I AM
MICHAEL DAVISON
I have always been connected to tactile forms of art. I love to run my hands across an intricate mosaic and feel its smooth worn glass and stone held in place with the grit of grout. I love to feel the twists and turns of a fibrously chunky yarn afghan. I love to feel the simple beauty of a hand-crafted wooden box. But more than anything, I love the weight, drape, and feel of a quilt and the textiles that are transformed into their making. Whether to be snuggled with, slept under, or admired as a piece of art on the wall; quilts have been my passion for almost 25 years now.
MY FIRST QUILT
After a brief attempt at quilting in 1986 – this was my true first quilt. I opted for blocks with sashing and a pieced outter border. I came up with the block designs and cut templates from plastic. What a mess. I didn’t know what Y-Seams were, but figured out quick enough.
This is not my best work. But it’s always fun to look back at it in joy.
BIO
MICHAEL DAVISON has been involved in all facets of the quilting industry for more than twenty years. He began quilting in 1999, quickly expanding his love of textiles to producing his own line of hand-dyed fabrics he sold to local shops. From reproduction fabrics to modern, muddy and muted to bright, Michael loves them all and has made quilts of all shapes, sizes, and styles. He had a brief stint as a fabric sales rep for Northcott, which afforded him the pleasure to meet and work with shop owners across Texas and Oklahoma.
Michael is perhaps best known for his Longarm Line Minder, the Fab5 Fans Set to machine quilt precise Baptist Fans, and his YouTube quilting tutorials on his channel @michael.quilts. He has been a longarm quilter for the last ten years or so – which prompted him to design and market his own line of machine quilting rulers under the business name, Quarter Squared Quilt Co., which are distributed to quilt shops and sold in his online shop, michaelquilts.com.
Michael is an avid foundation paper piecer and became even more so when he started learning techniques directly from Judy Niemeyer. He is currently a Quiltworx Certified Instructor in Training with a special interest in choosing unusual fabric combinations and manipulating Judy’s patterns to create unique versions of her quilts. Besides the work he does in his home-based studio, Michael teaches quilters in Dallas Ft. Worth area shops and retreat centers, as well as nationally and online. You can find out more about Michael and his teaching schedule at michaelquilts.com.