About Amy

Hi! I'm Amy Johnson and I am passionate about free motion quilting!



My mother taught me to use an old Singer, but she was not a sewing enthusiast. Once she taught me the basics, I was forging ahead on my own.

It wasn’t until I had children that quilting became my go-to hobby. All of a sudden, the only thing in my life that stayed done was stitching. Laundry, dishes, housework, they never stayed done, but my stitching gave me a sense of accomplishment and a creative outlet.

Needing to finish projects faster to satisfy that need to have something done, I experimented with machine quilting. When I figured out free motion quilting was like drawing with needle and thread, I was hooked. This was around 2009 so I was able to learn from the internet since I couldn’t get away for classes in person. When I found videos of long arm quilters, I was fascinated. But a long arm was not in my future; small house, small kids, small budget.

Then my husband was diagnosed with a rare cancer and things got very scary. One year later he was declared cancer-free and I had passed hours upon hours in doctor’s offices and hospitals drawing my quilting designs. Drawing improved my quilting immensely and I credit the occasional escape of quilting to helping to keep myself together during that time.

I had also begun to share my love of free motion quilting by blogging and sharing via YouTube. The influence of those long arm quilters was seen in my quilting style and so it was with great joy that I began experimenting with a foot that would allow me to use rulers with my free motion quilting. I started sharing how I was using rulers to guide my free motion and the technique became very popular. Until that point, there were only a few people trying to use rulers while "pushing their quilt" and no one was using a proper ruler foot.

Janome had a ruler foot, but it had been made for use on a machine in a frame system, and it was this foot that I was using. Soon many of my readers were too! Then an enterprising ruler maker made their own foot, and rulers for use on domestic machines really took off!

I did a Craftsy class on quilting with rulers, then opened an online store to help people source the right foot and ruler combination for their machines. Then a second Craftsy class and my husband and I became Janome dealers and owners of Sew Simple of Lynchburg.

While the making of ruler feet and rulers by various companies have proliferated, as well as books, videos, and courses on the technique, I still prefer to focus on teaching the technique and helping to equip quilters with the best combination of rulers, feet, and supplies for their machine.

My goal is to inspire, encourage, educate and equip quilters and creative sewists whether online via Amy's Quilting Adventures or in our shop in Lynchburg VA.



Inquires can be sent to amy@amysquiltingadventures.com