What do you get once you mix expert-led courses and an entire bunch of quilting fans? You get Sew Fest, in fact! We’re thrilled to share our 2023 lineup of unimaginable instructors like grasp quilter Bobbie Gentili, David M. Taylor, and plenty of, many extra!

In line with her web site, geekybobbin.com, teacher Bobbie Gentili discovered the appropriate outlet for her lifelong creativity and love of arithmetic when she was launched to fashionable quilting. She now spends each waking second designing quilt patterns, curating lovely materials, and instructing quilters the best way to degree up their abilities, so that they can also rock any quiltmaking problem. Her Geeky Bobbin patterns characteristic daring, geometric designs, curves and lengthy strips to offer a way of motion. She finds inspiration in science, nature, and geeky tradition.

We had been intrigued, so we requested Bobbie to share a bit of extra about her quilting life.

Eileen: Inform us about your quilting background. When did you begin and the way had been you drawn to the craft?

Bobbie: I used to be born in Poland, and we lived in Iraq in the course of the Iran/Iraq warfare. My dad taught on the college. My mom had a stitching machine on the kitchen desk in my earliest recollections. She did some seamstress work for our neighbors. My grandmother was a tremendous hand embroiderer. My first expertise stitching: I bear in mind stitching garments onto my Barbies. We moved to Toronto, Canada after I was 5.

I’ve all the time made issues. I first bought into quilting in August 2016 with a Fb group of fellow makers and mothers. These pals shared assets and free video collection—mainly a grasp class in quilting—with me earlier than I ever visited a quilt store.

I began designing every little thing myself (as a result of I didn’t know there have been patterns). I come from a mathematical background—I used to be a software program engineer, so I began designing quilts in PowerPoint. And I cherished it! I finally switched to Inkscape—a free equal to Adobe Illustrator. I used that to govern designs I created in Electrical Quilt (EQ8). My first quilt was a half-square triangle Tetris quilt.

I give up my day job in January 2018, began quilting for patrons in Could 2018, printed my first sample in October 2018, and began instructing in October 2019.

Eileen: Are you able to inform us a couple of mission that meant quite a bit to you? How did this mission have an effect on your quilting profession?

Bobbie: There are three quilts that impacted my profession (all within the spring and summer season of 2018):

1

Longarm quilting New Wave for Libs Elliott.

2

Releasing my Retro Tetro sample. The collaboration with Libs, having a ‟sure and” for her signature blocks together with the format I had provide you with for a easy HST child quilt, resulting in a richer design.

3

Designing Moonrise/Downpour/Dawn in response to Libs’ Tattooed North material assortment. This Lakeside Reflections collection is the place I began to essentially see my voice and private model as a designer. The materials had been impressed by summers on Lake Nipissing in Central Ontario: ripples within the water, birch bark, pine needles, and starry skies in heat and funky neutrals with a metallic shine. The materials gave me the sensation of sitting on a dock overlooking the water. These three placing geometric landscapes taking part in with curves and strips and displaying how geometric shapes can be utilized to create fractured reflections of the sky on water actually set the tone for my future designs.

Dawn, by Bobbie Gentili.

Downpour, by Bobbie Gentili.

Moonrise, by Bobbie Gentili.

Eileen: What mission or initiatives are you most trying ahead to engaging in in 2023 and why?

Bobbie: I’m trying ahead to ending some samples of my upcoming sample referred to as I Wove U. I’ve a throw and a queen prime ready to be quilted. The massive blocks come collectively so quick that I’m positive I’ll make a minimum of 2 extra. They’re so enjoyable! The sample might be out in late April.

For those who’re taken with growing your fashionable quilting abilities and need to be taught from one of the best, you must think about taking a category from Bobbie Gentili at Sew Fest! It is a nice alternative for any quilter to broaden their abilities and data on this craft. Click on right here to take a look at Bobbie’s workshops! And to be taught extra about grasp fashionable quilter Bobbie Gentili and her fabulous designs, go to geekybobbin.com.

Wish to discover ways to sew like the professionals? Be part of us for Sew Fest: A Quilting & Stitching Occasion!