I was recently featured on my local tv station and in the newspaper.  The article was written by By Jena Sauber of St. Joseph News-Press

Working under a light in his basement work room, David Hurd’s fingers fly over a newly quilted blue and black Batman quilt for his grandson looking for errant threads. Bolts of fabric line the walls and in the middle of the room, a long arm quilting machine quietly whirs away on with a full sized quilt.

“When you quilt something, you have to make sure you get all the threads,” he says as he works. “You can’t leave any threads.”

Although the occasional quilt Hurd and his wife Karen Hurd make may end up in a grandchild’s lap, a majority of the quilts he works on come in as part of Quilting by David, a small quilting business the couple started seven years ago. They rely on word of mouth and have many repeat customers from the St. Joseph area and across the nation, Hurd says.

Initially, he was encouraged to get into quilting by his mother, Nancy Durbin, who was an avid sewer and quilter, Hurd says. He was looking for a change from the textbook industry where he’d been working, and bought the long arm machine. At the time, he had no quilting experience and taught himself by watching YouTube videos.

 

“I enjoy being home and creative,” he says.

“I thought, well, this looks interesting and I think I can do it,” he says. “I learned a lot from the internet. I watched YouTube videos and made a lot of mistakes on mom’s quilts that she didn’t care if I messed up. It took a while.”

He receives quilt tops from across the nation and Canada. The tops must be measured and assembled on the machine’s frame with a backing and the batting. He charges a penny and a half per square inch for quilting, plus the batting. He uses a Gammill and Statler long arm quilting machine.

Quilting is increasing in popularity and fabric designs are becoming brighter and more varied, he says. He encourages new quilters to have patience and take the time to learn