HI! Im Bethanne Nemesh…and I just love quilting. Free motion machine quilting especially and MOST of all…teaching other people to love it as much as I do.

I’ve been blessed with a successful show quilting career, but now I prefer to focus on my teaching.

Here is a little “Bethanne Lore” of how I came to be!

 I began my quilting journey more than 27 years ago, in college.  A professor helped me see that I didn’t have to tolerate the “boring” calicos of the era.  I could go out and dye, or manipulate my materials to match my vision…which allowed me to think of quilts as more than the family heirlooms I had grown up with.  Then, batik fabric arrived on the scene and I was completely hooked.

I began my longarm machine sewing business in 2008 with the purchase of an A-1 brand machine.  My innovative approach creating secondary designs, in generally traditional quilts, as well as unique free-hand quilting patterns, quickly earned me a thriving quilt-for-hire business.  However, sharing my work on-line, and sharing my personal quilts on the national show circuit, changed my business forever.  My true love is in teaching others to quilt.  I love interacting with my students.  My favorite classes to teach are actually practical ones.  I firmly believe in each student having a strong grasp of foundation quilting skills, and if they choose to quilt for hire, a firm understanding of the link between style, and time spent quilting, and how that relates to their personal business model.  I love encouraging my students to express themselves uniquely in their art, ignore the trends of the quilt world, and find their own creative path.

My quilts are deeply personal to me, expressing a story in cloth.  My pictographic show quilts feature a completely original collage of flora and fauna, depicting individual ecosystems, layered with meaning.  My contemporary whole cloth quilts feature a unique intertwined and interlocked style, melding traditional elements with the fantastic.  My yarn couched pieces are more for fun and exploration of a new media, but one that I find a great deal of pleasure in. My more modern quilts express emotion through free motion quilting and blended quilt texture.

I hope you will follow me on my quilting journey, here, or even better, arrange to take a class with me so I can meet you in person.  I teach at shows from time to time, but I have come to deeply love teaching digitally, working with students 1:1 though the power of technology!