Welcome to my nest!
Hi, I'm Michelle Russell; you can call me Mimi!
I've been a quilt lover for many years, but I just started learning to quilt in 2020. I started with some rag quilts that I made for my kids and haven't looked back! I enjoy piecing quilts from start to finish; the colors and textures of the fabrics sing to me. The symmetry and precision are right up my detail-oriented alley. I love the layering of a perfectly selected quilt pattern to tie it all together. I've made dozens of quilts of my own and helped quilt for friends and family as I learned this awesome craft.
I've taken training classes, and you can often find me at a quilting retreat when I can get away for a weekend. When I learned to quilt, I discovered a new passion, and I wish I had jumped in much sooner. Quilting has brought me so much joy!
My first introduction to longarm quilting was when my son made a quilt for a project in his AP Literature class his senior year of high school. We went to the quilt shop and bought fabric. He put the quilt top together and then we asked the shop what happens next? They gave us the name of a woman who did long arm quilting, I remember going to her house and her showing us her machine in her basement. She free-motioned my son's quilt beautifully in about a week (and he of course got an A on his assignment!)
Fast forward 4 or 5 years...I finally went back to that same quilt shop and signed up to take a beginner's class. I loved it all...until we had to maneuver a large quilt under a tiny domestic machine and try to quilt between safety pins. I asked the instructor, "There must be a better way.!?" and she led me across the shop to where their long arm machine was and she let me play with it. I bought one before the next class. Now it lives in my basement (just like the lady who quilted Liam's AP Lit quilt!) where I have overtaken what used to be the kids' playroom and then the college kids' dorm during Covid when everyone was back home. Now it's Mimi's Nest Quilting Studio, also known as my happy place!
