The “Voice of Quilting™” Becomes a Voice for Baby Lock

April 3, 2015 - PRLog -- After years of sewing and quilting for fun, Pat Sloan decided to trade in her office job for one in the quilting world. She now stays busy running her own business as a quilt author, instructor, fabric designer, and podcast host as “The Voice of Quilting™”. After years of quilting with various machines, she has fallen in love with the Baby Lock Crescendo, but for Sloan, collaborating with a machine company goes deeper than that.

Pat Sloan has run her business with the help of her husband for many years, and it wasn’t until 2015 she decided to work more closely with her favorite machine company, Baby Lock. She now pieces and does some quilting on the Baby Lock Crescendo, and she quilts her larger projects on the Baby Lock Tiara. Sloan admits to loving the products, but says it’s also the people behind the products that convinced her that Baby Lock was the right choice. “It’s a company that is very supportive, and they have good business partnerships with people in the industry,” she said. After meeting Baby Lock at events and getting to know the people behind the brand, she said she knew the whole Baby Lock team backed her.

Sloan knows many people who already work with Baby Lock through events and her free online radio show through American Patchwork & Quilting Radio. Anyone from the sewing industry including authors, fabric designers, people who have recently started their own business and popular instructors are invited to her show. She has interviewed everyone from well-known celebrities like Nancy Zieman and Eleanor Burns to people with unique stories like Astronaut Karen Nyberg, who is quilting in space.

Her talk show guests are as diverse as her quilting experience and background. In fact, Sloan actually left a job in computer science to start her quilting business. “I always wanted my own business, so I just decided to change careers one day. Before leaving my corporate job, I worked part-time at a quilt store teaching. I had enough passion to know I could do it for a living.”  Sloan didn’t completely abandon her computer science background. In fact, her understanding of file structures and computer skills helps her better understand newer, technology-rich machines and software.

Sloan’s interest in a variety of things isn’t something new. She was always interested in trying new things; in fact, she first learned to sew as a child making doll clothes. From doll clothes, she moved on to other projects, and eventually gave in to peer pressure when a friend of hers convinced her to take a quilting class. “How did I start quilting? My girlfriend told me I had to learn,” she laughed. “She said, ‘You need to learn to quilt.’ My first instinct was, ‘No way.’ I tried it before many years ago, but this was different.” It was actually a hand quilting class, and Sloan fell in love right away. She’s been quilting ever since, and usually makes her quilts from start to finish. “I knew I had to quilt my own. Back then, very few people did it as a business.”

Sloan uses the Crescendo, and loves being able to quilt her smaller projects on it. “I have always quilted with a sit down machine, and that gorgeous throat space makes it easier to quilt.”  While she loves the space on the Crescendo, her real favorite feature is a unique choice. “I love the blanket stitching on this machine. I do lots of appliqué, so between that stitch, the knee lift and all of the push-button controls, the Crescendo makes every job easier.”

Anything that makes jobs easier for Sloan is a plus. She’s a very busy quilter, but happy all the same. “When you’re doing something fun, it’s not work. I’ve always been a planner and a scheduler; it’s naturally how my brain works. Keeping track of everything is not work for me.”

Whether she’s teaching, designing new fabric, hosting her radio show, or drafting a new quilt design, Sloan’s always doing something sewing-related, and that’s what she loves. Other than the actual quilting which she says, “of course is the best part”, she enjoys every aspect of her work, and can’t really pick a favorite part. She says the whole package/variety is what makes her love her career.

So now Sloan’s adding yet another fun note to her repertoire—being a spokesperson for Baby Lock sewing machines. She’ll use her Crescendo and Tiara for most of her quilt projects, and will have a Sashiko for other decorative techniques. In addition to the three Baby Lock machines, she is welcoming a Koala Studio into her sewing room, too. Fans of “The Voice of Quilting™” can expect to see the Baby Lock machines and Koala Studio featured in her future blog posts.

About Baby Lock:

Baby Lock has been a leader in the sewing industry for nearly 50 years. The company brought the first home serger to the market in 1964, and since then has introduced 14 patented features to the world of serging. Baby Lock also offers a full line of other products that enhance the love of sewing, including easy to use sewing and quilting machines, embroidery products, exclusive software and industry-leading Gold Standard service and support.

Numerous celebrities in the sewing industry prefer Baby Lock machines, like Nancy Zieman, host of the PBS television show “Sewing With Nancy”. Similarly, Quilters Hall of Fame inductee, Eleanor Burns, represents Baby Lock’s quilting line of machines. Additionally, Baby Lock machines are on set of Fons & Porter’s “Love of Quilting” hosted by Marianne and Mary Fons. Other “sewlebrities” such as Jenny Doan of the Missouri Quilt Star Company, blogger Lindsay Wilkes, and more are all proud Baby Lock users.

For more information, visit www.babylock.com.

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