I Love Notions

Paige started Ponderosa creative as a new mom, taking a break from the environmental field after being burnt out by academia during her master's degree at Evergreen. In addition to running her business, she works in the enviornmental field - specifically municipal stormwater.  She designs her Ponderosa Creative Thread Gloss with both the environment and quilters in mind - creating scents for quilters while designing a product that has a low impact on the environment. She also creates hand-sewn goods, and has a great sense of style. Some quick details about Paige: scorpio, neurodivergent, mother, wife, enneagram 5w6 (investigator-loyalist), and in between meyers-briggs ENTP (visionary) and INTP (logician).

Andi Stanfield is known for creating fabulous designs with easy-to-follow patterns for adventurous quilt makers. She is the self-published author of two books, and teaches classes on her techiques. Her first career was as a high school teacher, and she now uses those skills in the quilting world. And, she didn't stop there. When creating her block of the month "A Little Bit Different" she created an acrylic template to make the process easier. Learn more about this trailblazing quilter in this episode of I Love Notions.

Jessica and her sister Jamie are the creators of SewTites® magnetic sewing pins. One day in early 2017, while working on a bag, Jamie decided to use magnets to "pin" the leather pocket in place while piecing. She called up Jessica and told her about the simple and functional idea. Jessica, who is a career marketer and graphic designer, replied "That has to be a problem other people have – we should market it!" The idea went by the wayside, however, for about a year while we were working on another business. But Sew Tites were too good an idea! They created prototypes to use as a giveaway in their 2018 QuiltCon booth. The response was overwhelming. Within a few months, SewTites were available through distributors and in local quilt shops, and today are availabe in the US, Canada, Australia, Europe, and worldwide through SewTites.com Their mission is to empower themselves and others to "Live Magnetically" – as fully and intentionally as possible. As a part of that mission, they donate 5% of annual profits to FCCLA [https://www.fcclainc.org/], an organization that teaches teens life skills, including sewing, on their path to adulthood.

Patti lives in Southern Ontario, and has held many roles in the marketing department since she started with Northcott in 1986. She is currently their Vice President – Public Relations. She travels to quilt guilds and shops to inspire and educate quilters with interesting and entertaining presentations on how fabric is designed, and how to use it to our best advantage. Her quilting journey began in 1987 when Northcott made the transition from fashion to quilting fabric. She has designed many quilts for Northcott and for numerous quilting magazines since 1995 including The Quilter magazine, Love of Quilting and Easy Quilts and continue to contribute to the Golden Peak Media group of publications including McCall’s Quilting and Quiltmaker. In 2008 she started publishing her comprehensive line of quilt patterns that utilize efficient and time-saving techniques.  She specializes in designing quilts using panels and border stripes. Her first fabric collection released in 2019, and she is the inventor of the E-Z miter tool!

Debbie is a home economics teacher by profession. She began quilting in 1986 after taking a Continuing Education class. Growing up she was enthralled with her grandmothers and their abilities as seamstresses. When fitting clothes took the fun out of the sewing, she turned to quilting.  It was a great way to collect fabric and continue using her sewing skills.  Her quilting passion grew when she moved to Egypt. With her friends, she began a quilting group that was later named “Quilters in deNile”.  Now a resident of Massachusetts, Debbie continues in many quilting endeavors. She designed the tool “Brilliant Bindings”.  In 1999, a dear quilting friend Lil Griffin showed her a binding ending technique so the seam was the same as all others in a continuous binding.  She made her own template to simplify the process and used it to teach others for years.  She was encouraged to put the idea into form and had Brilliant Bindings made in 2007. Her Brilliant Bindings tool shape, a trapezoid, proved to be a great jumping off point for many unique quilt patterns.  Any of her patterns with "Brilliant" or "Tool" in the title uses Brilliant Bindings as a cutting template to make the quilt. In 2017, Hex-a-ma-jig was created.  A 3 1/2" half hexie shape template with more lines for more cutting options - Half Hexie, Full Hexie, Partial Hexie.  The Hexie family grew in 2018 with Hex-a-ma-jig Jr. for 2 1/2" strips and Hex-a-Mini for 2" strips was introduced in 2021. Her self-published books include: Construction and Production – Making and Binding a Quilt on a Longarm, Midarm or Shortarm Chenille Made Easy on a Longarm Hexie Speak - Say it with Hexies  A Design Workbook