This week I am so excited for you to meet Erika P. of Little Glass Quilts!
I originally saw Erika’s work through a Facebook group abut quilting. I immediately searched her out on Instagram and followed her because her glass quilts are so beautiful! Erika graciously shares her story of quilting and Little Glass Quilts today and I hope her story brings you joy as you read on below. Also be sure to check out how you can connect with Little Glass Quilts at the bottom of the post.
Please explain your main creative area.
I make stained glass window blocks based off of traditional quilt block designs. Typical sizes range from aprox 3×3” to 14×14” per Little Glass Quilt (i.e., LGQ).
Tell us about your business and what your favorite thing about your business is.
When I talk about what I do, I always describe it as my “accidental business”! You see, my husband and I had just started the process of building our forever home in Texas. We had just moved back down from Missouri where I had gotten a little crazy with that house; let me explain … I am half Hispanic and half Swedish, which basically means that I live inside a Crayola box in my head! I LOVE COLOR! LOL! So, in that house I had painted just about all the walls a different color. They were pastel, but no two walls were the same! And so, as we were building our new house, he literally begged me to not go crazy on the wall color again! But, as I like to point out, he didn’t say Boo about the windows!
Just before we had started the building process, we also tragically lost my mother to pancreatic cancer. She was the most incredibly talented woman that I ever knew. She had spent 60+ decades teaching sewing & quilting lessons to me, my friends, and countless students, either in small shops or in her private home sewing studio. As I was going through the process of clearing out her studio, I found some of her old lesson plans. Her favorite thing to teach by far was quilting and for those classes, her go-to lessons were lap quilt samplers. As I was going through her old binders, something in my head just clicked! Instantly my minds’ eye saw her favorite quilt teaching block designs made of bright & colorful glass hanging in the windows of my new home. I quickly got online and became a YouTube University Graduate. I taught myself about all things stained glass and began incorporating her quilt block designs into my plans as our house was being built. When the house was done 10 months later, so were my window panels and I finally got to complete my colorful vision of little glass quilts all throughout my new home.
As I shared my story and photos of the completed works on social media, requests began flooding in for custom orders of glass from fellow quilter fans for their own windows. And so it began. I quickly came up with a business name. Designed a logo based off one of my mothers’ favorite blocks. Then, it was off to the courthouse to register my DBA, and I immediately began taking orders for custom Little Glass Quilts. With every LGQ I create, I like to think that my mother’s love for everything beautiful and quilting related caries on as an homage to her.
What has been your favorite make or creation so far?
As I was going through my late mothers’ studio, I came across 4 packs of brightly colored Batik Jelly Rolls in her stash. I had no idea what she was going to do with them but as we started building the house lighting struck again! I envisioned a modernistic strip quilt with her Jelly Rolls on our bed perfectly coordinated stained glass panels in the windows! I started a king size bedspread by machine, sewing the Jelly Roll strips together, and then began the process of hand quilting it (I’m old school that way!). All the while, I started collecting coordinating stained glass sheets for the bedroom windows. 10 months later the house, bedroom windows and bedspread were finally done. My husband and I enjoy walking into that room every single day! It is now my hope that I get to spread that same joy by making more of these coordinated LGQs to match other peoples’ beloved spreads as well.
What is one tip you'd recommend to someone just getting started in your creative area?
Not to beat a dead horse here, but it really is true when they say that you should do what you love! Having recently just turned the ripe old age of 50, I can honestly say that those words ring oh-so true! If there is something that you truly love to do, go for it! Master your craft and don’t be afraid to make mistakes along the way. But even with all that said, it is absolutely crucial that you find your ideal client, or your business will be dead in the water before you start. For example, I recognize that the art of stained glass is almost a dying one. There are less & less people diving into the world of glass & lead each year. Want proof? Just try to find a local glass shop where you live! I can just about guarantee that you will have a hard time finding more than one or even two glass shops in your area. Buuuttt, my business isn’t really just about stained glass. It’s about quilting, and it’s about my love for this tried & true old craft.
