Let Me Tell You about the Time I Met Amy Butler

I met Amy Butler a few years ago and I’m pretty certain I embarrassed myself. I was attending a design conference – not for anything quilting related but for my job at the time – and she was also in attendance.  I knew she was going to be at the conference and the most I hoped for was to see her in the hallway.  To my surprise and delight (this is where it gets embarrassing) I ended up sitting right next to her.

It was on the first day of the conference and the first speaker session of the day. I was sitting in a large hotel ballroom and it was packed.  There were hardly any seats open but there happened to be one free next to me.

I was deeply engrossed in reading the program when I heard someone ask if the seat next to me was open. Without really paying attention, I told the person it was free.

It was then that I glanced up and a see that it’s Amy Butler. I did a double take, checked her name badge to confirm, and then blurted out, “I’m a quilter!”

I then continued to ramble on about how I love her fabric and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Amy graciously listened and chatted with me before our speaker session got started.

I say all of this because I’m really not one to get excited about celebrities. In my other career (not quilting) I’ve had the opportunity to meet some celebrities – some bigger than others – and it’s fine and can be kind of fun, and living in New York we tend to see them occasionally as well, but for the most part I really don’t care all that much…unless we’re talking fabric designers.   Amy Butler is like the Angelina Jolie of fabric designers and that got me excited.

I tell you this story because I am in the process of working on a new quilt using Amy’s fabric. I’m such a fan of hers and have used her fabric before.  You may have seen this quilt which has gotten quite a bit of attention, and I credit a lot of that to Amy’s fabric.

I’ve slowly been collecting some pieces of Amy Butler fabric and added to my collection last week. The entire top row of this picture is her fabric.  You can also see some Denyse Schmidt and Lotta Jansdotter in there.  There’s also one piece of Parson Gray, Amy’s husband’s line of fabric.

http://instagram.com/p/sz7Itjr11g/?modal=true

I’ve already started cutting and piecing this quilt and so far I like what I’m seeing. It’s going to be bright, colorful, bold, and with lots of patterns.  I’m also using some bigger pieces so there are not too many tiny cuts, which means it’s coming together pretty quickly.

I can’t wait to show all of you when it’s done.