Westalee Design

THE HISTORY OF WESTALEE DESIGN

Leonie West – Award Winning Inventor, Quilter and the Creative Genius behind Westalee Design. Leonie has over 37 years of experience in quilting and over 10 years designing and selling rulers and patchwork tools. For the last 4 years, Leonie has been sharing her knowledge with demonstrations and workshops all around the world, as well as online.

Leonie’s first big splash was the creation of her Adjustable Ruler, which she invented in 2008. This ruler came about because of frustration she was having with the ruler she was currently using to cut 1200 3/8″ bias strips. The ruler kept moving and became a nuisance in lining up the fabric for each cut. The Adjustable Ruler with its fabric guide and its companion Adjustable Triangles were a success! No slipping, and she could achieve accurate cuts every time with no struggle with lines on the ruler with the edge of the fabric.

The West’s took their invention to The ABC’s New Inventors Show on July 2008 and won the Viewer’s Choice Grand Final! It was the first and last time a product associated with patchwork had ever been on the show. The tremendous success and popularity of their templates is the reason that Westalee Design now has close to 300 Patchwork Tools.

Leonie has made numerous quilts for family and friends. Just prior to her invention of the ruler, her quilt “Every Quilter Dreams” was a finalist in the USA. The quilt was hung at the International Quilt Festival in Houston and Chicago. Another of Leonie’s quilts, “Epsilon Auriga” won first in its category at a showcase in Melbourne in 2011.

In April of 2015 Leonie and Bill West, owners of Westalee Design, partnered with Sew Steady in Eugene, Oregon. With this partnership they brought to market Leonie’s newest creation, a ruler foot for use on most domestic sewing machines. This foot now allows home users to complete their quilts on their domestic sewing machine using Westalee Design’s extensive range of well over 400 templates, rulers and tools.

The popularity of the Westalee Design products has continued to help grow our business each year. We are a leading Manufacturer of high quality, accurate patchwork and quilting rulers, templates and guides that also include an extensive range of long-arm quilting tools and custom-made tools. All of our products are proudly designed by Leonie in Australia, and are manufactured in Australia as well as at Sew Steady’s facility in the USA.