Today we welcome Pam and Nicky Elliott as they share their inspiration for their newest book, Quilts from Quarters.

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Do you love to quilt and have fat quarters and long quarters in your fabric stash? This brand new book from international best selling authors Pam and Nicky Lintott contains 12 stunning new and original stash-busting quilt designs that you can make from BOTH fat and long quarters!

Follow along as this mom and daughter team answer some of the questions we asked them about their start in publishing and the happenings along the way.

PAM- Mom

NICKY- Daughter

Q When was your first book? 

 

Pam:    My first book was The Quilt Room Patchwork & Quilting Workshops back in 1992, which seems a long time ago!  The first book Nicky and I worked on together was Jelly Roll Quilts back in May 2008.  We had been to Quilt Market in Houston the previous October and were shown the jelly rolls Moda introduced at Market.  We were absolutely blown away by them, and when we got home to the UK, we started work immediately on designing what could be done with them.

 

Nicky:  Mum wrote books way back when I was a kid, but the first book we co-wrote was Jelly Roll Quilts in 2008. 

 

 

Q. Do you have a favorite project from any of your books? If so, why? 

 

Pam:    We’ve written twelve books on jelly roll quilts, so there are a lot of jelly roll quilts to choose.  However, all the quilts from our latest book, Quilts from Quarters, are decorating our shop at the moment, and one is destined for my bedroom, so it has to be that one.  It is Falling Leaves which has quite a few pieces in the 6in blocks, so it wasn’t the quickest quilt to make, and I love it.

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Nicky:  Ohhh...tricky question. There are lots, but my favorite project is Colourplay from Quilts from Quarters. The quilt itself is a fun and easy quilt to make – a great one for beginners. What makes it unique is the transparency effect we’ve created through the clever use of colour.  I love colour and seeing how using colour can completely transform a quilt design. I also have a soft spot for Friendship Braid – this was one of the first jelly roll quilts we made and was pictured on the front cover of our first jelly roll book. 

 

 

 ( pattern shown above- Log Cabin Hidden Stars QR 114- takes 1 Moda Jelly Roll to make the quilt)

 

Q. Do you decorate with your quilts? If so, where and how?

 

Pam:    I love having quilts all around my house in South-West England. I don’t necessarily put them on all the beds, but there is probably a quilt in every room – sometimes thrown over a chair or sofa.  We also have a house in the south of France, and we hang them on all the walls there.  When choosing the quilts to hang there, we had to consider the different light, which is much brighter than in England.

 

Nicky:   I don’t decorate my house with quilts, but my three kids have lots of quilts to snuggle under, or they are great for making camps in the garden!

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Q. Your style is so diverse and covers many looks. How do you choose what fabrics to use for the designs?

 

Nicky:  It sounds obvious, but we always choose fabric we love and are excited about. Most of the time, we use collections that are yet to be released.  There is something exciting about working with fabric that is so brand new, and you want to do justice to that fabric.  As we both choose the fabrics and have different tastes, hopefully, our fabric choices appeal to many quilters. 

 

 

Are there other places where you find your inspiration? 

Nicky:  It is so interesting how we design. Sometimes, it starts with just a thought, and what if we do that or change this?  Other times, we have seen perhaps a pretty floor tile and have expanded on that design. We also love working with carefully selected rulers – so we try and push ourselves to really think about different and clever ways to use a block. 

 

 

 

Q. What is your favorite part of the quilting process? 

 

Pam: For me, I love the mathematical process of designing and making sure that we are making clever use of the precut – whether it is a fat quarter or a jelly roll. Mathematics is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I love that part.  I also love sitting in my studio overlooking a river listening to a book, and sewing away.  Even thinking about it makes me smile.

 

Nicky:  For me, I love designing and then seeing that first block come to life in your quilt, and you know it’s going to work. Don’t get me wrong – we have many ideas that don’t make it to our books! But when you get it right, it’s a great feeling. I also love the longarm quilting aspect of the quilting process. I often have specific ideas on what I want, and I love sourcing quilting patterns and trying new threads or different waddings. ( batting)

 

  

Q. What is the first quilt book you owned? Did you buy it, or was it gifted to you?

 

Pam:    I can’t remember exactly, but one of the first was Template-Free Quiltmaking by Trudie Hughes.  I opened The Quilt Room shop in 1982, and no one at that time was using a rotary cutter – certainly not in England.  When this book came out, it totally revolutionized cutting, and I loved it. My husband Nick owned a chain of book shops at the time, so I think I probably got him to buy it for me!

 

Nicky:  Mum has always had lots of quilting books in the house as I was growing up, so the ones I remember and have copies of (or perhaps ‘gifted’ from mum) are books such as Gwen Marston's Liberated Quiltmaking and Scrap Quilts by Judy Martin.  

 

 

Q. Do you have any upcoming projects that you can share with us?

 

Nicky:  We are excited as we’re now allowed to say that we have a ‘greatest hits’ book coming out in May 2023. We have cherry-picked quilts from all our jelly roll books to date. We have written many books on jelly rolls, so we think this is an excellent way for someone to get a flavour from each book without having to buy every single book!

 

Pam:    We really enjoyed designing the quilts from Quilts from Quarters, where we have given instructions to make the quilts from either long or fat quarters or even a combination of both.  We felt this was important because quilters often have both types of quarters in their stash.  We want to continue with these designs for a while, so watch this space….!

 

Q. While sewing, do you watch TV, audiobooks, or music? If so, please share some of your favorite shows or playlists.

 

Pam:    I’m an audiobook fan, and once I’ve planned what I’m doing and don’t have to think too much, I always listen to an audiobook. When sewing the quilts from Quilts from Quarters, I listened to lots of books, and this is just a selection of the ones I would recommend:

The Heart’s Invisible Furies - John Boyne

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens

The Beekeeper of Aleppo -Christi Lefteri

Goldfinch - Donna Tartt

…… sorry the list is a bit long, but it could be even longer!!!

 

Nicky:  I love having Netflix on in the background – usually something you don’t have to pay full attention to and can dip in and out. I hate to admit it, but it’s usually a guilty pleasure like Selling Sunset or Love Island!

 

 

 

Q. Where can we learn more about you? 

 

Pam & Nicky:  You can find out more about us, and what we do from our website www.quiltroom.co.uk - as well as designing and writing books, we have a beautiful shop in Surrey, England (just south of London), and we also run an extensive mail order business.   Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook, too – our username is @thequiltroom, and we often post about new designs we’re working on and behind the scenes at work. 

Additional titles are available by Nicky and Pam.

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If you are in the UK, be sure and pop in for a visit.