The Short Version

Carol & Leo Maynard are a husband-and-wife team running Maynard Longarm Quilting from their home in Denver, Pennsylvania. Leo is a U.S. Navy veteran; Carol is a lifelong sewist and teacher. Both are long-time Lions Club members. Before opening Maynard Longarm Quilting, they spent years owning and running Zook's Fabric — the iconic quilt shop in Intercourse, PA, right in the heart of Lancaster County's Amish country.

Today, Leo finishes every customer quilt on a Bernina Q24 longarm at home. Carol teaches the sewing classes from her dedicated class studio — small-group instruction and one-on-one teaching for quilters at every level.

From Zook's Fabric to a Home Longarm

If you've ever driven through Lancaster County and stopped at Zook's Fabric in Intercourse, you may already have a quilting connection to Carol & Leo. They owned and ran that shop for years — bolts of cotton, batting selections, quilting notions, and the steady stream of quilters from across the U.S. who make Intercourse a pilgrimage stop.

Owning a fabric shop is the kind of work that surrounds you with quilters every day. You hear about every project — the ones in progress, the ones piecing up beautifully, and (most often) the ones stuck waiting for a longarmer. After a few years of watching that wait list, Carol & Leo did the thing every fabric shop owner secretly thinks about: they got their own longarm.

That eventually became Maynard Longarm Quilting — a home-based finishing service focused on doing one thing well, for quilters who mail their tops in from anywhere in the United States.

Leo — Navy Veteran, Longarm Operator

Before Lancaster County, before the fabric shop, before the Bernina Q24, Leo served in the United States Navy. Some of the discipline that shows up in his quilting comes from there — careful tension checks, methodical setup, getting it right before you go fast. Navy veterans tend to be the most patient longarmers; ask anyone who's worked with one.

Today, every customer quilt that comes through the mail is loaded, basted, and finished by Leo on the Bernina Q24 in the Maynards' Denver, PA home. Edge-to-edge pantograph, semi-custom, full custom freehand — the machine and the operator handle it all. Most quilts ship back within 2–3 weeks of arrival.

Carol — Sewing Classes & Her Class Studio

Carol's specialty is the teaching side: small-group sewing classes, one-on-one beginner sessions for quilters brand new to a sewing machine, intermediate workshops for quilters tackling their first paper-pieced or applique project, and custom sewing work that doesn't belong on a longarm frame.

She teaches out of her own dedicated class studio — a space set up specifically for hands-on instruction, with extra machines, work tables, cutting stations, and the kind of natural light that makes "let me show you where the stitch goes" actually visible. Live online classes run from the same room.

If you've ever taken a class with Carol — whether at the class studio, online, or at one of the Lancaster County retreats — you know the patient, "let me show you again" approach. There's no rush, no judgment, and a real focus on getting you to the next quilt with confidence.

Lions Club — Community Roots

Both Carol and Leo are long-time Lions Club members. If you've spent any time in small-town Pennsylvania, you know what that means: pancake breakfasts, eyeglass drives, scholarship raffles, vision screenings at the local elementary school. Lions Club is the original "we show up for the community" service organization, and Carol & Leo have been showing up for years.

It's the same posture they bring to the longarm work. Every quilt that arrives in the mail is treated like it belongs to a neighbor — because in a sense, it does. The Lions Club teaches you that.

How the Home Operation Runs

Maynard Longarm Quilting is based out of the Maynards' home in Denver, PA 17517 — about an hour's drive from Lancaster, twenty minutes from Reading, and a stone's throw from Intercourse where this all started. Leo's Bernina Q24 lives there: a 24-inch throat-space industrial-grade longarm with a digital stitch regulator and a 12-foot frame. It handles everything from a baby quilt to a king-size top in a single pass.

Customers mail in their tops from all 50 states. The Maynards supply batting and thread if you'd like (Hobbs 80/20, wool, bamboo, cotton; Glide and Superior threads), and binding service is available as an add-on. Most quilts go from mailbox to mailbox in 4–5 weeks total — shipping in, finishing time, shipping back.

Carol's class studio operates separately — that's where her sewing classes meet (in-person or live online), her custom sewing work happens, and her teaching schedule lives. Two different operations, one house, one Lancaster County family.