Carol Bean creates in quintessential quilter’s studio

About two years ago, Carol Bean had a tough decision to make. On the one hand, she really wanted to buy a new Ford Expedition. On the other hand, a quilter for over 30 years, she wanted to take the next step and buy herself a longarm quilting machine.

“It was a toss up between the two,” she said.

As it turned out, Bean bought a new longarm and later bought a used Ford Expedition.

Bean is the featured quilter at the Teakettle Quilt Guild’s 2022 Show and Craft Sale April 9.

Bean began her long love affair with quilting 31 years ago when she was pregnant with her daughter. She first made a table topper and then a twin-sized quilt for her baby’s first big-girl bed.

She and her husband moved to Columbia Falls three years ago from the Bay Area of California. Her sister had been living in Whitefish for the last 20 years and they knew they wanted to live in the Flathead Valley after they retired.

One criteria for the property they bought was that Bean could have her own studio outside of the house.

“Like most Montana properties, the garage is bigger than the house,” Bean said. The garage that houses Bean’s extensive studio is 40’ by 40’. Her studio, which includes an office, reading room, display room and work area, takes up most of it. It also is equipped with a long wraparound workbench on two walls, shelves, a custom-built design wall — and, of course, her longarm, a large machine used to sew together a quilt top, batting and backing into a finished quilt.

Carol’s Shop, as Bean calls her studio, is filled with fabric she’s been collecting for 30 years, an old pruning ladder and a quilt ladder to display quilts, an open closet where she hangs her customers’ quilts, and a vintage ‘50s maple hutch that had once belonged to her parents and now houses her thread.

As soon as Bean and her husband first settled in Columbia Falls she joined the valley’s quilt guilds — the Flathead in Kalispell, the Whitefish, and Teakettle in Columbia Falls.

“I needed to meet people,” she said. “So I started visiting all the quilt stores and joined all the guilds.”

Bean also takes quilt classes all the time.

“I do it for the camaraderie of quilting with my friends at the stores,” she said, adding “I always pick up new tips or tools. I’m constantly learning.”

Bean started her own business, Paradise Stitches LLC, (www.paradisestitches.co) in 2020, the same year she bought her longarm. She now offers a variety of professional services, from finishing quilting and binding other’s quilts to creating quilts for people on commission.

“In my spare time I make my own quilts and often create patterns for both commissions and my own,” Bean said, adding that she typically has about 200 projects going on at the same time.

“I go back and forth,” she said. “Some have been sitting for a while, some I may never finish.”

As a teen, Bean dabbled in handwork — embroidery, counted cross-stitch, crewel, and a bit of crochet and knitting.

These days, Bean draws on fabric then embroiders it, does thread painting — a process she describes as painting with a needle and thread instead of a paintbrush — and numerous other artistic endeavors. On her embroidery machine, she’s making origami boxes and created a free-standing Christmas star with lights.

Bean’s Paradise Stitches business card reads, “Helping you to create your cherished and memorable quilt.”

“I want to make your wish come true,” she said regarding her home-based business. “To create that beautiful quilt you have in your mind.”

One of her recent commissions was inspired by a watercolor painting on the wall of the customer’s bedroom for which Bean selected 90 different fabrics based on the colors in the painting.

“I’ve always quilted. Quilting is a passion with me,” Bean said. “Color inspires me. I love picking my own fabrics for the colors.”

A lifetime quilter, Bean is as busy and as engaged as ever.

“The quilt community is awesome. There’s a ton of quilters around here,” Bean said.

Regarding being this year’s featured quilter at Teakettle’s 2022 Quilt Show she says, “I was honored when they chose me. Everybody has their own way of doing things and it still totally surprises me, when I see everyone’s quilts, at how beautiful they are.”

BREAKOUT BOX

The Teakettle Quilt Guild’s 2022 Quilt Show and Craft Sale takes place from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Saturday, April 9, at the Glacier Gateway Elementary School, 440 Fourth Ave. W., in Columbia Falls.

A large display of quilts will be available, along with vintage quilts and sewing machines, a large boutique and vendor booths. A quilt raffle will also be held.

Admission is free. Food donations will be accepted at the door for the Columbia Falls Food Bank. All donations are appreciated.

Teakettle Quilt Guild was founded in 2000 by Louise Kiser and currently has 77 members. Meetings are held at 10 a.m. the third Saturday of every month at Freedom Bank in Columbia Falls. The guild also has an open sew every Friday at two locations – Badrock Fire Hall in Columbia Falls and Hillside Church Quonset in Whitefish.

The guild contributes and donates charity quilts to a number of local organizations, along with making kindergarten readiness tote bags for the elementaries, awarding high school scholarships and offering kids’ quilt classes.

To learn more, contact guild president Annette Horn at annettehorn58@gmail.com

or 406-300-2144.