Show Notes
Today I’m chatting with quilter, teacher, shop owner, author, and community builder Jean Wells of the Stitchin’ Post in Sisters, Oregon. From opening her quilt shop over 50 years ago to helping build Sisters, Oregon into a quilting destination known around the world, Jean has spent decades bringing quilters together through creativity, education, and community. Jean opened Stitchin’ Post back in 1975, making it one of the very first quilt shops in the United States. Over the years, she’...
More from The Quilter on Fire Podcast
Matt Wilding has been taking the quilting scene by storm — by 3D storm, I should say. He's won back-to-back top prizes in the Quilt Creations category at Festival of Quilts, Birmingham - first for "Wear Your Wings With Pride" in 2025, then for his quilted sphere, "Pride Around The World," in 2026. Have you seen this giant quilted ball on Instagram? It’s an exemplary lesson in design just to witness. I was so pleased to be able to see this 3D giant quilted sphere in person this summer in Birmi...
Eli McCann is a lawyer, writer, and podcaster based in Salt Lake City. He writes a monthly humor column for the Salt Lake Tribune, and has cohosted the Strangerville podcast and live show since 2016. His writing has run in the Washington Post, Newsweek, HuffPost, and the BBC. Now he's published his first novel, Stitched, and the story unfolds around a small Utah quilting guild. Eli grew up under a quilters frame but he’s never made a quilt. So his mom's real quilting group gave him the detail...
Today I'm sitting down with a quilter whose journey has taken her from traditional patterns learned decades ago, to a bold, modern design practice worked out of a tiny studio outside London that's floor to ceiling in fabric. We're talking old meeting new — traditional patterns reimagined modern through her own lens, mostly in linen for that timeless texture, and a slow practice of hand quilting that is Sarah's favourite part of the entire process. Her quilts have been in major shows like Quil...
Today's guest is Vendulka Battais — I had the joy of judging alongside her at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham this summer, and let me tell you, she taught me so much and made the whole experience an absolute blast. She's a textile artist, tutor, speaker, long arm quilter, and certified quilt judge whose creative roots go all the way back to sewing with her mother as a young girl in the Czech Republic. A beginners patchwork class many years ago lit a spark that's grown in every direction ...
Karen Bolan is a teacher, lecturer, pattern designer and traveller. She's an artist who loves sharing her joy and her process and bringing people along with her. Quilting started as a quiet counterbalance to her career as an Engineer, something she picked up on the side. But that side pursuit kept pulling at her until she finally took the leap into a fully creative life. Today, Karen is based in Santa Rosa, California, working as a quilt teacher, lecturer, and pattern designer. Her desi...