About Me

Hi, my name is Shawnee Miller. I am a longarm quilter, quilt maker, quilt teacher, quilt historian, and a thread educator. I have been a quilter for the past 30 years if you don't count the "dolly days." Obviously, I am not a web tech, though I should get a little better with this Blog as I practice.

Like so many others, I began sewing as a child using needle and thread to make doll clothes. Money was tight, so if I wanted a new outfit for Dolly, it was up to me. Luckily, my maternal grandmother was a gifted seamstress from England and she liked sharing what she knew with me. Later, after my Mom decided to let me use her Featherweight, I sewed a lot of my clothes throughout Jr. High and High School. I received the Betty Crocker Future Homemaker of Tomorrow award in High School. Needless to say, Homemaking was my favorite class and I was blessed to have two of the best teachers in the world at HANFORD HIGH in California. They encouraged me to try a lot of things not covered in normal classes, and they both were there to help me, always without criticizing. Masterful skills for teachers to have.

While raising my two sons, I sewed costumes, wall hangings, dog blankets, and once in a while a quilt class. After pursuing my Masters in Education, I decided to apply my teaching knowledge and education in History and Women's Studies to teach quilting. I owned a quilt shop for 5 years and found out I really wanted to teach quilters to expand limited knowledge into limitless knowledge by integrating new ideas and threads into quilting. 

I share my passion for my craft by teaching quilting and lecturing. I have a page that contains my lecture information. My "Thrilling Threads" lecture focuses on how to use all threads on all sewing machines. It is meant to be technical information sewers only seem to pick up here and there and then usually forget or forget where they put the paper on that. It is all about the truth about cotton and polyester thread, thread weight, and machine tension.

Ever the historian, my Quilt History lecture is informative and delightful as it focuses on many truths and misconceptions we all have regarding why we do what we do as quilters, and where some things originated. Information gathered as a historian who quilts was intriguing. The history of quilting explores the depth of our chosen craft and gives it validation. The lecture is designed to make us all think about quilting not only as a nifty craft, but an integral part of American history. 

I have written a multitude of patterns, which I am finally going to publish one day. Mostly I love sharing innovative ideas with friends in classes. This lifelong love of teaching, fabric, quilts, art, handwork, American history, and my quilting friends gives me joy as I try to shepherd others into the world of threads and quilts. My lectures are guaranteed to change at least one thought or technique for anyone who dares to listen about what I learned from Grandma, what I found out in history class, and today's new technology of threads!

So, I hope to use this blog to share new patterns, stuff, and things I learn that are meant to be shared. I hope you all stick with me as I try to bring myself up to speed on the internet technology while sharing some pretty cool things with you all.

You can contact me at: shawnee.miller@gmail.com

I also have a Pinterest page:http://pinterest.com/shawneemiller 

http://pinterest.com/shawneemiller/