LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Angela Huffman never imagined the places quilting would take her.

Here’s an example of why we should always dream as big as possible. When Louisville resident Angela Huffman first started quilting, she knew she had a passion for the skill and art form but didn’t realize where it would take her. 

“So quilting is one of those hobbies. Art forms that kind of bites hard when it bites and you get addicted really fast and deeply. And from the first time I took a quilting class I was hooked,” Huffman told Spectrum News 1.

Huffman first started quilting in a very small basement studio but even calling a “studio,” is an overstatement.

“Four square feet!” Huffman explained.

Selling her quilts was a decision born from necessity.

“I was a single mother of triplets and I needed a way to buy milk and so I started quilting for others in my basement. I could control my schedule and kind wallow in the joy of quilting and it kind of exploded and grew from there,” she said.

It most certainly did.

Louisville residents may be familiar with Huffman’s longtime quilting store nestled in Jeffersontown. After 10 years of growing in that 2,500 square-foot location, Huffman is settling into her new 10,000 square-foot quilting headquarters on Shelbyville Road.

“If you had told me 23 years ago what I would be doing now, I would have told you, you were out of your tree. I didn’t dream big enough,” Huffman explained.

Quilted Joy is a destination for quilters, from beginners to pros. The facility offers all the materials you would need, classroom space and several large quilting machines, think CAD (computer aided drafting) but for quilting. Huffman is an instructor as well, leading classes and teaching quilters how to use the equipment in her store.

“We love our quilting community but we also have a lot of folks who are coming through Louisville or to Louisville who get off the expressway who come to see us, so it’s a regional draw. Quilting is alive and well,” Huffman said.

Starting in 2014, Huffman began contributing to Fons and Porter’s Joy of Quilting magazine and nationally televised show on PBS. She is now a co-host of the program reaching 95% of all U.S. TV markets.

If you’ve never met an “A-List” celebrity in the world of quilting, you have now. With all that said, it shouldn’t surprise that all three of Huffman’s adult children are quite the quilters too.

“Like my daughter is in medical school and they tell her, her sutures are like the best in her class, so it’s all that stitching experience she had,” Huffman said.