PATCHWORK QUILTING

Patchwork quilting is many things to many people, including you.

Whether novice beginner to professional… those of us that share a passion for patchwork and quilting have a desire to create beautiful quilted art.  Whether functional quilts that warm our beds, or abstract pieces of art that adorn the walls of our homes, we all bring our lives, our experiences, techniques and passion to this craft of patchwork quilting.

While I have grown very comfortable with my online name of MaggieB, which I have had almost as long as I have been quilting, most of you, if you do know me in the real world know me as Marge Burkell.

In the 30+ years that I have been involved in patchwork quilting I have come full circle.  I started out all those years ago wanting to make a quilt for the new baby on the way… that baby, my daughter Allison, will turn 30 years old this Saturday!  Just last year I went full circle, back to “basics” as I started a fun and wonderful quilt for my new baby granddaughter, Alexis!

Where did all those years go? Those years contain many chapters of my life.

They contain my evolution from learning everything I could about traditional American patchwork quilting, all the way to making a living as a professional quilter, lecturer, teacher, showing my patchwork quilting all over the world, publishing and being published. Through my patchwork quilting blog I hope to impart some of what those years have brought to me.

I have had the privilege of making many friends in the industry, some of which I hope to interview here.  I have been associated with various companies that bring us our quilting tools along the way and I hope to let you in on some of those also.  Designing wearable quilted garments for the “Fairfield Fashion Show” over 5 years was very memorable; I will share my memories and trials in this and many other areas of my patchwork quilting life… along with techniques, oh, and some of my quilting patterns, which are no longer being published, so, other than on eBay, this is the ONLY place you will find them! I will SHARE them with YOU!  Who knows, maybe I will design a few new ones along the way and you will get them exclusively here too.

I do not intend to follow any chronological order, at my age I simply am wearing a red hat as well as purple and its much more fun to jump around as a topic, or quilt, strikes me.  BUT like I always did when “lecturing” around the country, I will ask you to “rein” me back if I stray off-topic too far!  LOL!

When out “lecturing” I always started my talk with this lead-in… “No matter what the organizers of this quilt event told you, I am NOT lecturing… this is NOT a lecture, but a TALK… because I do not want to stand up here and have a monologue.  Rather I always prefer to interact with you, to have a two way dialogue is much more fun and we both come away enriched for having met each other!” I cannot tell you how much I have learned not just from lecturing, and not just from taking, but from teaching classes too!  We ALL have so much to share!  I would love to have the same thing here!

Please feel free to comment on anything I say! I would love to get to know and talk with you! So I invite you to pull up a comfortable chair, or tuck your notebook in your lap, grab a nice cold lemonade, and join me in this newest chapter of my life… my PATCHWORK QUILTING BLOG!