I love all things quilting and I especially love sharing this craft with my fellow lovers of all things quilting! And that my friends, is my market! What I am doing is not new to either the glass & lead world, nor is it new to the needle & thread world. Rather, it’s just a fun melting pot of both the worlds put together, and it just happens to work! So, if you have a creative business endeavor rolling around in your head, begin by asking yourself these two questions .. “Do I love this?” and “Who is my ideal client?” Once you can successfully answer those two questions, the rest will fall into place! And then, roll with it!!!
What are 3 words you'd use to describe your creative style?
- Unique
- Colorful
- Timeless
Do you have an upcoming make, launch, or project that you are excited about?
As a matter of fact I have several things that I’m geeking out about! I have signed up to have a table at my first ever San Antonio based Shop-Hop in April 2022, and I’ve also registered to have a table at a quilting fair up by Dallas later in July! On top of that I’ve also been invited to speak at a few Quilt Guild meetings around the state early this year. But! That’s not the biggest news! I’ve also been kicking around an idea of how to take my LGQs up a notch! I want to start teaching myself how to do traditional glass painting! You know how when you go to church and you see all those centuries old style stained-glass windows with the paintings on the actual glass? Well, I want to teach myself how to do that! I want to start painting actual calico prints onto glass and then incorporate those into my LGQs! Can’t’ ya just see it already! Little Glass Quilts: The Calico Editions! This is gonna be epic!
But, in order for me to make this happen, I first have to get a firing kiln. I have one on order but is back ordered until July at the earliest. So, in the meantime it’s back to YouTube University I go. (Working on my Masters I guess! LOL!) While I wait on the kiln to be delivered I’m teaching myself all about stained glass painting! This is going to be so much fun!
What is one skill (either craft related or not) that you wish you knew how to do?
Growing plants. Tried as she could, that’s one gift my mother never could bestow upon me. She always joked with me and said that most people have a green thumb but somehow I got a black arm instead!
What would your high school superlative be? (Most likely to...)
Oh that’s easy .. Most likely to be the loudest in the room! LOL! I’ll let your readers decide if they would have meant visually or auditorily! 😉
What's the oddest food you've ever tried and did you like it?
Oh my! Hands down, the strangest thing I ever tried was Buffalo tartar. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had tartar before. It’s not my favorite thing to eat, but I will do so if it means me not being rude to my host. That was another one of my mother’s lessons she bestowed upon me. Alas, I was attending a Wild Game dinner fundraiser and one of the main courses was Buffalo tartar.
When this dish was first served to me I was thinking ok .. I’ve had tartar before, so no problemo.
Buffalo. Sure.
It was served as a stuffed bell pepper. Fine.
Served cold. Got it.
The tartar was sweetened with sugar … heavily … Umm, yeah … NO! That was where I drew the line! I secretly disposed of my unfinished plate when nobody was looking! (Sorry mom!)
If you had to lose one of your five senses, which one would you give up and why?
I’ve thought of this before and I’d probably be ok with losing my sense of touch. At least that way I wouldn’t be able to feel the pain from all the quilting-pin pricks and countless tiny glass cuts all over my hands, especially in this new world of hand sanitizer galore!! That, and if I lost my sense of touch, I hopefully wouldn’t be able to continually endure the searing pain of constantly jabbing my pinky toe on the furniture! LOL! I’m kind of a walking clutz that way!
Lastly, where can the readers connect with you and see more of your work?
IOFTA Creative Convos are bi-monthly short Q&A style blog posts that allow me, Katherine, to share other wonderful creatives and small business owners in not only the quilting space but in the creative fiber arts and textile space.
The goal is to provide a seat at the table for all types of small business creatives and to introduce my community to businesses that they may not have connected with yet.
Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to be featured with the many other talk end ills that you have discovered! I am honored & humbled to be included in such amazingly talented company 🙏😎❤️