I made the it to the local “chatham news” paper.
I asked the editor if I could copy the text and he gave me a word doc.
here it is:
Local quilter published in national
magazine
By Bill Willcox
A local quilter recently
had one of her creations published in a national magazine.
Bea Lee, who lives about
10 miles west of Pittsboro, is delighted that McCall’s Quilting, with a
circulation of 180,000, published her 45-inch-square brightly colored batik owl
wall quilt in its September/October issue.
The magazine has returned
the quilt to her, along with a check for its publication.
“This is a first time for
me,” she said. “I’m super excited about it. They have another quilt already in
their hands and I’m working on number three for them, and they just approved
two more for me to make for them.”
The busy mother of three
always thought it would be fun to be published, but she didn’t know how to go
about it. As someone who maintains a blog about quilting she decided one day to
ask a fellow blogger who had been published.
The answer was simple:
just e-mail the magazine and ask. So she did, and was told to send sketches.
Using a computer software
program called Electric Quilt, she generated a number of sketches and sent them
to the magazine. When the owl one was accepted, she realized there was another
perk: fabric manufacturers would send her fabric for free.
She made the quilt, sent
it to the magazine, which created and published the pattern, and returned the
quilt to her, with payment for publication.
Lee has not been
interested in quilting her whole life. She was first introduced to the craft
about eight years ago when her church offered a class.
She didn’t take much interest
at the time but that changed a couple of years ago when she moved to Pittsboro.
She got hooked and it wasn’t long before a room in her house became a quilting
studio. She started winning ribbons at the Chatham County Fair.
Her husband, seeing her interest,
asked if she would like a long-arm quilting machine. Although expensive the machine
was necessary for creating large quilts, which cannot be stitched using regular
sewing machines.
The long-arm quilting machine
has enabled her to create a small business making large quilts for other quilters.
Bea was born and raised in
Denmark. She attended college in Florida pursuing a degree in computer
animation with dreams of working for Disney. But after meeting her husband and finding
salvation, her perspective changed. She was less interested in working for
money in the corporate world.
Now quilting has added a
new dimension to her life.
“I found my calling, if
you can call it that,” she said. “God gave me this gift of quilting.”
She likes to share this gift
with the community so she does a lot of donation quilting.
“I want to give back,” she
said.
How exciting! Nice article, too. : )
That is fabulous! Very nice article too. Congratulations!
Congrats!
What a nice article Bea and so happy for you…congratulations!!Love your owls and my DIL loved the pot holders I made using your pattern. She has them hanging on the wall in their kitchen!!
So exciting! Congratulations, Bea!
I love that you're gaining recognition for your amazing skill set, Bea. It's so gratifying to know that the rest of the quilting world will be exposed to your gifts! God continues to bless you and all who know you.
Congratulations Bea, I feel I know a lot more about you now.
Terrific article. I feel honored to have such a famous friend.
That is so neat Bea!! Congrats!!!
congrat! you deserve it
Congratulations on making the news! It is wonderful that you can be a stay at home mom and still have a career.
Wow! Congrats on being published in the magazine and it's lovely that the local news takes such an interest – well done!
Congratulations! What an amazing honor for you to be published by a national magazine and recognized for your amazing talent by your community! It is certanly well deserved!
What a great article about you! Congrats on it and being published! That's quite an accomplishment! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Bea, what a lovely article in the Chatham paper.You have certainly been blessed by God with many gifts and talents!!! So nice to see how you have blessed others too!!!!!! I didn't even realize until this article we are practically neighbors. May the Lord pour outupon you many more delightful creative ideas and may your time be multiplied so that you can create each and every one!!!sowingstitches [at] gmail [dot] com
Congratulations Bea! What a wonderful article!
Just adorable. You inspire me!!! Love ya!!!
Wow! Congrats! Way to go! Is Lee your last name? Every time I see Bea Lee, I think of my oldest granddaughter whose name is Brianne Lee Hessert, but who I call Bri Lee.
Congratulations! and a very nice article too.