Podcast Episode #300: Maria Shell

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On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcas,t we’re talking about quilting with my guest Maria Shell.

Maria’s work is grounded in the tradition and craft of American quilt-making. She strives to take the classical components of a traditional bedquilt and manipulate them with the hope of creating surprising combinations of pattern, repetition, and color for the viewer.

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We begin the interview with Maria discussing her quilt-making journey from growing up in rural Kansas to becoming a professional artist and quilt maker. Maria talks about her move to Alaska which was prompted by her husband’s career in marine transportation. It was in Valdez that Maria really discovered quilts.

In college at Oberlin and then at the University of Kansas, Maria studied journalism. She then worked in broadcast journalism in Topeka before moving to Kansas City to become a waitress at a blues and jazz club. After paying off her school debt and traveling in Europe, Maria worked as a waitress at a casino which is where she and her husband met. Her goal was to earn a master’s degree in creative writing and become a professor. She applied to schools near waterways to accommodate her husband’s job and ultimately chose to study in Alaska.

Maria’s grandmother was a quilter, although Maria didn’t discover this until relatively recently. Maria began quilting with a mystery quilt class at a local shop, where she soon got a job. Maria says she is obsessed with color. Studying with Nancy Crow was pivotal to developing her signature style.

For her business, Maria chose to make and sell quilts, rather than patterns, and to teach because she wants to encourage people to develop their own styles. We discuss the process of improvisational quilting, including what makes it successful (and unsuccessful).

And, finally, we talk about pivoting to virtual teaching during the pandemic and then further developing this area of her business subsequently. Maria has some great tips to share about how to make virtual teaching a success!

In this conversation, we talk about:

And, of course, I ask Maria to recommend great stuff she’s enjoying right now. Maria recommends:

Keep up with Maria on her website and on Instagram.

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