There is nothing better than having an hour or two to blanket stitch my applique quilts. While I relax into the hypnotic motion of the blanket stitching, it is the perfect time to catch up on my favorite podcasts.
Of course, I love listening to quilting podcasts while I play with applique, and that is where I discovered Susan Smith.
While I generally listen to the latest episodes first, when I found Susan, I went back to the very beginning episode from two years ago. Her premier podcast episode taught me so much about this talented quilter! In this episode, Susan and her sister Mary reminisce about endearing childhood memories, complete with Quilting Bees with her whole family, heating water on the woodstove for showers, and learning to sew on a treadle sewing machine. Her early life in rural, Northern BC Canada was a firm foundation for a magnificent quilting business.
Susan Smith started her quilting business as a long-arm quilter who provides freehand edge-to-edge quilting services to her clients. Her hand-guided all-over designs give her client quilts a unique personal touch not found in today’s computerized edge-to-edge designs.
You can watch over her shoulder as Susan quilts her customer quilts, “Live and Unscripted Quilting Reality Show” on YouTube twice a month. I love watching Susan’s process as she plans the quilting design, loads a quilt on her Bernina long-arm, and quilts the entire project while we watch. The LIVE show is not edited, much like my own Sewing in Slippers episodes, so you see all the challenges that a Long-Arm quilter faces daily.
Her most popular episode is one where everything that could go wrong did go wrong! You’ll watch Susan face each challenge with grace as she struggles through a “Quilt of Valor”. From thread breaks to a “too-small” backing, to camera issues, you’ll get the real “day in the life of a quilter” experience! As a bonus, watch as Susan’s husband (who produces the show) calmly works behind the scenes to broadcast the live show to all of us.
This weekend, Susan Smith as the featured quilter during Tri-City Quilters Guild Quilt Show in Kennewick, WA. Visit Susan at the Bernina booth where she will be demonstrating her own special brand of freeform quilting.
Susan is most active on Instagram where her shorts offer great quilting tips. Get a glimpse of her latest quilting project, then see the whole process, Live and Unscripted on her Youtube channel.
Susan has made the transition from quilter to teacher, after hearing clients over and over say, “I wish I could do that!” Her Free-Form Quilting Masterclass is currently gathering a wait list for when it re-opens in April. Then, an ongoing membership, “Advance Growth Community” supports quilters who want to go to the next level.
During my interview with Susan on “Sewing in Slippers with Sue” we learned that we are cut from the same cloth! We both have a great love for teaching quilters, a unique expertise in our field, and an entrepreneurial spirit that brought our two worlds together. I loved getting to know Susan during this interview. It will make blanket stitching, while listening to “Measure Twice, Cut Once”, even more enjoyable in the future!
Here are all the links to the places you can find Susan Smith online.
YouTube: www.youtube.com/@StitchedBySusan
Podcast: https://podcast.stitchedbysusan.com/
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