Member Spotlight: Diane Harris

Introducing Diane Harris, from Bladen, NE, a quilter, speaker, teacher and designer of scrap quilts made from stash.

"The camaraderie in AVT demystified the process of becoming an online teacher. It's easy to become overwhelmed but knowing that a group of supportive colleagues have been there and are willing and able to answer my questions has been huge for me. I'm amazed at how much I've learned through the Academy." 


What do you teach?

I help quilters make unique and beautiful scrappy quilts, often with fabric they already own. I share ideas related to value, contrast, cohesion, color, scale, line, proportion, improvisation and more. I believe in letting the fabric do the work! Some specific classes include Color, Contrast & Cohesion; Hand-Look Binding by Machine; Let's Play Drezzup (Dresden Plate); Strange Bedfellows: Fabric SavvyPlayshop; Tango: Scrappy Delight; Baby Windmills: A Quilt Blocks Grows Up. Making fabrics work is a subtopic of any class with Stash Bandit.

Why do you teach?

I love quilters. Introducing ideas in a new way so that light bulbs come on for my students is so much fun. Seeing quilters step outside their comfort zone to make something amazing they'd never dreamed of really lights my fire. I enjoy people and I'm passionate about making quilts, so when those two things come together it's the best of all worlds.

What else do you love?

I love to grow flowers of all sorts! Flower gardening feeds my soul in much the same way as quilting. Digging in the dirt, waiting for seedlings to emerge, inhaling the scents, arranging the blossoms, even pulling the ever-present weeds. I can't wait to get outside early in the mornings from April to October.

You can see more about Diane on her website here, on Instagram here, and on Facebook here.

Categories: Member Spotlight