired by Nature’s Elements) and was a co-founder of the popular e-magazine and book series for modern quilters, Fat Quarterly.
Having said all that, the NGAQB is one of the most unique, exciting projects I’ve been a part of and I can’t wait to see the beautiful things that emerge from it.
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So that’s the scoop on the April session of #NGAQB….only a few months late…I have already sent out the May blocks and will posting that here soon….Working on June and July next. If I am lucky, I will get the August and September blocks done in September!!
Keep Sewing, Keep Happy,
Scott