62 Quiltmaker • May/June ’20
A Prescription for Quilting
Is there anything Christina Cameli
can’t do? Nurse-midwife, quilt
designer, long-armer, author, teacher,
and now fabric designer—and her
enthusiasm for all she does is abso-
lutely contagious. After learning
to quilt from her grandmother, she
learned free-motion quilting, and the
rest is history! Join us as we learn
more about Christina Cameli.
A Little About Christina
I now live in Portland, Oregon but
I grew up in Glendale, Arizona. I’m
the oldest of my siblings. I moved
to Portland in 2003, the same year I
became a quilter. I moved to Portland
in the hopes of attending Oregon
Health and Science University to
become a certifi ed nurse-midwife, a
type of nurse practitioner. I did end
up going through that program. I live
with my two children in a 100-year-old
Craftsman house, and we have a sweet
2-year-old rescue lab-mix.
I can honestly say I have two careers!
My work as a nurse-midwife is half of
my week. I take shifts in the clinic only;
I do not attend deliveries. I do prenatal
care for women who intend to give
birth in the hospital, and also provide
general women’s health care outside
of pregnancy. I love this work. It is per-
sonal and specialized and important,
and I like bringing my best to it.
Learning from the Generation Before
In 2003, my grandma was coming out
of a depression following the death
of her mother. And the way that she
seemed to fi nd healing was through
quilting. When she showed me the
quilts she was working on, I was
delighted to see how vibrant and full
of expression they were. I was hooked.
She guided me toward quilters whose
work sung to me: Gwen Marston and
Anna Williams, for example. She sent
me home with a small box of her quilt-
ing scraps. I pieced them together and
then kept going.
Once I had fi nished my fi rst quilt top,
I asked her how I should quilt it. She
said she usually paid a longarmer.
That was out of my reach as a nursing
student. So, I took a local class in free-
motion quilting and began quilting my
quilts on my home machine.Then I also have this growing, fulfi lling
creative career in the quilting indus-
try. That all started in 2013 when my
fi rst book, First Steps to Free-Motion
Quilting (C&T Publishing) was pub-
lished. One big project at a time, I now
have quite a lot to be proud of, includ-
ing my online classes. Being a minor
quilting celebrity is fun and engaging.
I meet people all over the country.
It’s the perfect complement to the
demanding and higher stakes work of
healthcare.Is there anything that our readers
would enjoy learning about you?
In my free time, I like to paddleboard,
which is a sport where you stand on
a fl at, rigid raft and use a paddle to
move along the water. It has given me
strong arms and great balance! My
kids and I go camping as much as we
can in the summer.Designer Spotlight
Christina Cameli