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Welcome Quilters

Welcome Quilters,

Let me introduce myself.

You know my name but I wanted you to know me. I have been teaching quilting on a full time basis for the past 12 years – currently teach at two adult schools 6 classes a week. I LOVE QUILTING, MY FAMILY AND LAUGHTER (my order of importance?)

I feel I have the best job in the world. because get to do the things I like best every day. I love to be with friends and laugh a lot and obviously quilt.

The problem is that my classes are full and I do not have the time for more classes as a result some people can not get into my classes or live to far away. For this I am sorry – so after much consideration I decided to expand by the way of the internet. Now, I really do have a good sense of humor and laugh a lot so do not get scared at the first videos (they scared me) I am a bit camera shy – but I am getting better, the videos are certainly better. So bear with me as I learn this new media.

The quilts I make are mostly variations of common blocks. I have a degree in Fine Art (minor Textiles) and I use that knowledge to stretch the design with color and setting and of course borders to create quilts that are simple in design but dramatic in effect. I have lectured at many guilds about borders – a specialty of mine (goes back to those Graphic Design years in school), my colors usually break the rules taught in school but are formed by the colors of harmonious balance of nature. I love color and playing with it to create dynamic effects.

Quilting I do know, having completed over 300 projects – many of which you see in the my gallery – and really after teaching for so many years. My students are wonderful – they have taught me so much. That is the main focus of the blog not just the quilting but everything else that I have learned from my students. They range in age from their 20’s to my favorite student 102 (she get mad when I say that because she says I should not have favorites – but I never was good at following rules*)

*You will certainly see this in my quilts –

***Just a funny story okay I do get those questions where it is a bit hard to keep a straight face – this week I was showing Trapunto quilting ( a quilting technique that adds extra stuffing in a design to raise the surface of the design on a quilt) to a student and told her she needed water soluble thread so I could demonstrate the technique I use. The class was full and busy so she went off to see if someone in the class had any – and I went on to help the next student. Later she came back to me and showed me some thread and said “Susan” had this but was not sure if it was watersoluble thread – do you know. Well what can I say I wet my finger and touched the thread and it disappeared – she laughed – told “Susan” we all smiled . As a teacher I believe and often say “there is no such thing as a stupid question” – but there are certainly the questions that make me SMILE.