Quilting Stories podcast · Jeff Rutherford

Amanda Leins interview - Episode 3

·41 min·3 clips

Amanda Leins reveals how her grandfather's love of quilts and a 1947 Singer sewing machine sparked her quilting journey.

Host Jeff Rutherford interviews Amanda Leins, a longarm quilter, teacher, and author of books like *Wanderlust Quilts*. Leins describes her quilts as modern, featuring bold lines and bright colors, yet incorporating traditional techniques. She began quilting in 2002 after being inspired by family quilts and a 1947 Singer sewing machine used by her relatives. Her early projects included a simple railroad quilt pattern from Alex Anderson's *Learn to Quilt*. Leins credits the early blogging and Flickr era with fostering a sense of community and creative freedom among quilters. She currently balances personal projects with her longarm business, where clients like Patti Murphy often grant her creative freedom on their quilts. A recent project for Murphy involved using nearly 30 different templates and over two dozen star motifs in the quilting design. Leins is considering remaking her "Fishborn" quilt from her book, scaling the blocks down from six inches to three for a greater technical challenge. She got into longarming in 2012 to speed up her own quilt finishing and create an income stream. For complex client quilts, like one for Christy Fincher inspired by Pennsylvania Dutch tulip designs, Leins conducts historical research to inform her free-motion quilting patterns. Her book *Wanderlust Quilts* explores how ancient mosaics and architectural principles of proportion inspire modern quilt designs. During the pandemic, homeschooling her children limited her focused quilting time to short intervals, though her conceptual creativity remained high. Leins gravitates toward solid fabrics, particularly Cherrywood solids, to best showcase intricate piecing and quilting details. She is currently inspired by the idea of creating dynamic motion and storytelling in quilts, referencing traditions like Gullah story quilts and Baltimore album quilts. Her advice for beginners is to embrace mistakes joyfully while also learning proper techniques for quilt longevity. To combat creative funks, Leins switches to other hobbies like watercolor or cooking, a strategy she links to her adult ADHD diagnosis. She still possesses her first, unfinished quilt, which no longer aligns with her style. Quilters who inspire her include longarm artists like Lisa Kaye, Bethann Nemish, and Karen McTavish for their generosity and depth of knowledge. While working, she often listens to repetitive playlists or audiobooks, like *Pride and Prejudice* or Trevor Noah's *Born a Crime*, to help maintain focus. A practical tip she shares is to occasionally use embroidery needles for dense backtracking and to apply a small amount of sewing machine oil to thread to increase its tensile strength. The episode maintains a relaxed, conversational tone as Leins reflects on her creative journey and process. Listeners interested in the technical side of longarming, modern quilt design, or a quilter's personal creative philosophy will find this engaging. Those seeking highly structured project tutorials or debates on quilting trends might find the introspective and anecdotal style less directly applicable.

As heard by us

A grounded quilting interview about technique, balance, and modern-meets-traditional design.

Jeff Rutherford keeps the conversation grounded in process, which is where it works best. Amanda Lyons comes through as someone who thinks carefully about making quilts that push her technically, and the mix of bold, bright modern elements with traditional technique gives the…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for a calm, technical quilting conversation with a maker who thinks in color, ratios, and structure.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Quilting Stories podcast