Meet Adam!

Hi everyone, I’m Adam Rateliff AKA Adam Sew Fun.

I’m a quilt enthusiast and long arm educator with Handi Quilter.

I started my quilting journey about 9 years ago when my partner decided he wanted to start quilting.  We both grew up with mothers who sewed garments and costumes, so sewing came easy to us, the quilting part took a little more time.  We purchased our first machine, and both fell in love.  After talking with some coworkers of mine, we both signed up for a paper piecing class with a Judy Niemeyer pattern and became hooked.  We also realized that weekend that one machine wasn’t going to be enough.

At that time, I was working as an accountant and quilting was the way I would relax at the end of the day.  It was so easy to put on some music or a book and get carried away by the hum of the sewing machine.

Fast forward a few years, we moved to Eugene, OR, and I joined the local guild.  Here I met some friends and one of them happened to own a long arm.  I played on it one day at a sewing group and said, “If Ben ever touches this, we will have one on order.”  Well, the next time I went over to sewing group, Ben came with me, and the rest is history.  We ended up ordering our new Handi Quilter Infinity with Pro-Stitcher.

When it got set up, I really hit the ground running.  I wanted to learn and know everything about them.  I would follow people who inspired me on Instagram and Facebook and see them doing these amazing things and knew I wanted to do them too.  I started trying new things and increasing my skill levels.  At each stage I knew it wasn’t going to be perfect, but I was doing it.  I think this gave me a little edge over others, because I wasn’t scared.  

I decided to leave the accounting world and applied to be an educator with Handi Quilter and that is what I have done for the past 3 years.  I travel around the nation teaching classes and trying to push all my students out of their comfort zone.  I’m very big on keeping things positive and always pull out one positive thing about each project, even if it’s not the outcome I’m looking for.

During the year of Covid, I started my Adam Sew Fun YouTube channel, where I create content for long arm quilters to help them on their journey.  I am so passionate about this art form and want to share my love and passion with the world.  I have subscribers from around the world and have taught Zoom classes where I have a cast of international students.  

My life was changed the day we decided to purchase the long arm, and I’m happily riding the wave of that change.  I have a motto, “at the end of the day, it’s just quilting.”  I tell everyone this because you might have a mistake in the quilt but it’s just a quilt. If you don’t love it, you won’t want to finish, so love what you are doing, don’t worry about mistakes, and remember “at the end of the day, it’s just quilting!”

When not working, Adam spends his time in the Palm Springs area with his family, Ben, Duchess, and Barry.  You can often find him playing pickleball, in the kitchen cooking, or riding around town in his golf cart.

You can find me at Adam Sew Fun on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.

Adam