Welcome to the world of quilting through history.

This is a new adventure for me.  In fact, I began this journey before I knew I was on it!

My mother taught me to sew and I made clothes for myself.  When the kids came along I made quilts and sewed nursery items because that is what you did.  For my first son, I made quilts, bumpers and wall hangings.  His birth sampler was completed before he was born- just waiting for the name and date.  My second son came along shortly (18 months), so I crocheted his blanket and finished his birth sampler before he went to preschool.  The third son came 18 months later and he used what I had; however, I did finish his birth sampler before he graduated from high school.  Who had time for quilting?

In between then and now, I was a professional educator, earned two additional degrees, raised three boys, and moved around the United States with my Marine husband.  Yet through it all, quilting and history were always in the background.

My husband retired from the Marine Corps and we settled in Texas.  I began to quilt again and heard about this quilt show in Houston.  It was supposed to be fun and it was held every year-who knew?  Now there are crazy people in Texas and everywhere else we have lived, but after attending the International Quilt Festival, I know there are crazy people all over the world and they all come to Texas for the festival.

I love old quilts and began collecting them as my husband and I entered the empty nest years. I would research the block name and see what I could find out about the quilt.  I went to Paducah and took a class on how to date fabric, and along the way was mulling over ideas to address my growing irritation with the frantic marketing of quilting tools, gadgets and geegaws. Most of the quilts that I was collecting were made by people using needle, thread and SCISSORS.  I began a Dear Jane quilt and realized that Jane Stickle did not even have electricity!  How did these people do it?

This irritation began my new quest.  I have written a book and am shopping it to publishers,    It is a book about various aspects of quilting history or events that have caught my fancy.  As I began to share with others what I have discovered, I was encouraged to develop a way to share this information in a more formal/organized manner.  Being a former professional speaker, I thought, “Hey, I know how to do this”.

I hope you will enjoy looking through my workshops.  Each one is based on my research and I am always open to new topics.