Trouble in small packages
Who I Am
My name is Robin Powell. I live in Central New York with my husband, teen aged daughter, two cats and two dogs. By day, I’m a software engineer of sorts. I say “of sorts” because over my 25+ year career I’ve been a quality assurance engineer, systems engineer, technical writer, and a whole host of other things. I’ve been lucky enough to work from home for the last few years, and now that’s about to come to an end. I can’t think of anything more mind-numbing and soul-destroying than sitting in an office for precisely 40 hours per week, unless they had some interesting work for me to do. They don’t, and I’m too old to put up with just filling a chair.
I’ve always been creative. My mother taught me how to crochet and knit when I was a child, I even remember doing some macrame (did I hear that’s coming back again?!?) I started quilting about 20 years ago and simply fell in love. I love the feel of the fabric, the challenge of finding a pattern to best showcase the fabric. and watching it slowly come together. My true love, though, is top quilting. I see top quilting as the paint that pulls the whole piece together, the work that determines whether it has a more modern look, or more traditional. When a customer hires me to complete their quilt, for a while I just set it somewhere in the room and live with it. Eventually, it will speak to me. (Yes, I know that sounds corny!)
I’m enjoying making baby quilts for my Etsy store for a number of reasons. First, my family is completely drowning in quilts and have asked me to find another outlet. Secondly, baby quilts are small and quick, allowing me to get to my favorite part (the top quilting!) that much faster. I do not use pantographs (computer-drawn patterns that some longarmers use). I don’t like the look of them personally, and to be honest, I spend enough time with computers. Each pattern I quilt is unique in some way, and that makes me happy.
In a perfect world, I could spend my time doing custom quilt work for others, quilting things that I want to quilt, and teaching others how to quilt. I want to share my joy with the world! 🙂
