Desire to Inspire- January Challenger - Lisa England

Meet Lisa England - She took on the challenge of using "Spring Awakens" by Debi Hron in the month of January 2019.

"Hello, my name is Lisa England.  I grew up near Pittsburgh and now live in the small town of Ashland, KY.  I learned basic sewing many years ago when home economics was taught in school.  My mother-in-law is an accomplished seamstress who has helped me to improve my sewing skills.  I’ve been making quilts for over 20 years and still find it fascinating and fun.

I met my husband when we were engineering students at Virginia Tech, and we got married a week after graduation.  We moved to Ashland (his hometown) and have lived here ever since.  We have one grown son who is also a Virginia Tech engineering graduate.  He lives and works near New Orleans and is getting married this summer.  We travel to New Orleans as often as we can.  We also enjoy taking trips to explore National Parks or to find scenic places to hike and enjoy nature.

Since I started making quilts I have taken classes, learned from books, magazines, and the internet, and have figured some things out as I go.  I have tested patterns for designers and have designed a few of my own.  I’ve done online challenges, taught a couple of classes, helped some friends learn to make quilts, and sewn hundreds of projects big and small.   I don’t have one particular style, but work on whatever interests me.  Some of my current favorite things are foundation paper piecing, making scrappy quilts, and working with bright colorful fabrics. My interest in quilt making shows no signs of fading!  Last summer my husband encouraged me to upgrade my mid-arm quilting machine to one that is computer driven.  I am having great fun trying out some of the many amazing quilting patterns that a computerized machine makes possible.  And it turns out my husband is great at tech support for all things computer related.

I really enjoyed working with the “Spring Awakens” fabrics.  I thought the sweet animals would be perfect for baby quilts, so I made two.  Each one was designed to best feature some of the animal fabrics from the collection.  I quilted them with designs that had flowers and leaves to go with the nature theme of the fabrics.

36" x 48"

39" x 45"

Close Up of Quilting

I always enjoy using leftover fabric bits to make small projects so I used some scraps from these quilts to make a pot holder and a small “dumpling” pouch (using a tutorial from MichellePatterns).

Pot Holder

Dumpling Pouch- About 3 1/2" x 5 1/2"

View the Full Collection by Debi Hron Here