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Aurifil 2017 December Designer of the Month Amanda Murphy

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

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December wraps up our Color wheel year with  Blue-Green. I have loved how each designer approached their color and shared what inspired it. Quilters really do love color!

Amanda Murphy has been a friend of mine for a long time,

You might be familiar with her fabric, machine quilting & embroidery designs. This month her block is perfect for showcasing fun fabrics!

I interviewed Amanda on  2/16/15 and  6/10/13. She will be chatting with me again in a few weeks so stay tuned for that! New to my podcasts?

LISTEN HERE & Subscribe by Itunes.

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 Amanda!

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

Charlotte, NC. I travel a lot and flying in overheard always makes me smile. It is heavily wooded and just beautiful. My favorite spot is at home with my family, artwork, and fabrics of course. This is a view of a Charlotte fall day from our front porch.

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

I started quilting when we first had our kids, although I had always sewn and was basically self taught. One year when I was about ten I made a tree skirt and decorated the angel’s faces with actual make-up. When I discovered that I could make fabric art that was just flat and didn’t have to FIT anything, I was hooked! 

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

I was a multimedia and graphic designer which is a fancy way of saying that I worked in Photoshop and Illustrator a lot. My degree was actually in industrial design though. I came into this industry through illustrations and fabric.

Have you had a ‘light bulb’ moment in making

my lightbulb moment was realizing that quilts didn’t need to fit anyone – they are just art!

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

I have a room outside that I use for storage above the garage, but it is really too hot in summer to store machines, etc., which means that everything happens inside. Our family room is a constant rotation of sewing machines, computers, graphics tablets, etc. It isn’t pretty, but I firmly believe that if you wait to do something until things are just perfect in life it will never happen. Even if you don’t have the perfect space, or even (like me) a dedicated space) you can still make things happen.

Do you have a GREAT tip?

I have IKEA shelving outside for extra fabric and supplies. Then I have two rolling industrial carts inside, plus a standing desk also on wheels, so I can constantly change my space. I need to – I have lots of stuff and fabric coming in all the time.

3 Favorite Aurifil Colors

2021, because I used it for quilting so many of my quilts. And 2600 because I use it for all piecing. 5006, because – guess what – it is aqua! I also love their monofilament with 50 wt. in the bobbin because of how soft it is.

I also have a Aurifil thread collection designed especially for my Meadow Dance collection that I used for the applique in my “Meadowsweet” pattern, and also to quilt my Meadow Dance Panel with special Westalee rulers sets!

What is coming up? 

I’d love it if you’d join me in my Facebook Group – “Quilting with Amanda Murphy” https://www.facebook.com/groups/free.motion.quilting.idea.book/

My newest fabric line for Contempo of Benartex is Winter Games, which celebrates Winter Sports and then all things winter in general. It is shipping now. I used a ton of Aurifil thread to quilt and applique my “Winter Sports” quilt. Also to make my placemat and tape-runner set “Fa La La Latte”.

 What is it about your color that inspired you

Oh gosh aqua. A LOT of my collections use aqua.Almost to the point where I could term it a neutral, but then again, I think green is a neutral so aqua isn’t too far a stretch. I played with aqua as the dominant background color. I played with aqua as the focal square. I’d like to do an entire quilt like this with all aqua focal squares!

 

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DOWNLOAD Amanda’s Aurifil Block

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And a few on the light side… 

  • If you could go back in time, what year would you travel to? I’d like to be able to watch William Morris design fabric! Without a computer – he was amazing!
  • What’s the most interesting thing you see out of your window? Bunnies!
  • Are you a Dog or Cat person? A dog person, but my husband is allergic and I travel quite a bit.
  • What is your favorite book you have ever read?  I recently read “The Nightingale” on while traveling and couldn’t put it down. I also love “The Autobiography of Henry VIII: With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers: A Novel”

Visit Amanda at:

With my fabric I decided a simplified sashing worked best. You can see all my blocks at my site, where you ALSO ENTER YOUR BLOCK to be in the running to win a box of thread, last month’s winner is below

In Late January I will publish a setting for these 12 blocks. If you can’t wait, there are a few settings from our prior years at www.aurifil.com/patterns

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

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******* 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 Maja! She has WON a BOX of Aurifil thread! Such gorgeous blocks entered .. see all the great versions HERE

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