Nancy Rink

DO YOU EQ?

Designer, teacher, and author, Nancy Rink does!

Nancy Rink—fabric designer—teacher—quilt pattern designer—quiltmaker—author. These all describe a woman who has taken a circuitous route to get where she is today. After twenty-three years of teaching junior high and high school English, Nancy decided to see what she could accomplish as a full-time quilting professional.

“It was scary and daunting, she says. “Although I’d been doing commission work for several years, I knew that was not going to pay the bills. So, I decided to just go all out, treat it as a full time job, and do the best work I could possibly do. And I couldn’t have done it without EQ!”

Nowadays, you can find Nancy in her studio—Nancy Rink Designs– in Bakersfield, CA, where customers can shop for her fabric and kits amidst the creative chaos of her working design studio. As a licensed designer for Studio 37, a division of Marcus Fabrics, she creates two to three fabric collections per year and the patterns to accompany them. She also develops block of the month programs for Marcus, some of which have included the popular Amish With a Twist and Getting to Know Hue programs. Her BOM program for 2018 is Painter’s Garden, which comes in both pieced and applique’ options, both of which Nancy designed in EQ. She has also branched out and is designing quilt projects in EQ using the AccuQuilt cutting system.

“Electric Quilt is my number one design tool when it comes to creating a fabric collection. When I am working on a new line, I import my “swatches” into a quilt concept so I can see how they work together. This allows me to look at color, contrast, and scale in the context of an actual project that will eventually be made once the digital “swatch” becomes fabric.” EQ allows me to see endless color and design options before I even cut a piece of fabric. Electric Quilt is definitely a must have for quilters.”

~ Nancy Rink

Nancy has won numerous awards for her quilts, has had quilts published in many quilting magazines, is the solo author of four books, Timeless Traditional Quilts, Quilts That Honor Tradition, City Blocks and Quilts to Warm Today’s Home, and has co-authored with her husband Oliver Away From Home: Quilts Inspired by the Lowell Factory Girls and El Camino Real: Quilts Inspired by Early California History.

Don’t miss Designer Duo, the quilt along Nancy and fellow designer Sarah J. Maxwell are hosting on their websites. You can also join the Facebook Designer Duo group and follow them on social media with #DesignerDuoQAL. By the way–the QAL project they are doing was designed on EQ8!