About Joan Hawley
About Joan Hawley, founder and creator of Lazy Girl Designs (LGD).
Lazy Girl is all about finding the easiest way to successful fabric crafting. Anchored in the quilt industry while flirting with the sewing junkies, we make our own rules, and buck convention where possible. Joan’s passion was purses, but if it was sewing and quilting related – she was interested!
She began sewing at a young age and focused on making her own clothes and home dec furnishings. A friend introduced her to the world of quilting years later and took her to her first quilt shop. She didn’t know shops dedicated to quilting even existed until then!
As for her concentration on purses and bags…what can you say? Have you ever found the perfect purse? Does a single perfect purse exist, or is perfection achieved through a collection of purses that when combined, meet all of our needs? Who knows? We guess since she spent over 25 years designing them for herself, her collection was incomplete. Or the definition of perfection changes over time. She discovered that there is a little ‘Lazy’ in all of us. She had fun with her designs, and we hope you do, too.
Joan Hawley of Lazy Girl Designs with Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts at International Quilt Market October 2015
In early May 2022, Joan passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. The sewing & quilting world lost a dynamo, and she’s dearly missed by her family, friends, fans, and followers.
In April 2023, Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts, a dear friend, colleague, and mentee of Joan’s, acquired the Lazy Girl Designs brand and product line. Julie strives to honor Joan’s legacy for many years to come as a steward of the Lazy Girl patterns, notions, and products.
LGD products continue to be found at thousands of local quilt shops across the country and around the world. Ask your local store to see what’s new! If you haven’t been to your local quilt shop lately, or don’t know where one is, Google ‘fabric store’ or ‘quilt shop’ and go exploring.
Joan shared her lighthearted approach and easy techniques on nearly two dozen episodes of Kaye’s Quilting Friends with Kaye Wood, Quilter’s ToolBox, and America Quilts Creatively with Sue Hausmann.
Read Joan’s feature in the SCHMETZ Needles ‘Inspired To Sew’ magazine here.
Enjoy!
Julie Herman
Jaybird Quilts + Lazy Girl Designs
