#NGAQB – November

The No Girls Allowed Quilt Bee is nearly at its end. :::squish squish::: For this instalment I am celebrating Mr. November, Scott Hansen from Blue Nickel Studios. He asked for Union Jack blocks using my pattern, in Liberty-esqe, chintzy fabrics. I had to search the bottom of the stash for this one, but I found a few things! Read on for more about Scott…

I grew up a farm boy. Well, kind of a farm boy. My dad worked for a newspaper two cities away but he loved cattle and machinery, so we always had both and a lot more land than most people. I never really liked machinery, but I am rather fond of animals and plants, and since we lived in the Pacific Northwest, we always had lots of woods. I consider myself a child of the woods. I am constantly inspired and uplifted by trees of any kind. Maybe that’s why part of why I love Christmas so much with that whole Tannenbaum thing going down. I also loved coloring and creating from my earliest memories. I still remember getting my first box of 64 Crayola Crayons! My mom sewed everything we wore (except pants she hated making pants she said). And in junior high we had to take Home Ec and Shop. I was mostly interested in cooking in Home Ec, but I did learn to sew and I sewed myself a shirt and pillow. Ironically, the pillow that I sewed was also a flag, the Danish Flag, because that was the main country of my family’s many origins. I made my first quilt when I was about 14 or so because it was around the Bicenntenial and Early Americana was pretty much the rage then. 

Fast forward to the late 80’s early 90’s. I was newly married, wanted to make my wife a fancy Christmas stocking. In the years before, I had picked up counted cross-stitch as a means to keep my hands busy when I was not doing something else. (I need that, especially when visiting with people, I can’t stand to just sit there). So I cross-stitched the front of a pretty elaborate stocking for my wife. I needed to sew it together so I ended up buying a $200 Singer Sewing machine. A year or so later, my wife and I happened to check out a quilt show and I think that’s when I started getting more and more interested in quilting. I started dreaming of opening my own quilt shop, and through that dream, I met Mary and Connie of Country Threads in 1996. After that it’s a series of events that unfolded to me getting more and more involved in the industry of quilting through an assortment of circumstances. Now I design quilts for fabric companies and magazines. I have a few patterns for sale in my Etsy shop, and a few more coming soon! I teach here and there, as well as share my quilts and quilting journey with guilds. I am also on staff with the magazine Generation Q. It has been an interesting journey. Truly, the best part has been all of the wonderful, amazing, creative, and kind people that I have met and now call friends. It has been a delight!

Find Scott here:
Blog: Blue Nickel Studios
Instagram: bluenickelstudios
Flickr: bluenick1 Twitter: @bluenickel5
Magazine: Generation Q