Brandi Webb has deep roots in northwest Missouri. She grew up in Platte City, attended college in Saint Joseph, lived briefly in Cameron, and has called Kansas City home since 2017. “My village is here,” she said. “I’m 10 minutes from family, and that is the way I grew up—surrounded by family. Sunday night dinner was always with my grandparents.”
Time with family is how Brandi learned to appreciate quilting. When she was 11 years old, her Aunt Jo taught her to sew on a machine that came up out of a table with a knee pedal. “I first learned to make pillows and was nicknamed the Pillow-Making Queen because I made so many every weekend,” Brandi recalled.
For college, she didn’t want a dorm room that looked like everyone else’s. That’s when she thought, “Maybe I can make a quilt.”
With Aunt Jo’s help, she made a black, white, and red jelly-roll-style quilt. At the time, Brandi thought it was a one-and-done quilting event. That changed when she attended a sewing social at Fabric Chic, the local quilt shop, where a quilt hanging on the wall caught her eye. She fell in love with it and just knew she needed to make it. After that, she was hooked. “I got the bug,” she said. Brandi laughed as she recalled that the quilt was set on the diagonal (sewing, cutting, or quilting at a 45° angle rather than straight up and down). She and her aunt had to carry the pieces upstairs to lay them out, then downstairs to sew them. Multiple times, they got the diagonals confused in transit and had to do a lot of un-sewing.
A longtime Taylor Swift fan, Brandi came across an image of Taylor that she thought “looked a lot like a quilt.” With that image still on her mind—and unprepared for a September 2023 quilt retreat—she decided to give collage-style quilting a try. She blew up the image, printed it in sections, taped it together, and grabbed an X-Acto knife, solid color fabric, and Heat n Bond . Brandi said, “I had no idea what I was doing, and after two days, my fingers were numb. I remember seeing it from across the room and thinking, ‘It worked!’” And that was how her collage-style quilting began.
Soon, Taylor and Travis Kelce, a Kansas City Chiefs tight end, got engaged, so Brandi perfected her technique and created quilts of Travis, Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs quarterback), Andy Reid (Chiefs head coach), and Jason Kelce (Travis’ brother).
Her typical creative process begins when she finds an image and enlarges it. Brandi said her brain naturally sees color, and based on that, she pulls fabric. “I find that the quilt image takes on a somewhat cartoony look,” she said.
As she cuts pieces out of the photo image, it becomes her template and guides her on where to place her fabric. She now uses Steam-A-Seam (another adhesive product), which allows her flexibility to pick up and move or replace fabric pieces before she permanently irons them into place.
Bright and cheerful colors inspire Brandi’s art, but she also loves to bring out who she is through quirky fabrics. “I’m a stash girlie! I buy fabric just because I like it, not because I have a plan for it,” she said.
An example of her personality is expressed in the mermaid collection in her office and the special Disney quilt hanging on the wall. Brandi took many trips to Disney with her Aunt Jo and Uncle Rob, but the most memorable was the first trip with her daughter, Mattie. On that trip, they collected signatures from Disney characters on fabric to later make an autograph quilt.
For “Disney Autograph Quilt” (2022), Brandi and her daughter took precut white 6.5-inch squares on a 2019 Disney trip for characters to sign then later assembled the quilt with corresponding fabrics. A perfect addition to their expansive Disney collection!
Quilting brings Brandi relief from the anxiety of the world—relief that she can’t find elsewhere. “Quilting is my happy place. I love my sewing buddies, which include my mom and aunt,” she said. Currently fighting breast cancer, Brandi’s quilting community has surrounded her with love and support.
She has little energy for quilting now, but she’s looking ahead to future projects. “I’m still buying fabric, and I’m currently obsessed with foundation paper piecing,” she said. In between treatment cycles, she found enough energy to complete a project called Patchwork Bubbles and a balloon dog. “Because who doesn’t need a balloon dog?” she said with a laugh.
The biggest surprise of Brandi’s quilting journey is that other people are really interested in what she does. “I’m just doing what I like to do. I’m thrilled that people are finding joy and happiness, not only when viewing my quilts, but also when they realize how the collage technique is done and that they can do it,” she said. Mattie has learned the technique and made a few collage quilts of her own, but she is primarily happy to be her mom’s biggest fan. Brandi’s parents, Ed and Kerry, instilled in her a love of family, and it’s apparent that the village is still going strong.
Diane L. Murtha is an award-winning quilter, fiber artist, author, and international lecturer and instructor. Quilting for over 30 years, she gravitated to art quilts and discovered she loves challenges. Her quilts and articles are included in books, 30 + magazines, and multiple juried exhibits and international shows. Diane published her first book, Artful Insights in Fiber: Quilted Bits of Wit & Wisdom in March 2023. She currently resides in Iowa. Learn more at www.dianeLmurtha.com, or follow her on Instagram @dianelmurtha.
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