Podcast: Longarm Quilting Business with Julie Persinger

Hello My Quilting Friends! This week I have an awesome interview with Julie Persinger talking all about running a longarm quilting business.

Julie doesn’t have a website or blog, but you can find her right here on Instagram. Just message her through the Instagram app if you’re interested learning more about her longarm quilting services.

Julie quilted over 31 quilts for Luke Haynes and his log cabin series. Click Here to see the quilts.

Many of Luke’s quilts incorporate non-traditional quilting elements that Julie has to figure out how to quilt over. Here’s an example of how she handled a pocket on the front of one quilt!

We talk about a lot of things in this interview from how Julie began longarm quilting, how she balances that work with homeschooling her kids, and how she prices her services. I loved learning about Julie and hearing her perspective as a longarm quilter.

Julie got back into quilting after her son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and was given a quilt from Project Linus. This quilt was so comforting and helpful to her family during a difficult time that she wanted to make quilts to donate as well. Click Here to learn about Project Linus.

Thank you Julie for coming on the podcast and sharing about your life and business!

Very Busy Week – Lots of Updates!

I did have a super long intro to this podcast because so much has been going on over the last two weeks.

I’ve been digging into applique for two new goddess quilt patterns that will be released this fall. I’m trying to pick the right applique method that will give me the finished look I’m after, but not take a million years to create.

I think fusible applique with a machine stitched finish is going to be the winner, it’s fast, not very fiddly, and so far it’s coming together very quickly.

I’ve also been working on the walking foot book and today I just finished Chapter 2. The best piece of advice I’ve heard so far is to stop editing myself as I go. I start writing and scroll down to the new section I’m working on and jump in. I don’t even let myself read the previous sections or I will start editing and nit picking and get nothing new written.

Surprisingly enough it was very easy to keep up my writing habit while on the trip to Quilt Con in Savannah, GA. I found a lot of little moments either riding in the car or in the morning hanging out with James to pull out the keyboard and write a little bit.

And the trip was awesome! I had such a great time, saw so many beautiful, inspiring quilts, saw lots of quilting friends, and got to hang out with family too. It was win win all the way around. Click Here to read more about my Quilt Con experience.

I mentioned the awesome vendor I found at Quilt Market, but couldn’t remember the name. It’s Fish Museum and Circus and the maker is Deborah Fisher and she makes awesome ceramics with a pincushion top. I loved being able to find a cute present for my sisters and myself that was completely unique to Quilt Con.

And now…I’m so glad to be home! I really couldn’t sustain that level of energy for long and I love being home to play with all the goodies I picked up at the show.

This week we have a new block for the Machine Quilting Block Party and so far I think it wins the best texture award of all the blocks shared so far! I love how the pebbling and ruler foot quilting turned out on this Patchwork Tulip block. Click Here to find the quilt pattern.

And yes, I’ve got to share the photo of me being silly with the huge flowers at Hobby Lobby with James. These massive flowers totally crack me up!

For some reason the instant I saw these I was like “I want this on my head!” so now I’m building a mask to do just that:

I got one massive poppy flower attached and it feels a bit forward top heavy so I think I need two more flowers to balance it out.

And maybe some big long sprigs of something sticking straight up. I used to work in a plant store and I learned you always have one plant growing low, one plant in the middle, and one plant shooting above the rest.

The other thing I’ve learned from making my other masks is to work in layers. The flowers will go on and look pretty clunky, but then I add more layers of fabric, paper, timtex, clay, and glue and with each layer it will get better and closer to the idea in my head.

So that’s it for this week’s podcast! If you have a suggestion for the podcast or would like to be on the show, please send us an email. I’m always interested in meeting new quilters and making new quilting friends!

If you’re looking for more podcasts to listen to, check the podcast app on your iphone or click here to find all the podcasts shared so far.

Let’s go quilt,

Leah Day