I get the chance to hang out with some great machine quilters at my shop,

 Cranberry Quiltworks.  Last weekend I spent 3 days with award-winning quilter and author, Karen McTavish, who spent time teaching students to Custom Heirloom Quilting on one of our Gammill long arm quilting machines.

(Watch my "You Tube" video to get a "taste" of Karen McTavish)

Karen is a self-taught machine quilter.  Who, in 1997, was convinced by her mother that machine quilting for others would be a great “single mom” job.  She got a machine, went to the library and checked out some quilting books and started her business.

The library books were full of information about traditional hand quilting—not machine quilting—so she adapted those hand-quilting techniques and patterns for her long arm quilting machine.

Today, Karen has received numerous quilting awards and in known nationally and internationally.  Karen guest lectures and teaches throughout the world and has been featured on PBS's Quilt Central, and HGTV's Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson, and numerous national magazines and journals. 

She is an expert in trupunto and wholecloth quilting and has even created a style of “free-flowing” background quilting called “McTavishing”, which is a now technique recognized by nearly all machine quilters.

She has authored four books and each comes with an instructional DVD—“Mastering the Art of McTavishing”, “Quilting for Show”, and her newest book, “The Secrets of Elemental Quilting”. (I have them at my shop for $24.95 each) Karen’s “Whitework Quilting” book is out of print and is a great find if you can get yours hands on it on ebay or Amazon (yikes, I saw it for $250 on Amazon) or from your local quilt shop or guild.

This Duluth, MN mother of two is really a traditional quilter doing it her own way...and  she does not quite fit in the stereotypical mold of the “grandmotherly” type of quilter...

  
Karen sports a very “traditional” quilting feather motif in a very untraditional way—as a double tattoo on her shoulders.  She is truly an artist doing her thing, making a living and inspiring and encouraging others to become great quilters…And if you are interested in a quilt-inspired tattoo—she can help you with that too!

Note: Karen will be back teaching again at Cranberry in July 2008.  If you are interested in her classes or books--Email me at cranberryquiltworks at gmail (dot) com.

(Photos thanks to Karen McTavish, Great video work --my first youtube submission-- by my hubby Hal.)