It’s a Rubber Duckie World
Always creative growing up it’s not a surprise that after Jodie landed in engineering school with a plum co-op job at GE she realized she just didn’t fit into that world. In fact she didn’t quite fit in anywhere — until a boyfriend’s intended insult became a gift of clarity. For him, “You live in a rubber duckie world,” was a put down. For Jodie it was the crystalizing moment.
Jodie Davis Quilter
Jodie booted the boyfriend, abandoned any thought of being “normal”, and set about letting her rubber duckie muse call the shots, to create her own world, her “It’s Rubber Duckie World!”
She started writing crafts and quilting books. When she started making teddy bears in college, Jodie found all of the current books on the subject. Finding them lacking, she set about to write and get her own how-to book published. All that she read discouraged her, telling her it would be a long road. The first proposal she sent out resulted in a phone call from Williamson Publishing in Vermont. She ended up doing a line of books with them!
Switching her focus to quilting, Jodie then wrote books with Krause and That Patchwork Place.
The books led Jodie to teaching. First it was teddy bear making at G Street Fabrics in Maryland, then on to quilting near and far and even on the high seas!
Jodie ended up in Switzerland at Bernina sewing machine company as one of their ambassadors. It’s amazing where a passion can take you!
Jodie became a top TV host in the crafting world shepherding an online network for quilters, QNNTV.com, which was birthed in the early days of online TV. Her journey brought her to demonstrating products on HSN; producing and co-hosting long-running monthly series including Quilt Out Loud!, an off-the-wall lifestyle quilting show she created with Mark Lipinski; and hosting Quilt It which ran for eight seasons. And… to cuckoo clocks.
Jodie Davis Rubber Duckie Designer and Author
Of her thirty-four books Jodie’s best seller, Rubber Duckie, sold 230,000 copies. Yes that’s a lot! Further proving that following her spirit resounded with others.
A visit to her bathroom by a TV show to highlight her collection led Jodie to pursue the idea of producing a documentary on rubber duckies. Everyone who saw the piece said she needed to do video! Well, she did end up in front of the camera, but it was with her quilting hat on.
Jodie Davis, The Cuckoo Clock Designer
As you can see, Jodie’s journey is one of following her passions. Ultimately her creativity, hosting, and love of rubber duckies led her to become a cuckoo clock designer, and then artist. It sure wasn’t the plan!
A collector of German mid-century cuckoo clocks for years, Jodie jumped at the chance to journey to the premier cuckoo factory in the Black Forest when one of the shows she was hosting traveled to Switzerland. You see, when you host a show you get carte blanche inside workings. But Jodie’s real dream was to design her own cuckoo clock.
So when the camera was about to roll she proposed turning the mean hag holding a rolling pin into a sweet quilter, for her audience. They bit and the Quilt Shop Cuckoo Clock became a reality. But in order to have one for herself Jodie had to import 100 of them. Yikes! Thanks to the magazines owned by QNNtv.com’s sister companies, they all sold. And so a business was born!
Read the story of Jodie becoming a cuckoo clock designer and artist.