A Little Bit About Kim

With just the third quilt she’d ever made, self-taught quiltmaker Kim Diehl entered and won American Patchwork & Quilting magazine’s “Pieces of the Past” quilt challenge in 1998. This win took her life down a new and unexpected path, and with her fourth quilt, Kim began publishing her original designs. In the years since her challenge win, Kim has seen her work published in numerous national and international magazines, and she remains a frequent design contributor for American Patchwork & Quilting.

To date, Kim has authored three titles in her best-selling “Simple” series of books with Martingale & Company, and her fourth book, Simple Comforts, is scheduled for release in spring of 2009.

The opportunity to begin designing fabrics for Henry Glass in 2008 has enabled Kim to combine her love of richly-hued prints with her “scrap-basket” approach to quiltmaking, and her designs reflect this. “My goal is for my fabric designs to work together beautifully without looking as though they were created together. What could be more fun than designing a quilt, and then creating the fabrics to bring it alive?” This endeavor has been especially rewarding for Kim, because she has no formal artistic training and loves seeing where her natural instincts lead her.

Kim makes her home in scenic Idaho surrounded by her family, her much-spoiled pooches, and her country-style gardens. When she’s not designing quilts and fabric, sewing patchwork, and working in her fragrant flower beds, Kim travels extensively around the country teaching her easy invisible machine appliqué methods and sharing her quilts.

For a light-hearted peek into Kim's life as a quilt designer, gardener, and mom to two teenage girls (and three little dogs), you can read more about her on American Patchwork & Quilting magazine's website at allpeoplequilt.com