Follower Friday - Moneik

Whew, quick week this week!

We're back for more

This week I'd like to introduce you all to..

Moneik!

Specs:

Name: Moneik Stephens

Family: Husband Paul, Daughter Mikaela – 1 year

Location: Black Hawk South Dakota (near Mt. Rushmore)

Blog: http://moneik.blogspot.com

Flickr: moneikquilts

Webshots: moneikstephens (newer) or moneikquilts (older)

Day job: Assistant Registrar at NAU, Quilting Teacher at The Sewing Center/Fabric City, and working on my Masters in Management in Higher Education

Dream job: Clothing designer, purse & bag designer, or professional speaker

Quilting experience: I consider myself an advanced intermediate quilter. I have been sewing for 24 years, since age 8 as a 4-Her and quilting for 14 years, starting in college, making t-shirt quilts. 

Machines: I sew/piece on a Janome 6600, have a Janome 3050DC for travel, and a Janome 1600P on my quilt frame. I also have a Bernina 800L Serger. 

What are you working on now? I’ve just started several scrappy projects, which is shocking to those who know me. When I started quilting I was not going to have a stash, never kept the leftover fabric or scraps, and was not going to have any UFO’s. I’ve eaten my words A LOT! I’m working on Merry Go Round using 2.5” strips from scraps. I’m also cutting out one of the new Little patterns called Confetti with scraps left over from the Little Beach Ball pattern. I have a lot of projects going at once as I teach quilting classes and am making a lot of samples for next quarter classes. I am starting to make a Winding Way quilt using dark and light batiks in dark purples/green/blue/pinks with cream/pink/light blue, gray background. This is my challenge quilt for the year. 

Quilting Style: My style changes and I see myself going through lots of phases. About 6 years ago I did a whole year where I paper pieced everything, then I made t-shirt quilts, then I made big quilts for year, then it was bags and purses, then throw quilts, and in the last year it was mostly small baby related projects. I keep journals of every quilting project I’ve ever made and it is amazing looking back at where I started and the phases I have gone through. This year I am hoping to do more large tops to work on my machine quilting on the frame.

Favorites:

Place: Milesville, SD, out in the middle of no where at the ranch where my dad lives.

Movie: The Help, Save the Last Dance, 8 Seconds

Food: Steak – Medium rare

Way to spend a Friday night: Sewing with my best friends Jenn, Gaila, Emilee, Heather, Shonna, & Tammy at Groovy Girls or Club Sew

Fabric line: Amelia

Color: Purple

Designer: Sandy Gervais

Quilting Inspiration: My Mom Delia. My mom taught me how to sew when I was 8 years old as a 4-Her and worked with me to design prom dresses and other clothes throughout high school. She helped me learn to quilt and we really learned together.  She loved to piece, while I loved to make bags and do the machine quilting. We complimented each other very well. She was my best quilting partner in crime. We loved to shop hop and take quilting related trips. We never went anywhere without a trip to a quilt shop involved.  When she lost her breast/brain cancer battle in 2011, I inherited her UFO’s which I try to work on, one each month. 

Projects completed by you: There are just too many to count! I have a lot of projects I love.

Project when you need a quick finish: Diaper Cluth – I love how cute they turn out and really love to give them. I find they are simple, inexpensive, and very useful for new moms. Even my husband will take the diaper clutch and change our daughter. I made this one for my nephew and his mom won’t use the baby quilts I’ve made, but she uses the diaper clutch. 

Most Challenging: The most challenging quilt and one of my favorites is a Star quilt made during a class I took with my mom in 2009. It was held on my birthday, so that was the gift I gave myself. I had never done 45 degree angle cut stratas or such precision piecing. I actually ripped some seams out and re-sewed as well as pinned! I NEVER pin! The set in Y seams were also a challenge, but it broke me outside of my quilting box and showed me I can do anything I set my mind to do. Choosing the fabrics was also a challenge for me as I had a hard time picking just the right shades. 

Favorite Throw: This is one of my favorite quilts, made with the Pop Parade line, using a pattern called Boxed Blessings by local pattern designer Ingrid Barlow. I love the colors and the lime green really made me step out of my comfort zone. I pieced this quilt at the St. Jude’s quilt retreat in OH in 2009 where I met 16 blogging friends in person for the first time.  

Most special quilt: One of the most special quilts is a quilt my blogging group the Cre8tive Quilters made for our friend Heather upon her return from deployment with the Navy.  We each contributed a block and I put them together and added the Mt. Rushmore fabric border. I quilted it with a red/white/blue thread. The border was a special donation from a customer at the quilt shop as the fabric was out of print. This is one quilt I wish I still had. I LOVE it. 

Least Favorites:

Color: Green

Fabric line: Thimbleberries and Civil War or Reproductions

Project completed by you: Three double knit polyester quilts for my great aunt. They were atrocious to work on and really hard to quilt. They were made from her old clothes. This was a labor of love. 

Big plans for 2012?  This year for the first time I’ve planned a quilt retreat for the first weekend in March at a hunting lodge in memory of my mom.. We loved to sew and quilt together as well as we both worked for the same two quilt shops together. We had gone to several retreats there with her quilt group.  It was always her dream to host a quilt retreat there with her friends, so I’m following through by inviting her friends and mine to sew and play together for three days.I’ve decide to focus this year on finishing up mom’s UFO’s and mine, but also challenge myself to stretch myself. I finish one of each of our UFO’s a month as well as trying something new. I’ve never done curved piecing, so it will stretch my abilities as a quilter with the Winding Way quilt. I would also like to make a Storm at Sea.  I am also taking on more quilting for others as I continue to learn to use my quilt frame. I’d like to finish more large quilts this year.

Thank you to Moneik for her great interview!

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Have a great weekend everyone

:)