Westalee Templates for  ruler work machine quilting on your domestic machine and on either sit down long arm or long arm machines on a frame, have revolutionized how we approach completing our quilts. What a game changer.

A little about me, was born in Ireland, trained in hotel management and took over the running of a large hotel for several years, met George and we decided to leave Ireland and ventured to South Africa, our three sons were born there, they were all great sportsmen during school years, Jonno went on to row in the Olympics in Athens and again in Beijing. Brian was offered a tennis scholarship to Montana University, Kevin rowed for Trinity University in Dublin and rowed in juniors for Ireland, he then got scholarship to UBC and rowed for this great Canadian University.

During my time in SA I started to make quilts and applique projects. I was really so envious of quilters in N America who had access to great tools, fabric, books and teaching. When I started there was no rotary cutters, no cutting mats, no amazing Creative Grids rulers. I made my own templates from sandpaper and old x-ray sheets. Was a labor of love, I wanted my babies to have quilts made by their mom when they arrived in this world. Batting was a joke! It was high loft polyester! really hard to work with! I was my own teacher with the aid of books. No one was teaching - no one knew much about quilts at that time. I cut and sewed a quilt by hand and then hand quilted, Wooh! that was quite a task! Television was limited in SA at that time what a blessing! We had time for so many hobbies, time to read, time to learn!

I have also delved into dressmaking in years gone bye, qualified as a porcelain doll teacher and opened my own studio. Went back to my first love of painting. Then in Canada I felt it was time to start a business that allowed me to hone in on my creative side and at the same time challenge my business experience. Stitch in the Ditch was born!

Then along came Westalee - created by Leonine West in Australia, a really talented lady with a mechanical brain to allow for precision in her designs. She developed a foot we could use with domestic machines to allow us to use acrylic templates for designs on the top of our quilts. After trying out feet on hundreds of machines Leonie had a foot for different machines. She then developed the templates in three thickness to suit our own specific machines. A wonderful new way to finish our quilts was born. Sew Steady worked with the Australian company for several years and took the marketing to a new level, they bought the company and all the manufacturing now happens in Oregon USA.

We can safely say without Leonie West and her foresight, the ruler foot would not have arrived and allowed another huge change in quilting. Her designs can not be matched, many have tried to copy, Westalee with over 500 designs and counting is a tough act to follow.

Stitch in the Ditch is the top source for these products in Canada.

We carry over 6000 quilting related products, our aim is to give Canadians the latest and greatest tool right here in Canada.

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Our Family August 2024