Hi!!Today I'm taking part in the Quilters Meet and Greet hosted by Benita at Victoriana Quilt Designs.
Thanks so much for inviting me to be a part of it.
I'm Janeen van Niekerk and I design patterns mostly for the Foundation Paper Piecing technique.
I do have other Applique patterns too but the paper piecing has really taken over most of my business.I live in Pretoria, South Africa with my Hubby, 2 sons and my dog Pepsi. My daughter and her cat have recently moved out and will be married by the end of September. Wedding preparations have kept me so busy this last 6 months - it's been crazy!!!
I started my business
Quilt Art Designs in 2013 and after designing a few patterns or blocks, I was hooked and it has grown and improved since then.
I love art and drawing and I love sewing too, so the two seemed to be a marriage made in heaven.
Before quilting I was making mosaics but my fingers were permanently sore from the glass cuts. Now, I'm basically doing the same thing only with fabrics.
I started a quarterly Paper Piecing Magazine in 2014 so that foundation paper piecing could get more recognition or exposure and that people interested could also see that the designs didn't have to be cartoonish or really ugly. I had such a hard time finding anything I wanted to sew, so I made my own patterns and others seemed to like them too. Using this technique we could also make some amazing quilts.
I was asked to participate in a Art with Fabric Hop with Alida from Tweloquilting in 2015 and that's when I discovered that I love making a larger more 'arty' quilt. I've made a few myself too but after getting Frozen Shoulder in both arms I've had to be content to just sit and do a bit of design work and not too much sewing. I think only after I rigged up my sewing machine to a higher position where I can stand and sew.... it has made my life easier and I can also get a few things sewn.
Each year I have a Block of the Month where I give away a free block (for the month it's released) and we've had loads of fun producing great paper pieced quilts.
I was asked which quilt or design was my favourite and that was really hard to choose. I love each one of them, but I chose this Farmhouse String quilt.
It really was loads of fun to make and if I can use up all my scraps then I'm even happier. So many people joined in this quilt a long and there were so many different and amazing quilts that came out of this.
This was a take on 'string quilts' that also had an arty look instead of it being the usual sewing a few scrappy strips together.
Well, that's me in a nutshell. Thanks for visiting.
You can hop over and visit a few more bloggers and quilters too.
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I've started a QA Designs Group on Facebook where you are welcome to join and add any of your finished blocks made with the QADesigns patterns. I really love to see them all.
(when you open the shop.... click on the right side 'sort by tab' and press NEWEST.... then everything will show up)
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