We love taking peeks into other people’s quilting studios during our Looky Loo Studio Tour! Each month during our Quilted Joy Clubhouse live meetings we tour the quilting studio of one of our QJ Clubhouse members. Today, let’s take a look back at our tour of Emily Vardeman's basement creative space! Watch the video below to see Emily’s Looky Loo Studio Tour!

We wanted to get to know Emily a little more, so we asked her a few other questions before we recorded our tour.

Quilted Joy: How long have you been quilting with a longarm?

Emily: Almost 1 year.

QJ: How have you grown your skills?

E: Longarm League Rookie Season! Practice, YouTube videos, asking questions of other longarmers

QJ: What do you find to be the most challenging part of longarm quilting?

E: Tension.

QJ: Where is your quilting space? Is it a retail space?

E: My quilting space is in my basement in Ames, Iowa. It is not a retail space.

QJ: What do you love about your quilting space?

E: I love that it has quite a bit of color and has things in it that are either meaningful to me, make me laugh, or that I find beautiful.

QJ: If you could change anything about your quilting space, what would it be?

E: I would love it to be bigger and not in a basement, but somewhere with big windows.

QJ: Why did you choose an APQS machine?

E: I knew a couple other people who had APQS machines and liked them. I went to a Roadshow demonstration in Des Moines and learned more about them. I like that they are an Iowa company and that I got free delivery and installation because I live in Iowa!

QJ: Do you have a computer on your machine? If so, what do you love about it?

E: Yes, I purchased my Intelliquilter from Quilted Joy! I like that it is not overly complicated to use. I appreciated the classes from Quilted Joy to learn how to use the system.

QJ: What advice would you give to a new longarm quilter?

E: Sign up for Rookie Season through the Longarm League, especially if you intend to do longarming as a business.

QJ: What quilting project are you currently working on?

E: The Big Sky Star Quilt from Plains and Pine - a version of the lone star

QJ: How would you describe your quilting style?

E: Modern Traditional

QJ: What is your favorite batting and thread?

E: I'm currently using Quilter's Dream batting and I like it. I'd like to try different kinds of thread, but right now, my machine seems pretty happy with Glide thread.

QJ: Do you quilt for others? If you have a business please share your website and/or social media links so we can share with the Quilted Joy audience.

E: I do quilt for others! My business is called Short Story Longarm Quilting because every quilter and every quilt has a story. My website is shortstorylongarm.com, my Instagram page is @shorstory.longarm, and my Facebook page is Short Story Longarm Quilting.

Thanks again to Emily for letting us look around!