Designer Focus - Brenda Riddle of Acorn Quilt & Gift Company and Giveaway!

Our Featured Designer this month is Brenda Riddle of Acorn Quilt & Gift Company.  We have the privilege of hearing about how Brenda got started in the business.  So sit back and enjoy the story! 

My love of working (playing really) with fabric and threads began when I was a little girl learning how to embroider. I had seen the table covers and doilies that my Mom had inherited from her mom and grandma, and I felt such a sense of belonging as I was also learning to do the variety of pretty stitches. I could sit and stitch for hours!


Then there were the beautiful patchwork quilts that Mom kept on the higher shelves in the linen closet. A little higher than I could reach, but I would always take a peek at them whenever I was asked to get something for my Mom from the lower shelves. . . or when putting away the towels when ‘helping’ my Mom folding the laundry. (Confession: I still like folding laundry!) The quilts were saved for ‘special’ occasions - when snuggling and comfort was especially needed - like when I had a cold or those times when Mom knew that cuddles wrapped in one of the quilts would help make everything little better. (She was so right - they still have that effect on me!)

As I grew, I started making my own clothes in middle school, and I continued to make many of my clothes until my early adult years. Then I was introduced to fabric stores, and my first job was working in a fabric shop when I was in high school. Not much of my paycheck ever made it out of the shop - but my love for bolts and bolts of fabric was definitely embedded into my creative soul.

In college, I majored in Art/Design and after graduating I worked in the architecture and interior design fields for about 9 years. It was a wonderful way to get to use my love for design, but there was something missing. It was becoming a ‘job’, and I was losing the joy.

All during these years, I had also worked with high school kids in my church's youth groups, and after a summer trip to Guatemala with a group of them, I realized that I would love to work with kids full time. So I left the design field and started teaching art and design in a private high school. I loved watching the kids learn and try and grow in their abilities and in their belief in their abilities; taking things step-by-step. I was reminded of a saying that my Grandpa would say, “. . . from little acorns, mighty oaks grow”.

It was also during this time that I began quilting and loving every aspect of it. I found that everything I had done before (creativity-wise) all seemed to fit perfectly with quilting. I taught at the high school for 15 years and during the last four years I began to grow Acorn Quilt & Gift Company. I was encouraged to go to Quilt Market, and once I did I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I said goodbye to full time teaching (I still like to sub now and again), and I’ve been very blessed with everything that has happened since. From designing quilts, fabric, and ever-expanding needlework designs I am one happy and blessed girl!  

My latest pattern, By My Hand, is one that is very dear to my heart. It reflects my love for all the aspects of quilting (piecing and appliqué), but also incorporates stitchery with its embroidery. The focus of the design is the cross-stitch samplers that I have always loved. Many of the vintage samplers were done by younger girls. It reminds me of the days when I was first introduced to a needle and thread and the incredible wonderful journey that has since come my way!

Thank you so much for sharing with us, Brenda! 

We have By My Hand available as a Block of the Month beginning in March, and patterns are also available separately. Take a look at all of Brenda's products in our Featured Designer category.

Brenda's dog Bailey has one more announcement!

That's right, Home Comforts, Comfort & Joy, and Simple Things Small Joys have all been marked down 30%.

GIVEAWAY!

Four lucky winners will receive a pattern or book by Brenda Riddle!  Enter a comment below sharing what your favorite Brenda Riddle pattern is, or tell us what you liked about Brenda's story.