1005C – Crumb Quilted Wheels Quilt on Monday
And four evening, handwork piecing classes
3067C – Explore the World of English Paper Piecing: Hexagons on Wednesday Night
4073C Explore the World of Paper Piecing: Jewels on Thursday Night
5062C Explore the World of Paper Piecing: Diamonds 
6061C Explore the World of Paper Piecing: Curved 
In addition, Michele’s company, Flower Box Quilts, will have a booth on the vendor floor.
Michele Crawford has a long history with sewing, crafting, and pattern making. Since the age of 9, she has always had a needle and thread in her hands. Stamped cross stitch, crewel, crochet, knitting, embroidery and sewing clothes were her passion. Michele taught herself to sew. Her first projects were sewn on her grandmother’s featherweight sewing machine. Michele’s first business was making woven potholders on a loom and selling them in her neighborhood. While in high school, she wanted to be a fashion designer and go to New York City to school. She ended up being an elementary school teacher, getting married, and starting a family. Later, she began her life as a self-employed designer and business owner.
Michele’s first business was Cross ‘n Quilt. Started in 1986, Michele designed and sold her patterns combining counted cross stitch and quilting. Through this experience, Michele has created over 4,500 published sewing, needlework and quilting designs in over 40 different publications. She has worked with over 35 fabric, thread and batting companies to date.
In 2002, a few quilting magazines started offering kits for the projects in their magazines featuring new fabric collections, and that was the start of Michele’s internet business, Flower Box Quilts. By 2008, she began designing her own quilt patterns to sell on her website as Flower Box Quilts, and also offered other quilt fabric kits exclusive to her site.
The Flower Box Quilts booth is known as the “happy booth.” She likes to showcase many different piecing styles and techniques to inspire her customers. Featured in her booth are seasonal and non-seasonal fabrics as well as over 100 of her original quilt patterns including those for quilts of all sizes, runners, place mats, pillows, Christmas ornaments and tree skirts, and other decorative items. She still likes to combine counted cross stitch with quilting and of course offers her piecing handwork hexagons.
Michele is looking forward to teaching her five classes, as well as sharing her quilt piecing philosophy: “We cannot achieve perfection but we can strive for excellence.”
There are several piecing tips that Michele likes to share. One is Don’t wash fabric before piecing. She believes that the finishes help achieve a “cleaner” cut with a rotary cutter. Some other tips: Iron as you go; It’s OK to sew over pins; and Use 100% Cotton thread. To learn more of Michele’s tips, you’ll just have to take one of her classes!!
Michele is looking forward to being at Road 2019. “I LOVE the amazing and positive energy of all the quilters – vendors – staff at Road! The extreme excitement of being at the cutting edge of quilting and being inspired by so many incredibly talented and creative people is mind boggling, humbling, and fabulous!”
To learn more about Michele and Flower Box Quilts, visit her website.]]>
