Joanne Middleton

I have been in business since 1998 – formerly as Cotton Patch Quilts. I changed my company name to Patchwork Schoolhouse in 2004. I started teaching in 1996, and then added longarm quilting to teaching for a local quilt shop in ’98. I started teaching because I had taken so many classes at a local quilt shop that they finally asked me to either teach or move in! I really enjoy teaching & sharing with my students, I learn from them too! My longarm quilt tally has just past the 500 quilt mark (customer & charity quilts). Quilting has so many facets, I enjoy exploring them all. I have always been fascinated by fabric. Its tactile nature & ability to shape into anything was always an absorbing hobby. I received my first sewing machine in grade 8 for getting honours that year in Home Ec. I began sewing clothing & progressed to sewing custom clothing by the mid 80′s. The quilting bug first bit me in 1988. (A “Quilt in an Afternoon” class turned into a “Quilt in Nine Months” as I wanted to make a crib quilt for our first child. My son still has his crib quilt in his room!) Since then I have made over 200 personal quilts in various sizes.