https://www.etsy.com/shop/MikeEllingsenQuilts
Mike's bio:
Mike is a retired music and drama teacher who has been quilting since the late 1980s. He is known for his love of color and his excellent quilting on his domestic machine - although five years ago he did upgrade to a Bernina Q-20. He teaches and presents trunk shows for guilds in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, as well as presentations at the State Show of the Minnesota Quilters and in Alexandria, Virginia. Mike was a founder of the Blue Earth Valley Quilters, served as manager of the Blue Earth Quilt EXPO held in Blue Earth each August, and was a Textile Superintendent for the Faribault County Fair. He is one of the chairs of Airing Out the Quilts - an outdoor quilt show in Decorah held the Thursday after Independence Day each year.
Mike has his own series of published quilt patterns which are sold via his Etsy shop, and has been the pattern writer for the Calico Hutch Block-of-the-Month in Hayward, Minnesota, since 2012. He was the creator of the Minnesota Quilters 2017 Mystery Quilt Going with the FLW. Mike’s quilt Woven Spectrum was included in the exhibit “Man Made” at the Iowa Quilt Museum in 2020; and his quilt Bergen Festex 2018 was part of the “Socially Distanced, Creatively Connected” exhibit at the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in 2020, where it was acquired for the Vesterheim permanent collection - becoming the first contemporary quilt in their collection. Mike was selected as Minnesota Quilter of the Year for both 2020 and 2021 - the first male to hold that distinction - and was finally able to show his quilts live and in person in June 2022.
In addition to being an award winning quilter, Mike also remains active in music and drama in his church and community. He is in demand as both vocal and piano soloist, and was active in community theater in Blue Earth for 43 years. Many of Mike’s quilts can be seen on the Facebook pages for the NorthEast Iowa quilter’s Guild, the Blue Earth Valley Quilters, the Prairie Star Quilt Guild, and the Blue Earth Quilt EXPO. His quilts have been featured in C&C Trivia online for the past two years.
After 45 years of living in Blue Earth, Minnesota, Mike and his wife, Sue, moved to Decorah, Iowa three years ago, where he is a member of both the North East Iowa Quilters' Guild and the Iowa Quilters Guild. He is happy to chat about what is involved in moving your fabric stash - a painful experience at best!
