Wednesday, February 3, 2016

week 5 - emily

hello everyone!
i'm finally piecing things together, and it's hard to believe it is Wednesday already!  i'm stopping by today for my intro post, and then i'll stop by later this week with another post or two depending on if i can pull my brain together :)

first things first, my name is emily!


i'm a 20 something year old quiltographer (half quilter, half photographer) who lives in the greater nothern california area.  2 hours to the beach, 2 hours to the snow.  couldn't ask for better!  i run my own photography business called freeze frame, as well as teach dance classes and work as a teacher's aide in a local pre-k program.  i completed all the units needed to receive an associates degree in early childhood education last fall (which i will receive this spring) to go along with the bachelor' degree i received in 2011 in photography.  basically, i majored in electives the best i could :)

when i get asked why i quilt, i laugh because i never wanted to.


i made the quilt above when i was 8 or so while taking a "kids can sew" class in the neighborhood my brother took piano lessons in and then did nothing with quilting regularly until my senior year of high school. i swore that i would NOT make quilts for my senior project, and had about 2 or 3 photography related ideas i went through (and either got rejected on them or decided it was too intense) before throwing up my hands and saying FINE. I'LL QUILT.  well 10 years later, after all that fuss, here I am still quilting!  safe to say it is much more intricate than the 9 12x12 blocks sewn together to make a quilt top, that's for sure :)

since then, i've experimented a lot more with quilting, finding a real passion for it.  i use quilting a lot as a destressor from work, because spending up to 40 hours a week with preschool aged children can be exhausting!  thanks to things like pinterest, instagram & facebook groups, i've had my eyes opened to not only a lot new quilting ideas, but also SO many more things that i want to try.  because of those sources, i've taken the plunge and tried paper piecing... and fell in love with it.  i think this was one of my first paper pieced projects for a quilt block swap on craftster.org


i tend to quilt a lot for others, since right now all my friends are generally getting married or having babies.  this year, i'll have 2 wedding quilts and 1 baby quilt for sure so far, but it is just so exciting to see the looks on their faces when they open their one of a kind gift.  i'll have more on some of my favorite quilts created later this week, but in the mean time here's one that i actually made for myself to participate in the last sewvivor sewalong :)


i made this lap quilt of cameras using fabric i bought in colorado while visiting my cousin lisa and her family (appropriately named the coloradifornia cameras). you might remember her featured here last year :)  quilting is something that has given us LOTS to chat about, even with the distance between us.  I wanted to hop in the 52quilters group because i would love to expand the group of quilters i connect with and do more than just double tap those photos on instagram and move on.  i love commenting and chatting about quilting things online, and totally love to follow others that feel the same way :)

i think i'll wrap up my introductory post here, and leave you with some ways to connect with me on social media!

instagram: @wereradletshug & @photogbyem
blog: toothpaste & orange cat
twitter: @wereradletshug


Post by Emily Week #5: Emily is a 20 something quiltographer from northern california. working both as a teacher and professional photographer, she has come to love quilting as a detox from the daily chaos. other than being crafty, emily enjoys mexican food, cats, pretty much all things disney, lazy sundays, and more cats. come hang out with her on instagram.


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