Aurifil 2017 November Designer of the Month Heather Givans

I’m Designer, Author, Talk Show host Pat Sloan.

This year we are celebrating the rainbow of colors in our color wheel. Each designer is assigned a color to create their block in.

This month we land on Green. Each month it’s a wonderful surprise to see how the designer was inspired by their color on the colorwheel.

I’m a huge fan of Heather’s work. She has vibrant work and super clever designs!

I interviewed Heather and you can listen to that at my website 

This year we challenged each designer by giving them a color on the color wheel. I asked for a photo to use in the collage so we can see how each one worked.  In January I’ll have a setting to pull them all together!

Missed a month? CLICK FOR PRIOR DESIGNER interviews

Remember we have a Challenge portion of our Designer of the Month interview.

Each month we select one random winner to receive a 12 spool BOX of Aurifil thread for just making the challenge block and sharing it at my website! (details at the end plus last month’s winner!)

Let’s get to know Heather!

Where do you live and what is your favorite spot there?

Living downtown Indianapolis, IN is awesome! It’s like living in a big small town. Or maybe a small big town. Either way there is a lot to do here. I love the Cultural Districts of Indianapolis, which are small neighborhoods connected by a pedestrian path. Some of my favorite places are my neighborhood, Woodruff Place as well as Mass Ave, which is where my shop is located.

Above photo my neighborhood yard sale Woodruff Place Flea Market. BEST WEEKEND OF THE SUMMER!

When was your FIRST quilt sighting? Did it inspire you to start quilting?

I have a degree in fine arts. I have always been crafty and somewhat sewy. I did a lot of non-function sewing in college by sewing paper together to make sculptures. It wasn’t until my mother revealed to me that she wanted to learn to quilt that I went to Camp Tecumseh, where I was a summer camp counselor, and attended the quilt camp they host six times a year for adults. It blew my mind. I loved everything about it. My love and appreciation has grown exponentially since.

Did you have a career prior this, what was it?

Before starting Crimson Tate I was a camp counselor and then high school art teacher. I love teaching. I love drawing, painting, printmaking, and illustration. I started making sewn goods to sell at craft fairs which turned into a wholesale business which turned into what it is today. I run a quilt store downtown Indianapolis, design fabric for Windham Fabrics, and am an Aurifil thread designer. This is a photo of one of my craft fair booths.

Have you had a ‘light bulb’ moment in making

I think it only took me five years of quilt making to realize I might have an easier time sewing the binding to the back of my quilt if I would iron the top where I attached the binding, first. Whoa. Game changer. I have been told, however, that if entering your quilt into a competition, they prefer that the front side of the binding not be ironed flat. The round appearance of the binding is important in those circumstances. I typically don’t enter my quilts into competitions so I don’t worry about the round.

 What does your studio look like, and what would you change in it?

I do a lot of my work at Crimson Tate but I also love my home workspace. It has incredible light and lots of table space to work on.

I need BOOKSHELVES! That is my next addition.

Do you have a GREAT tip?

Jars jars jars! Store your brushes, pencils, pens in jars! Very accessible and beautiful.

What is coming up? 

I am super excited to have two collections for Windham Fabrics debuting in January and shipping to stores in April. It is all still a secret at this point but I hope you’ll follow along!

I’ll be traveling to QuiltCon, the Modern Quilt Guild Show in Pasadena, CA, via TRAIN with a slug of my buddies in February. Crimson Tate will have a booth. Be sure to stop by and say hi!! Also, I will be teaching at the AQS Quilt Show in Paducah, KY in the spring. It should be a great time. I hope you’ll find me there!

 What is it about your color that inspired you

I’ve always been an outdoors kind of girl. From going fishing with in Northern Wisconsin on family vacations as a kid to being an adventure trip leader at the summer camp I worked at, being outside is truly a love of mine. There is nothing like the Lakes of Minnesota (where my grandma lives in Duluth, MN on Lake Superior) to hiking in the Colorado Rockies. I have countless stories of hiking parts of the Appalachian
Trail to whitewater rafting in the hills of Tennessee. Get me out doors!

My block is an ode to those sturdy pines that stand tall in the Boreal forest of Northern Minnesota which is one of my all time favorite places.

Here is my granny hugging my neck. She’s such a peach at 91 years old. From the deck of her house you can see Lake Superior. That warm window in her kitchen is one of my favorite places on earth.

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DOWNLOAD Heather’s Aurifil Block

Heather made her sweet flying geese using the Bloc-loc flying geese ruler and gave you cutting sizes for that.

If you want to make them without the ruler, the cutting sizes are

• cut 30 rectangles  1″ x 1.5″
• cut 60 squares 1″
• flying geese are 1″ x 1.5″, finished size  is 1/2″ x 1″

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And a few on the light side… 

• What’s the most interesting thing you see out of your window?
  Literally outside of my window is a road sign that directs you to my neighborhood library. It sold us on the house when we saw it!!

• Are you a Dog or Cat person?

I love my puppies so much!!! Here are Olive (Olive Ander) and Gertrude

• What is your favorite book you have ever read?.

I love love love all kinds of reading and all kinds of books. The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner was my favorite as a kid. I love Life of PI by Yann Martel, I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson, and am currently reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi which is incredibly powerful.

Visit Heather at:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crimsontate/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crimsontate/
• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/crimsontate/
• Website: https://www.crimsontate.com
• Blog: https://heathergivans.com

My idea this month is to pick one of the larger prints and do the EPP work around it.. Get my Directions for using strips 

ALSO ENTER YOUR BLOCK so you can be in the running to win a box of thread, last month’s winner is below

And  JOIN my fantastic online quilt group with the most incredible  quilt show each day… I’d love to meet you!

******* JOIN our Aurifil Family  *******

EACH MONTH we will pick one random winner that has made a block.. that person will receive a special Aurifil thread prize! Winners are all contacted email

Our RANDOM picker this month selected is Kathleen! She has WON a BOX of Aurifil thread! Such gorgeous blocks entered .. see all the great versions HERE

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