Member Spotlight: Tina Marney

This is a new Q & A series to get to know our members.  Today, Tina Marney talks to us about her experience as a quilter.

Tell us about yourself.  Where are you from and how long have you been in our guild?
I‘m originally from Manchester in the UK, and have been living in the States since 2003. I’m a scientist currently wrapping up a PhD in Molecular Biology. I’ve been a member of the guild for about a year.

 Have you always been crafty?  What other things do you make?

My mom taught me how to sew, embroider and knit when I was little but I only really started taking crafting seriously about 8 years ago. I started my crafty resurgence with knitting, moving on to crochet, past needle felting and finally on to quilting. I’ve made maybe a dozen quilts and given them all away. I’m also a photographer, I mostly specialize in performance photography but I like to dabble in just about everything. If it’s in front of my lens, I’ll shoot it.

Where do you sew?

 I have a large six-seater dining table in my apartment. One end is for eating, the other for sewing.

What is your favorite type of project?

This blanket is my favourite project to date. It took me over a year to knit from sock yarn scraps on size US1 needles. I went through a phase of miniaturization of component pieces of large items but currently I’m focusing on simple projects, especially in my quilting.

 What’s your favorite quilting tool?
My walking foot. No more puckers!

What type of fabrics do you use most often?
Quilting cottons.

Who or what inspires you most in quilting?
I’m pretty active on both flickr and pinterest and I get most of my inspiration from there. People all over the world are making beautiful things and putting them out there for you to see.

What are you working on now?

I’m making a quilted baby blanket for either my sister or my cousin. I’m currently in the phase of not knowing whether it’s hideously ugly or awesome, which will decide the eventual gift recipient (I’ll leave it up to you to figure out who gets what!). But since it’s a surprise there are no pictures.
Because I’m crazy, as soon as I finished my first sock yarn blanket I cast on for a second using all my leftover yarn. It is very close to completion but I’ve stalled out knitting the edging. Picking up and knitting 20 rows of 500 stitches will do that to you.

What kind of projects would you like to tackle in the coming year?

Finishing my lab work, writing my thesis, defending said thesis and then sleeping. Lots of sleeping. I also want to make a quilted growth chart for my future niece/nephew, but that might have to wait a while!

Do you have a blog, flickr, pinterest, or other place on the web you’d like to share?

I blog over at http://othersideofthepom.blogspot.com/ and my photography can be found at tinamarney.com

(In my natural habitat)

Thanks Tina! 
Who's up next?  I don't have any questionnaires with photos that I can post this week, somebody, send me something QUICK!
~jess