I thought it was time to say hello and formally introduce you to my life as The Off Kilter Quilter.

Who is The Off Kilter Quilter?

Who is The Off Kilter Quilter? Me! Let me tell you about my life as a quilter, a soon to be membership owner, a wife and dog mom.

I was born in the then very small City of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Toronto, also known as “Hog Town”, is down the way, about 25 minutes driving in good traffic. I currently live just north of Mississauga in the City of Brampton. However, if I want to be honest with myself, I really want to move to our west coast, and the Province of British Columbia. But that’s another story.

David and Sam

I have been married to David since September 12, 1987, so 37 years this year. Wow, where the heck does time go? David is a Jack of All Trades kind of guy. He is extremely gifted with almost any type of repair. He is a woodworker, wood turner, artist, calligrapher and martial arts teacher. He has been training in the martial arts for almost 36 years.

We are the proud parents of Sam, the German Shorthaired Pointer. Sam will be 1½ on the 19th of March. Sam is our third German Shorthaired Pointer. We had Bogart “Bo” from 2005-2015 and Java from 2009-2022. You might say that we’re a little stuck on the breed.

How I Came to Quilting

In 2003, I was diagnosed with asthma for the first time in my life. I am pretty sure that it had been there for years since I grew up with a parent that smoked in the house. One day in March 2003 I had my first asthma attack. This might sound a little strange, but at the time I thought that making my own bed quilt was a good idea, as I could control the fiber content, now that I had an official asthma diagnosis and was on daily inhalers.

My mother-in-law was a quilter which is where I first got interested. I sought out a local quilt shop who offered beginner classes and signed up. That course was either 8 or 10 weeks long and I would go in once a week, learn a new technique, and make the block during the class time.

I learned a lot, but what I didn’t learn was how to sew a quarter inch seam. My teacher kept telling me to maintain a quarter inch seam when I sewed, but never showed me how. For those of you that don’t know, there are a few ways to sew a consistent quarter inch seam, the easiest of which is to use a special quarter inch foot on your sewing machine.

I worked my way through the class and most of my blocks were pretty bad. I distinctly remember the applique class where I was to satin stitch around the edge of a shape, which is one of the ways you can applique in quilting. My result was dreadful because I had a hard time controlling the machine.

So, my quilting career could have easily ended after this class. However, I still wanted to learn to quilt, so I went looking for another beginner class. The shop I found was a little further away and had the most lovely teacher. She taught me how to sew a quarter inch seam and I have been quilting ever since.

My Quilts

To date, I have made between 175-200 projects. This may not seem like much to many of you, but some years I don’t quilt much and others I quilt a lot. The majority of those projects were given away. In fact, I think we only have four quilts in our house that I have made. I definitely need to make more quilts for us.

I take a lot of pleasure in making quilts for others. I have made and gifted a lot of baby quilts, and it is always interesting to see the expectant mother’s reaction. They often worry that their child could poop, pee or even throw up on the quilt. I always tell them that quilts are 100% machine washable and dryable, and not to worry.

Selena’s Star

This is the favourite quilt I have made in my 21 years of quilting. I made it in 2018 for the newborn daughter of my tattooer. It has the perfect mix of teal, pink and purple. It is a really simple pattern (Supernova by Fancy Tiger Crafts) to make and I also long arm quilted the heart pattern quilting. I really love this quilt.

Garden Star

You may start seeing that stars are my favourite patterns although I have yet to venture into the large and beautiful Lone Star Quilts. Garden Star was made for my mother-in-law. It was made using my favourite technique, One Block Wonder. Google it for the deets as it’s a little complicated to explain. This quilt was beautiful.

Gabriella’s Quilt

I owe my friend Gabriella a lot. She helped me through a dire situation and I needed to make her a quilt to thank her. I chose her retirement as the occasion to gift her a quilt. Not surprising, it’s another One Block Wonder quilt. This was before I started naming my quilts, so it doesn’t have one, however Red Dragon could be a nice title for this one. It was also before I learned a very valuable lesson about “massaging fabric” to make it fit when it doesn’t want to. You will notice that there are places where the hexagons don’t meet correctly. Now, I would just massage the fabric to make it fit. Lesson learned.

The Off Kilter Quilter

This leads me here and why I named my blog The Off Kilter Quilter. I try really hard to create quilts that are perfect. There, I said it! It is very obvious when your quilt seams do not come together correctly, and I struggle with this.

I have also struggled with how I can teach people to quilt when I can’t make perfect blocks all the time. I am a huge fan of Angela Walters of Quilting is My Therapy. She is an amazing long arm quilter who I had the honour of meeting and taking classes from in 2017. In her words, “a finished quilt is better than a perfect quilt.” It has taken me a long time to get to this point. I apologize to those of you who expect perfect quilts, because I am not your person.

I am here to help you learn to quilt with beginner quilting and sewing tips and tricks. Thanks for reading.

I hope you have found this helpful. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to email me here.

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