Welcome!
Wise Craft Handmade grew out of a blog that began in 2005, by me, Blair Stocker. Up until that point I had been in the apparel industry, designing apparel and fabric and merchandising clothing lines. I used the blog as an outlet, a way to stay creative while home with my two small children. I chronicled projects I made for myself, my children, and our home. Becoming budget conscious more than ever when I chose to stay home full time, I became very savvy and interested in making do with what we had, and thrift shopping to find and DIY what we didn’t. I posted, found community, and a true passion for what I was doing.
Today those two children are in high school and college. I have moved from the kitchen table, to a dedicated home studio, where I design, make patterns for, and write about the traditionally modern quilts I so love to make. And I still love the make do aspect I felt inspired by all those years ago. I find great inspiration in making beautiful new quilts out of vintage, used, old, or forgotten textiles. I love making the old, new again. I am inspired by my background in apparel and fabric design, and like to apply the same color and styling principles towards the handmade things I create today. I am inspired by daily life, vintage fabric, the math of quilt making, thrift stores, baby clothes, and fabrics that hold special memories (which I call “spirit cloth”). My color palette is usually bright and quirky. Even though I wear mostly black in real life. I live and work out of my home studio in Seattle, Washington (let me take you on a virtual tour!), been married to a pretty awesome guy named Peter for 23+ years, and have two teenagers and a cat named Gracie. Life is good.
I’ve published two books. Wise Craft: Turning Thrift Store Finds, Fabric Scraps, and Natural Objects Into Stuff You Love, published in 2014, and Wise Craft Quilts: A Guide to Turning Beloved Fabrics into Meaningful Patchwork, which just came out in 2017. These days I conduct real time stitching demos covering all kinds of things inspired by this book in the Wise Craft Quilts FB Group. I also hold an online quilting class a few times a year, created and designed entirely by me, called Dream, Learn, Quilt!, as well as teach and lecture about quilting all over the country.
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