Lana Russel
Lana learned to sew at age eleven at her local sewing machine store. Garment sewing was her foundation. In 2001, while on a year-long sabbatical from her career as a sixth grade teacher, she discovered quilting and found her zeal. Her creativity using textiles continued and she began teaching quilting classes at local quilt shops. Before she knew it, she had a hefty stack of quilt tops awaiting the finishing touch of quilting. She didn’t want someone else to complete her projects, so she set about learning all types of quilt-as-you-go and free motion quilting methods using a domestic machine.
Lana retired from teaching in 2014 and soon discovered exactly what she had been looking for: the Handi Quilter Simply Sixteen on the HQ Little Foot Frame. It was a smaller, more affordable stand-up longarm machine with handlebars and a small footprint. She fell in love with its ease of operation, and learned to free motion quilt, do ruler work, and use pantographs while making a dent in her UFO stash. It didn’t take too long for her curiosity about Pro-Stitcher to lead her to upgrading to the Infinity with Pro-Stitcher and Art and Stitch software, and she has fully enjoyed learning how to use it to its full potential.
Lana’s lifelong love of learning and teaching is now being met by training other quilters. She truly has a passion for sharing her knowledge so that others can share in the joy of quilting.