As you may know EQ is making a quilt! We’ve hired some new employees lately so we wanted to make sure everyone knows how to sew and understands the process of quilting. We do have a lot of quilters on staff but not everyone…yet You can follow along with our Sew-Along so you can get to know the EQ staff better and see our blocks. If you’d like to sew along and get more details about the project, check them out here.

This month we’re featuring me (Heidi)!

I’ve worked at EQ for over 20 years, and it was a long time in the making. When I was about 8 my mom signed me up for a kid’s quilting class at a local quilt shop. One of the teachers was Margaret, who also worked at EQ, at the time. My mom got to talking to Margaret about EQ and after I graduated from college she encouraged me to apply at EQ, and I’ve been here ever since! I answer Tech Support emails and create pages for the support site. I make sale emails, post on the blog, and create the Projects of the Month, among lots of other things! I like working at EQ because of the people. My coworkers are nice and so are the users!
Here’s Jenny, Sara, and I in 2004 at our old office.

As I mentioned, I started quilting when I was about 8, so I’ve made a lot of quilts! Here’s one from my quilting class in 1994.

I’ve also sewn lots of other projects, like my bathroom curtains which are made from an old trade show table skirt.

Here’s my son in a few different costumes that I made. (Opossum, Luke Skywalker in his Rebel Flight Suit and Wow Wow Wubbzy. )

And my daughter with the quilt my mom and I made for her crib. (Her room had a slight Beatles theme, hence the Yellow Submarine.) Now she’s 8 and taking sewing classes at a local library, and you can see her first project!

When I first started working at EQ I was surprised to learn about the whole industry behind the craft. I had no idea how many quilting books, magazines, trade shows, etc. there were! It’s nice to see so much available for quilters!

I sewed the Winding Ways block. I used the rotary cutting chart for reference but used AccuQuilt to cut my pieces. It was my first time using AccuQuilt and the process was so fast and easy! Having the pieces cut perfectly, definitely made sewing easier.

Every month we’re also asking a random icebreaker question, just for fun. My question was, What is an interesting fact/story about your hometown?

I grew up in Waterville, Ohio in a house that Bob Hope often visited (before my family lived there!). His son married the daughter that lived there at the time. He liked to visit Waterville because he said no one bothered him but everyone was friendly.  In 1971, a Saturday Evening Post quoted Bob Hope referring to Waterville “The quiet in that town really scared me. It was so peaceful. Ever since I have threatened to go back to Waterville for a month each year to let the quiet clear out my head.” Below is a photo of Bob Hope in the kitchen and about 25 years later, me standing in almost the same spot. Here’s an article with more information (but you have to scroll down a little to see it.)

So that’s eleven blocks, eleven months, and eleven employees done!

Stay tuned for our next post on December 15th. We’ll feature our last staff member and block! Then on January 15th we’ll post about the finished quilt!