Leah Day was born in Asheboro, North Carolina. Craft was a part of her life from a very early age. Her father was a woodcarver and blacksmith. Her mother was an avid gardener and basket weaver. Her earliest memories are of watching her grandpa turn wooden bowls on his lathe and her father transform metal with a coal burning forge. Leah's mother taught her how to hand sew when she was around four. She taught herself to crochet, knit and spin wool in grade school. For eight years she was devoted to beadwork and made many elaborate hand woven pieces from seed beads. After attending the University of North Carolina at Asheville for two years, Leah left without a degree to start a creative business. After getting engaged to Josh Day, she decided to make a Double Wedding Ring quilt. Leah had wanted to make quilts since she was a little girl because she grew up sleeping under many traditional patchwork quilts made by her grandmother's and great grandmothers. Quilting quickly became more than a hobby, it was her passion. While pregnant with her son, Leah started her first goddess quilt, Life and Fire. Leah began the Free Motion Quilting Project in 2009 and has since shared over fourteen hundred quilting tutorials online which have been viewed more than eighteen million times. Leah, Josh, and James reside in Shelby, NC with two cats, a flock of chickens, a herd of rabbits, and one lazy dog.
