Welcome To Quilted Joy!
Our favorite thing to do is celebrate the joy of self-expression through fabric and thread. You may agree that any day that has stitches in it will make the day better! Our founder, Angela Huffman, and her team of Quilt Fairies love finding ways to make quilting easier.
Our brick and mortar shop is located in Louisville, KY, where you’ll find our quilting studio, longarm quilting machine training center, APQS showroom and Intelliquilter dealership. Angela and the Quilted Joy Quilt Fairies provide insight, tips, advice, and a helping hand to all new and experienced creators.
Angela Huffman is the co-host of PBS’ Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting show, which airs in 95% of US markets. She has appeared on the PBS show for over 10 years. You may also enjoy all of the instructional videos she’s made which can be found on QuiltingDaily, APQS, and here on Quilted Joy. Breaking down complex topics into approachable and whimsical bite-sized bits is one of her superpowers!
The Quilt Fairies have been specially trained to guide you through the steps to get started, and the Shipping Sprites are always working to mail out sewing lovelies FAIRY fast! We’ve been making quilt magic happen ever since 2014 and have helped quilters like you complete hundreds of cozy creations.
Our mission is to instill courage and self-confidence in our quilters while wallowing in the joy of quilting. Just like Angela, her Quilt Fairies want to inspire you and show you that you CAN do it by helping you every step of the way. She is committed to teaching others as she travels both nationally and internationally to guilds, studios, and quilt shows – teaching piecing and quilting techniques on both domestic and longarm quilting machines, all while developing ways to make things easier for her students.
The History of Quilted Joy (And Angela!)
After graduating college with a telecommunications major, working in broadcast television for a number of years, and winning an Emmy award, Angela began her quilting journey.
“Once the triplets were born, I started sewing at night when they went to bed and once the quilting bug bit, I never looked back. Quilting speaks to my soul and makes me incredibly happy. I started piecing and quilting on my grandmother’s old singer. It didn’t have the ability to lower the feed dogs for free motion quilting, so I had to tape an index card over them! Plus, I couldn’t move the needle to the right of center, which made piecing difficult. I saved up a bit of money and bought a Swanky Viking that could do all of those things. It was Heaven! I now stitch on a Pfaff Creative Icon 2.”
Angela learned to quilt in 2000 and has enjoyed creating with her children ever since. She soon took to quilting for hire in 2007, the very beginnings of Quilted Joy.
“I took a hand quilting class when I was 25 and hated it. I didn’t like using templates, hand piecing and hand quilting. I needed something that could be completed more quickly. The class I took didn’t show rotary cutting or using a sewing machine. It wasn’t until 2000 that I discovered machine piecing, machine quilting and using all the amazing quilting tools that we now all enjoy. I was especially drawn to quilting when my babies were little because I needed something to break up the monotony of taking care of three small humans. After the babies went down for the night, I would go to the basement and play. Quilting fed my creative need to express myself during a time in life where those three humans’ needs usurped any personal need I might have. It was liberating to go to my sewing space and play with sharp blades, pointy scissors and a powerful sewing machine!”
In 2009, she became part of the APQS family, and later the Intelliquilter family, joining as a dealer and educator for the machines and computers we now use in our studio! Our official Showroom and Education Center opened Oct 26th, 2013 for all to see and has been used by hundreds of renters since.
“I am incredibly lucky to have a talented team of Quilt Fairies who help our many customers express their creative joy through fabric and stitches. And every day I’m reminded how incredible the community we serve is. Our makers are amazing, kind, thoughtful and I love them to pieces!”
She’s been featured in a variety of magazines – such as Love of Quilting with her first appearance in 2014, QuiltMaker, Quilter’s Newsletter, Machine Quilting Unlimited, and On Track – and is a former nominee for the US Machine Quilter Teacher of the Year award. In 2019, Angela married her husband Wade. We began the Quilted Joy Clubhouse in 2019 as well, sharing Angela’s love for quilting far and wide through a twice-monthly livestream event simulcast on all of our social media channels.
