Hello My Quilting Friends

Hello, my quilting friends! Leah Day here with episode 7 of the podcast, and today I'm going to share an interview with Mary Fons. She is the daughter of Marianne Fons, who started Fons and Porter. She's just such a amazing all-around person, and we really hit it off at Quilt Market. Then I was like, "You know, you want to be on the podcast? That way I can get to know you a little bit better." This podcast really runs the gamut on conversations and stuff and topics, but I would say I guess the overall theme is just love of quilting, love of making quilts, and Mary helps debunk a few of the myths of quilting so that's really cool too. You can check out Mary's website at MaryFons.com.

we're going to talk about fabric design with Sandra Clemons. Now, Sandra is a quilter. She's an author. She is a self-publisher and she's a fabric designer and her new line of fabric is called Front Yard. It was developed by Michael Miller Fabrics. We're going to talk about fabric design and Sandra's process and a little bit about how she created her booth at quilt market. I really enjoyed hearing Sandra's experience and her design process just learning more about the behind-the-scenes of fabric design. I've done a little bit of this but hearing from Sandra really brought home like when you're serious about something and you're dedicated to it, it's like you bring a whole different side of yourself to the table and Sandra's definitely bringing it when it comes to fabric designs. I think you're going to find this really interesting. Sandra's website is sandramakeitblossom.com. You can check that out as well as her fabric Front Yard at https:/

Would you like to share your love of quilting with other people? Learn how to teach a quilting class from planning the class topic to making samples and designing the handout. Learn how Leah has taught dozens of classes and won MQX Teacher of the Year by focusing on the students and always teaching with an open, giving heart. Also learn the common pitfalls of professional quilting teachers and behaviors you'll want to avoid if you want to be a successful quilting teacher.

This week my guest is Patsy Thompson, an award winning quilter with a distinctive style of machine quilting and machine embroidered applique. In this episode Patsy shares all her secrets to machine embroidery - how she hoops, the stabilizer and other supplies she uses to achieve such a unique, beautiful look to her machine applique. Machine embroidery does have an interesting reputation in the quilting world. I know I misjudged machine embroidery for years as "cheating" because I didn't understand how it worked or what you could make with it. Patsy and I discuss this as well and how quilters with embroidery machines can start using their machines to do many more things - including making blocks for quilts!

Today I’m going to share an interview my husband and business partner Josh Day. Josh and I work together and are equal shareholders in our business, and I can honestly say that Josh is 50% if not more of this business. Even though it’s my face in the videos and my name on the website, Josh is the man behind the curtain and does so much work behind the scenes to keep our business running smoothly. If you email me through the site LeahDay.com, it will be Josh that responds to you. If you place an order, it will be Josh who packs your order for you and ships it to you. In this interview it’s Josh’s turn to talk and share a side of our business that we’ve never had the opportunity to share – how it works from the back end, the good and bad sides of working together, and a little bit about how we balance work and family, even though we work from home.

Hello my quilting friends! Welcome to episode 2 of the podcast. Today is all about values – I want to share some new insights I’ve run across and some terrific books to listen to as you quilt that help you tap into your core values. This has been super helpful for me and it’s not just helping me make decisions in my business, it’s also helping me prioritize my quilt projects. I know a big value of mine is trying new things, but I often don’t leave enough time for myself to really experiment and dig into a technique. So by working on my values I’ve been able to set aside more time to play and that has definitely been making me feel a lot happier. So exploring your values could potentially help you pick your next quilt project, help you decide what skills or techniques to focus on this winter, or what business decisions are really going to fit with your life and your family.

I’m super excited to share a recording from 2016 quilt market with you today. I teamed up with Christa Watson from Christaquilts.com and Stephanie Palmer from QuiltingPlanner.com to talk about writing and publishing books for quilters. Now I’ve known Christa for a few years and we met online first and collaborated a bit. I remember Christa emailing me for help on a few magazine articles she was writing, then we met in person at a spring quilt market a few years ago and really hit it off. And Christa has launched her quilting business into the big time in the last few years. She’s written two books, and is working on her third, she sells precuts in The Precut Store on Amazon, and I believe she has a Craftsy class in the works as well so definitely lots of stuff going on for Christa. Christa actually introduced me to Stephanie Palmer just before quilt market and again, this was just such a serendipitous moment where we could have done the schoolhouse presentation with just the two of us, but adding Stephani