About Beth

About Me

Whenever someone from my quilt guild introduces me they say, “She’s our modern quilter.” Between the lines you hear, “She does her own thing, but we love her anyway.”

My name is Beth Clifton, and yes, I’m the modern quilter of our group. I didn’t start out to be a modern quilter. 

My first quilt was a baby quilt made from half square triangles I made as a teenager for my godson. I made a matching pillow. (I managed to miter the corners?!?) Matt loved the quilt well and still has it. 

I have always really loved those traditional quilts (I still do). As a newlywed, I wanted one for my home. But I didn’t have the $500 that a handmade quilt cost at that time. So I did what all new quilters do; I went to a local chain store and bought a quilting magazine and $20 worth of cheap fabric. 

Over the years I’ve made more than a few traditional quilts, but I always had to tweak the pattern to suit me, if I used a pattern at all. Sometimes it was because I didn’t have the skills to sew a Y-seam. But I found that I loved the freedom of doing my own thing, and because of that I learned to design my own patterns. 

Thirty years later, I’m still doing my own thing, and now I want to share it with you, and so here we are. I hope you enjoy strolling through the pages of my site, and that you find some useful things here. Most of all, I hope you’re brave enough to do your own thing.

— Beth

This is me and Stella, my Gammill longarm quilting machine. The quilt is a scrappy rainbow quilt that I made. We are in my very first shop, a tiny shed only 12x16 feet, just big enough to hold Stella, me, and a cutting table. We've moved into bigger digs since then, but we haven't stopped having fun quilting!