Juliah Tiedemann stitches together fabric, faith and family
by Sara Schafer | sschafer@ruralmissouri.coop
In the chaos of the emergency room, Dr. Juliah Tiedemann moves with practiced precision. Her 20 years of experience allow her to quickly assess, diagnose and help the wide variety of patients she sees at CoxHealth in Springfield. But when the beeping monitors and urgent requests fade, she retreats to the quiet solitude of her basement, where another kind of precision takes over.
Beneath the soft glow of a lamp, Juliah cuts and pieces together colorful strips of material. Her Brother sewing machine whirls as she stitches neat rows into a soon-to-be masterpiece. With a day job full of emergencies, quilting is her escape — one where the biggest pressure is choosing the perfect shade of red.
“Although I enjoy serving our community in a medical capacity, it can be quite stressful,” says Juliah, a member of Webster Electric Cooperative. “So I just love quilting because it’s completely opposite.”
Like many hobbies, Juliah’s love of quilting began during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. She, her husband and three daughters spent months cooped up at their home near Rogersville. Juliah does not operate at an idle speed. In her quest to cure her boredom, she stumbled upon an addictive YouTube channel — Midnight Quilter by fellow Missourian Angela Walters. “She was just fun and entertaining,” Juliah says. “So, I just learned from her on YouTube. I was never formally trained as a quilter.”
Before long, Juliah bought a sewing machine and started filling her basement with bolts of colorful fabric. She perfected her skills and started cranking out quilts that she says were far from perfect, but full of love. Soon Juliah was designing her own quilts.
One of her first patterns was titled, “Yes He Loves Me.” The quilt design features rows of colorful alternating crosses and hearts. “It was a quilt I made for my sister for when she was going through a difficult time in her life,” Juliah says. “When I gave her that quilt, we both cried. In that moment, I realized quilts can heal and connect us in a meaningful way.”
Juliah realized others might enjoy making quilts from her patterns, which focus on Christian and Americana designs. So, she founded a company, Easy Piecy Quilts, which now offers dozens of patterns and quilt kits.
“All of my patterns come out of my brain,” she says. “I just started by writing them how I would want them to be written for me. Then I worked with a professional editor to review them.”
The quilt patterns cost $12 and can be ordered in a hard copy version or a digital download.
A few of her favorites include “Poppy,” a red, white and blue floral design that symbolizes the poppies made famous in the poem “In Flander’s Field,” which was written by a fellow physician who served in World War I; an “American Heartland,” design that features barns adorned with American flags and alternating stars; and a “Perfect Peaces” design that features crosses, hearts and small squares to represent the small pieces of life. A recent favorite is a “No Place Like Home” pattern that can be customized with any of the 50 states, and then you adorn the state with a heart marking your hometown.
Other patterns feature themes such as guardian angels, football, golf, pumpkins and camping. Juliah is always dreaming up new ideas. It takes about three months for her to go from an idea to the pattern.
Juliah also offers some kits that combine the pattern with all the fabric needed to create the quilt. Those range in cost from around $50 to $120, depending on the size and complexity of the quilts. She also has patterns for table runners, pillows and pickleball paddle covers.
“My customers are just amazing,” she says. “They send me thank you notes and tell me who they gave their quilt to; it really is heartwarming to know one of your designs touched someone enough for them to spend the time to make it — and then they gave it to someone special.”
Inspired by favorite channels on YouTube, Juliah decided to film videos to accompany the patterns and quilt kits she sells. In the videos, Juliah provides an overview of the quilt style and construction. Then the camera shifts overhead to show how to arrange the pieces of fabric and then stitch the blocks together. Her approach is authentic, and she provides many little tips for the process.
“I really want people to be able to watch the video and say, ‘OK, I can do that,’ ” she says. “When I make the quilt first, I notice things that would save others time or help them avoid mistakes. So, I point those out. My video may be 20 minutes, but my hope is that it can save you hours of time.”
Beyond the step-by-step videos for specific quilts, Juliah also offers videos on topics such as essential quilting tools for beginners. She plans to create future videos that introduce basic skills or demystify complex quilting techniques.
Juliah’s husband, Andrew, films and edits the tutorial videos. The two have been married for more than 20 years, so they make a perfect team. “He loves to make them funny and fun,” Juliah says. “We are best friends, so it has been really cool doing this project with him,” Juliah says.
Now that Juliah has been immersed in the quilting world for several years, she’s seen several interesting trends. First, she says more young people and men are taking up the craft. “There are more quilters out there than you’d think,” she says. “COVID, like many other art forms, helped revive it. I also think TikTok is reviving quilting with younger generations. They realize it’s a cool way to express themselves.”
As new quilt designers enter the space, Juliah says, you see patterns moving away from the traditional squares and triangles to more innovative designs. “With all the different techniques and new technology, quilting is definitely growing by leaps and bounds,” she says. “It’s cool to think about how we’re seeing all this new technology used with such an old art form.”
Above all, Juliah’s advice for quilters of any skill set is to focus on the joy the craft brings them. “Just enjoy it,” she says. “Some people think that if your corners don’t line up perfectly, it’s not worth doing. But who cares? Your quilt will still be pretty, and most of the time, people won’t even notice. It’s an art, and it’s fun.”
Juliah has made several quilts for her daughters, Grace, Ava and Olivia, as well as other family members. “We use the quilts and many have been well loved,” Juliah says. “If something happens to them, I will be making another one soon. We just enjoy them. The best part of quilting is seeing the ones you love snuggled up.”
Her mother helps ship out quilt patterns and kits for Easy Piecy. The business and quilting hobby has brought Juliah more joy than she ever expected.
“I like the fact that it’s challenging, and it’s very satisfying to finish a quilt,” she says. “You cannot make enough quilts in your lifetime to have to make the same one twice. Every quilt I work on I think is my favorite. But then I make another one that I love. I will be long gone before all my quilt ideas I have come to life.”
To learn more about Easy Piecy Quilts, visit easypiecyquilts.com. You can watch Juliah’s quilting tutorial videos at www.youtube.com/@EasyPiecyQuilts.