Who is Susan Brubaker Knapp?
Quilting started as a hobby, but turned into a passion and a business. I now teach nationally and internationally, host “Quilting Arts TV,” and have produced numerous patterns, two books, and five video workshops.
I love traditional hand quilting and needleturn appliqué, but embraced innovative machine techniques and started making art quilts in 2005. My quilts have won national as well as local awards, and have been exhibited at national and international venues. I have won seven Best of Show awards at three different quilting guilds, with six different quilts.
My work has been featured in several national magazines, and in the 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 Quilting Arts Calendars and the 2012 Quilt Art Engagement Calendar. It has graced the covers of five issues of Quilting Arts magazine.
I am the author of two books – Point, Click, Quilt! Turn Your Photos into Fabulous Fabric Art (C&T Publishing, 2011), and Appliqué Petal Party (C&T Publishing, 2009). I have also produced five DVDs with Quilting Arts: “Master Machine Quilting: Free-Motion Stitching and Thread Sketching” (2009), “Master Machine Stitching: Thread Sketching Beyond the Basics” (2010), and “Dynamic Quilt Design: Paint Meets Stitch” (2011), “Fabulous Finishes: Seven Techniques for Binding, Facing, Framing & Hanging a Quilt” (2014), and “52 Free-Motion Quilting Motifs and Fillers” (2015). My first series of six lessons on thread sketching ran in Quilting Arts magazine throughout 2010, and the second series ran in Quilting Arts magazine in 2014.
I appeared in seasons 1300, 900, 700 and 500 of “Quilting Arts TV” with Pokey Bolton before taking over as host with Series 1400. In 2011 and 2015, I was featured on “The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims” (episodes 901 and 1709). And I’ve been interviewed by Mark Lipinski and Pat Sloan on their radio shows. In 2018, I became a BERNINA Ambassador.
Previously, I created a graphic design and communications business, designing logos, corporate identity systems, newsletters, magazines, annual reports and brochures. I am an experienced writer, and have worked in corporate communications and also as a page designer for The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) and The Herald-Leader (Lexington, Ky.).
I grew up in Mt. Lebanon, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, and earned my B.A. in English at Allegheny College (Meadville, Pa.), spending my junior year at The University of St. Andrews (Scotland); and my M.A. in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I now live near Charlotte, N.C., with my husband, Rob, a journalist, and two daughters.
