DESIGNER PROFILE
Modern quilter Nydia Kehnle is a natural when it comes to shapes and colours. We caught up with the self-taught designer to chat about collaborations, QuiltCon and proudest moments
Modern quilter Nydia Kehnle is a natural when it comes to shapes and colours. We caught up with the self-taught designer to chat about QuiltCon, collaborations and proudest moments
Tell us about your quilting journey. I wanted to learn how to quilt after my daughter was born, so I borrowed my friend’s sewing machine and just taught myself using books and blogs. I ended up making my first quilt when I joined along with Dana of Old Red Barn Co. and her quiltalong on Flickr and the rest just spiralled from there!
I learned so much through the Flickr community, and joined a lot of different groups, swaps and bees over many years. Flickr really changed my life, as far as finally feeling a sense of belonging. I felt encouraged to continue to make quilts and really just began feeling confident enough to try to design a few things on my own when I moved over to Instagram. How did you start collaborating with Alison Glass?
Alison and I met through Instagram. I had made a pillow that she really liked using her very first fabric line, Lucky Penny. We just started talking from there and quickly became friends. We would talk about the world of fabric and quilting, and I had wondered if there was a place for me in it to design quilt patterns. She was very encouraging and suggested that we collaborate on a pattern. Feathers was the first pattern that we worked on together.
Explain the process of your partnership with Alison.
The concepts for our patterns are created by either one of us. We’ll either FaceTime or text about ideas that we have, as and when we have them. Sometimes ideas are ready to go and we’re immediately like “Yes!”. Other times they are little sparks of ideas that we go back and forth about until the idea develops into something that we both believe to be a strong pattern.
Once we decide to go ahead with a design, I make the templates, figure out the fabric measurements and make the quilt top. I then send Alison all of my messy quilt notes and she takes them and transforms them into a beautifully laid out pattern with detailed instructions. She then handles all of the selling aspects of the patterns too.
I feel so free when I am improvising. I love working organically and without a plan - it feels like a break from having to be perfect
Your quilt patterns range from improv to FPP, what’s your favourite technique and why?
Oh, that’s a difficult question for me! I don’t think I can pick one. Foundation Paper Piecing is wonderful because I am able to make quilts using odd angles that would be seemingly impossible otherwise. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum,
I feel so free when I am improvising. I love working organically and without a plan – it feels like a break from having to be perfect. It’s a really nice balance to be able to do both.
How would you describe your design aesthetic?
I think my most identifying aesthetic is that I create colourful quilts with an emphasis on movement, and not necessary balance. I like to create quilts that force your eyes to move around, and I’ve also more recently been exploring minimal designs. I love my Dimension quilt (left) because it reads as 3D even though it’s flat. I guess you could say that I enjoy creating quilts that make your eyes work a little bit harder.
You’ve previously done photography for several Lucky Spool books. Have you always been into photography?
I was a natural light portrait photographer for about five years before I decided to really invest all my time into quilting and design. It was a hard thing to let go of because I was doing really well for myself, but it just wasn’t right for me. I was so happy to be asked to do the