I am 38 years old and I have been quilting for 16 years. My favorite thing in the world is playing with fabric…everyone around here always want to know when I will be at the local quilt shop so that I can “help” them pick fabric. If I have to pick my favorite type of fabric, it would be bright batiks, at least that is my favorite type today…I am female and it is my prerogative to change my mind at any time!
My grandmother taught me to sew the year I turned 14. The one thing I remember her saying was “If you drive as fast as you are sewing we are going to have a BIG problem!” My mom continued the sewing lessons by letting me read the instructions and then telling me an easier way to do things, so when I began quilting I was already trained to think “outside the box” to find a better way to do things.
When I was pregnant with my 2nd child, a fellow Marine wife had taken a hand-quilting class. She brought over her rotary cutter, mat and ruler and told me that there was a way to strip piece but she didn’t know how… I don’t remember ever knowing that there were quilt patterns…I thought everyone used graph paper to “figure things out” for themselves. Right after my son was born we were stationed in Okinawa for 4½ years. While there, I continued to “figure out” what I could. I even strip pieced a Lone Star, but couldn’t figure out how to do the MATH to fill in the empty corners.
I “taught” another friend, Terry Chapman, everything I knew (not much!) and together we learned a lot by trial and error. I went to Cuba after Okinawa and she went to 29 Palms, CA. She took a lot of classes, while I wandered through the Exchange looking at sheets that I could use as fabric. In 1999 we found ourselves stationed in Jacksonville, NC. She then taught me the “right way” to do things. We are both perfectionist and after struggling to teach ourselves how to get perfect results we came up with what we think is the perfect technique for all skill levels. By stacking all of your fabric and rotary cutting though everything at once it takes only minutes to have the entire quilt cut out. Shuffle the fabrics (we figured out the easiest method for doing that too!) and chain piece everything back together. You don’t even have to use a “perfect” ¼ inch seam allowance because you cut the block to 9½ inches after you are done sewing.
We began publishing our own quilting design line in 2001, called Two Kwik Quilters. In 2005 I took over the business when Terry’s husband retired and they moved away. Since then, I have continued to design, as well as run things alone. Kirsta Meadows, a local quilt shop owner, is one of my best friends and she helps me as much as she can (I make samples for her, watch her shop when no one else can… she sews on my binding…helps me work at market…. it works!) My kids even help fold and pack patterns when necessary! I have 3 of them…children that is…Bryan is 18, just graduated from high school and going to college in the fall, David is 15, plays the guitar and X-Box, and Kayleigh is 13, she is a dancer as well as a cheerleader. Bryan can make a pair of pajama pants if he has to, but David and Kayleigh both quilt. David is a perfectionist like me and is not satisfied unless it is perfect…Kayleigh just want to get it done (she inherited the “Kwik” part of my personality!) My husband Mark is still a Marine and when able, we love to sail. Retirement is only 2 years away, so we hope to there will be more time to sail when he no longer belongs to the Marine Corps (I’m hoping for a trip to the Bahamas’!)
I love what I do, There are times that I really wish I could turn off my “creative brain”, however; I really wouldn’t have it any other way. The unfinished projects are at times overwhelming…I wonder if you can hire someone to finish them all…kind of like a house keeper for my sewing projects.