Amy Garro: Paper Pieced Modern
Posted by Amy Garro on Feb 8th 2015
Today we have a very special guest, Amy Garro! Amy is here to introduce her brand new book, Paper Pieced Modern and is sharing some behind the scenes stories and different colorways of her quilts in her book. We are so excited that Amy will be signing copies of her book at QuiltCon in our booth! Stop by at 11:00 a.m. on Friday 2/20 if you're going be at Quiltcon!
Take it away, Amy!
Two years ago, shortly after the birth of my first-born son, my husband came home with an idea for a quilt block. Something at work that day (he's an electrical engineer) sparked an idea in his head, so I drew it out, and drew out two quilt designs from it. I ended up making the second design first - which I used for the Michael Miller 2013 fabric challenge with Madrona Road. With a six week old baby, I would steal away little moments of time to sew up this quilt:
photo by Amy Garro
It was a turning point for me. You see, before I had made some quilts I was pretty proud of - especially my Fire & Ice quilt. But this quilt was a challenge winner and got to hang in the Michael Miller booth at QuiltCon. This was the first moment for me when a major outside source stopped and applauded what I was doing.
photo by Amy Garro
It gave me the confidence and drive to pull together a book proposal, which eventually led to the finished product Paper Pieced Modern. The pattern for this quilt is in the book - the very first project.
photo by Amy Garro
I remade it in another colorway, but I don't think it will ever top the Madrona Road version in my heart!
photo by Amy Garro
The bulk of the quilts were designed while I was holding napping children and just needed to do something with my mind.
photo by Amy Garro
I actually found out I was pregnant right before submitting the proposal, and had no idea what a normal timeline looked like for finishing everything. I was expecting a year to 15 months to sew the quilts and write the patterns - but nope! I ended up with just under 6 months to do all of that - including Christmas and Thanksgiving!!
So I ended up doing a lot of quilting in my second and third trimesters of my most difficult pregnancy. It was definitely a challenge, and I certainly would not recommend it to any heavily pregnant quilters out there if you value your aching back! But the results are something I deeply cherish.
photo by Amy Garro
I'd also be honored, if you are going to QuiltCon, to see you at my book signing. It will be at the Stash booth, at 11:00 am on Friday morning. I can't wait to see you all!
Amy Garro is a modern quilter, author, and pattern designer. She lives in Indianapolis with her husband and three young sons. She loves all things paper pieced, ombre, and especially adores masculine quilts. She blogs at www.13spools.com and is a member of the Indy Modern Quilt Guild.
photo by Amanda Fales
GIVEAWAY TIME! Would you like to win a copy of Paper Pieced Modern?! Enter to win here:
