About Patchwork
About Joanne
What began as a fascination with fabric turned into a “quilting bug” that took on a life of its own. The result? A one-woman educational enterprise called Patchwork Schoolhouse.
Joanne Middleton first caught the quilting bug in 1988 when a “Quilt in an Afternoon” class turned into a lifelong love affair. Since then, Joanne has made over 300 personal quilts in various sizes; her longarm quilt tally has just past the 500 quilt mark (customer and charity quilts). She began teaching in 1996 because she was spending so much time at the local quilt shop they insisted that she move in or start teaching!
As Joanne’s love of quilting has grown, so too has her love of teaching; she maintains that good technique and happy quilters go hand in hand. The better one becomes at basic construction methods, the more confident they are at trying new patterns and ideas. Sound technique makes the process more enjoyable and creates more opportunity to create beautiful quilts that will be cherished for years.
Students jokingly commented that they would like to take Joanne home as their personal quilt coach or that she should have a 24 hour “quilting emergency” hotline. The jokes were actually the seed for a novel idea — Patchwork Schoolhouse — a series of high-quality educational/instructional quilting DVDs and patterns designed to provide one-on-one professional quilting instruction. Quilters are able to follow along with Joanne at their own pace as she demonstrates and explains the techniques that are designed to bring mastery to the art of quilting. The Quilt the Patchwork Schoolhouse Way Series is for anyone who has a computer or DVD player. For Joanne, quilting is an “addiction” that she wants to share with as many people as she can. Though she is available for live workshops she can only be in one place at a time. Through Patchwork Schoolhouse, anyone can learn to quilt or better their technique with their very own professional quilt coach, Joanne Middleton.
Nestled in the foothills of Canada's majestic Rocky Mountains, Patchwork Schoolhouse is the next best thing to having a personal quilt coach in your own home! A series of high-quality, educational/instructional quilting DVDs and patterns designed to provide one-on-one professional quilting instruction, Patchwork Schoolhouse allows students to follow along at their
own pace as experienced quilting teacher, Joanne Middleton clearly demonstrates and explains various techniques designed to bring mastery to the art of quilting.
