Quilter's Journey - Pat Sloan

I'm sure most of you are familiar with quilter Pat Sloan.  For the past 20 years or so she has been a pattern designer, fabric designer, prolific author, and more recently, a "podcaster" for American Patchwork and Quilting.  Pat was the featured speaker at Sue's local Quilters Unlimited meeting this week.  She presented a slide show detailing her quilt journey from the late 1970's to today, highlighting her transition from learning traditional quilting to evolving her own style that blends piecing with fusible applique.

Pat has a number of free projects available through her website.  In the photo above, one of the guild members brought a quilt to share that she made with one of Pat's sew alongs.  Pat's story is familiar to many of us, having started sewing as a child with doll clothes, doing garment sewing, and later learning to quilt.  However she took her creative passion a few steps further by creating patterns, fabric lines, publishing books, teaching, etc.  Who doesn't own some of Pat's patterns, fabric or books?

In the quilts above, you see her typical style of quilt on the right, which features a pieced background combined with applique in an asymmetrical style.  She likes large scale designs and simple shapes.  Her applique is fused cut-away secured with a machine blanket stitch.  The quilt on the left is from her Splendid Sampler book, a book of 100 6 inch blocks by almost as many different designers. 

The quilts in the photo above represent more of Pat's signature pieced/applique style. 

This quilt is another example from the Splendid Sampler, combined with an Irish Chain block setting.

As mentioned previously, Pat is also the host of the American Patchwork & Quilting Podcast, where she talks about tips, techniques and trends with designers, authors, shop owners, and editors.  A new show is available every Monday afternoon.  You can listen in at AllPeopleQuilt.com/podcast, or download from iTunes. 

Currently, some of Pat's quilts are on display at the Virginia Quilt Museum in Harrisonburg, VA, through December 16.  Whether you are a long-time quilter or a newbie, Pat has something for everyone!