About Us
Hello!
My name is Laurie from Batavia Quilt n Sew. My home studio is located in Batavia New York.
I started quilting in 1989. At that time, I was working as an engineer and was living in a country home in Cortland, NY. During that time I had gone to a craft fair with friends when I saw some beautiful Amish quilts. I was in LOVE. I knew I had to find out more. From there I bought any book I could find on quilting. I also stumbled upon PBS sewing shows “Sewing with Nancy” and “Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel”.
With the help of Nancy Zieman and Georgia Bonesteel I completed my first quilt. It was a country sampler from a step by step instruction book I purchased with the supplies at Ames Department store. It was machine pieced and hand “lap quilted”. It was a gift for my sister who still has the quilt today hanging in her daughter’s room.
That was it! I caught the quilting bug! I continued to make quilts and wall hangings for friends and family. I even won an award for a small whole-cloth contrast quilted wall-hanging that I submitted to our company craft show. I am proud to say I won first place in my category and received a $125 prize. I continued to add to my fabric “stash” and practice tattooing my left index finger while hand quilting.
Shortly after that, I had a change in careers which took me back to school and training for a long period of time. I moved to Buffalo, NY and then to Long Island. My quilting was put on hold for about 10 years. I moved To Batavia NY after training and slowly got back into sewing. But it wasn’t until 4 or 5 years ago that I fell head over heels in love with Quilting again. This time with a new passion for machine quilting. The internet provided me with inspiration and showed me what wonderful things were possible.
I traded in my old Kenmore sewing machine with the broken reverse and bought a brand-new Bernina B 350. Wow! What a difference. But, I quickly out-grew this machine and wanted more. Next up was the B 580 with stitch regulator and embroidery capabilities. I was in heaven! Two years ago, I took the plunge and added the Bernina Q 24 longarm to my quilting studio then later the Q-Matic system. No worries though, I still have my vintage Singer 15-91 for piecing when I feel nostalgic.
This is it, my dream job! I have started Batavia Quilt n Sew to feed my passion of quilting and provide a service to all of you quilters with UFOs in need of completion.