Julie has been sewing and making garments since 6th grade learning the craft from her Mom. Her passion for textiles has never faltered as she went on to study Textile Design at the University of Iowa, and designed her own dress patterns. Throughout raising her 5 young children, Julie often would sew their clothing and Halloween costumes, and her interests and passion for fabrics, creativity and playing with color continued to expand.
The art of quilting and the quilts themselves were always something admired by Julie, especially the fine hand technique, the attention to detail and the numerous small pieces that it entailed. It was this admiration and inspiration of these skills that moved Julie to take a hand quilting class in 1993, after birth of her youngest son. She was instantly hooked! For the next 26 years and going, quilting would be something she would continually have on her mind and try to perfect each day.
In 2014, Julie’s love of this craft took an elevated turn after she began working at a fabric shop, Batiks Plus in St. Louis. With encouragement, she tried her first Quiltworx online class, Craftsy (now Bluprint) taught by Certified Instructor Jackie Kunkel. Soon after, Julie, Cookie (the owner of Batiks Plus), and another coworker traveled to Montana to participate in Certified Shop training with Judy Niemeyer. Working on Vintage Rose and learning Judy’s organization and step-by-step process became addicting and was a truly amazing training experience for Julie. The precision and complexity across countless different designs was great challenge and kept her constantly intrigued.
After a trip to Madeleine Island, several return trips to Montana, and training with various Certified Instructors, Julie applied to the Certified Instructor program. She has made a variety of over 40 Quiltworx projects from table toppers to large queen size quilts. She has shared her knowledge of this foundation paper piecing process working with quilt shops, guilds and private groups in classroom settings in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Tennessee. Julie loves sharing her passion with other quilters and looks forward to doing so for years to come.
Project Album from the Quiltworx Facebook Page: Click on any image below to see more quilts by this Instructor!