Meet Jaimie Davis | Artist & National Quilt Teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jaimie Davis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jaimie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
When I was a young mother, my father-in-law passed away and I watched as my mother-in-law had to find a job to support herself. I knew that I loved being a quilter and decided that if I developed the necessary skills, when my kids were older I would be able to use those skills to create a job for myself. I love the freedom of not having a boss so I knew that working for myself would be the ideal situation for me.

Later, as my last child was leaving for college, I took a business class and formally opened my own business. I had been teaching, lecturing and making quilts on commission since shortly after the death of my father-in-law, but after the business class I dropped the commissions, expanded my teaching to a national level and opened an online store.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a quilter and worked on commision for many years. Almost every commission called for an element that required a skill that I didn’t possess so I spent countless hours teaching myself new things. I don’t work on commission anymore, but all of those skills have become the building blocks for workshops that I teach to students in quilt guilds and at quilt shows all over the country.

But skills aside, I discovered that the process of learning new things can be difficult, frustrating, discouraging and can leave people feeling very vulnerable. This is what I really seek to help my students with. I want everyone who enters my classroom to have fun while they are there and leave feeling positive about themselves and the creative process.

To this end, I teach my students that if they want to be good at something, they must first be willing to be bad at it. This helps, at least a little, break down the perfectionism walls that so many of us build for ourselves. And by being willing to be bad at something, the way is now open for them to experiment and play and find out what works for them in an environment that minimizes comparison. I believe that everyone can be an artist if we can just get out of our own way.

What excites me most is when a student is able to successfully do something she has never been able to do before, and witness how much that means to her. When do do something well we build confindence that we take into every other part of our lives. When we do something difficult, we build resilience and when we do something new we build courage.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’m from Oregon and I’m quite introverted, so I ‘m not sure this is the best question for me. My idea of fun is staying home and playing games. 🙂

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutout goes to Jean Brown, an early mentor. I think she has no idea how much impact her kind words spoken so long ago have had in my life. I asked her at a quilt guild meeting if she thought I was doing appliqué correctly (I was completely self taught) and she contacted a local quilt shop and recommended that they hire me to teach hand appliqué.

A shoutout also goes to my husband who has supported me both emotionally and financially as I have struggled to start and grow a business, and my kids who tell me how the courage, hard work and willingness to learn has inspired them to go after hard things.

Website: https://www.loopytulips.com/

Instagram: @loopytulipdesigns

Youtube: Loopy Tulip Designs