Laurel Byrne

Born and raised in Liverpool, England, I started sewing as a little girl with my mum. I’ve dabbled in knitting and crochet but sewing is my passion.

I tried patchwork from books but struggled with the techniques and the resulting quilts were pretty awful. When my father died, I wanted to make a quilt with his shirts for myself, my mother and my children. I bought a book on scrappy quilts and had a go. The resulting quilt is very special to me and I use it frequently.

Ten years ago, I finally enrolled in a class and my introduction to the fantastic world of patchwork and quilting began. I was immediately hooked!

In 2015, I saw a Westalee Quilting with Rulers demonstration and was instantly drawn to the system and the designer, Leonie West. Later, when I attended a class with the lovely Angela Attwood, I knew I wanted to include the rulerwork in my classes. In 2018, I was honoured to have completed my Westalee training with Leonie and Bill West and was awarded gold level teacher accreditation, one of only three teachers in the UK!

Now, I teach regular patchwork and quilting classes in Waterloo near Crosby and Formby, Merseyside, as well as Westalee starter courses over one, two or three days across North Wales, the north of England and Scotland. Next stop, Ireland!

Favorite machines: Brother, Janome, Pfaff, Singer