About The Artist

If memory serves me right, I began quilting in 1992, when I purchased an oak hutch for my parrot’s cage to sit on. She’s very messy when she bathes in her water dish, and I didn’t want the wood ruined, so I decided to make a table runner to protect it. I was instantly addicted and made placemats to match. I realize now that I did almost everything wrong in that first project, from fabric and thread selection, to piecing, to quilting, but I had previously only made clothing so I had no clue!

I learned to sew when I was twelve. My father had died when I was nine and money was very tight, but I wanted to join the cheerleading squad. The only way we could afford the uniform was if I made the skirt myself. Unfortunately, my mother was completely hopeless at any sort of craft and fairly terrified of the Singer that lurked in the darkest corner of our basement. It had been there since my grandmother’s death a year earlier. She had been a very talented seamstress and tailor but, being from a small village in Hungary, she was very “thrifty”. When tying to teach my mother to sew, she had repeatedly admonished her never to waste or ruin any fabric. Hence, my mother’s abject terror of sewing. We found a woman a block away from our house who was willing to teach me to sew.

I made the cheerleading skirt, assorted doll clothes, all my maternity clothes and some of my oldest daughter’s baby clothes until one day I realized that I hated clothing construction. I found it very stressful. What if I did all this work and the outfit didn’t fit? What if it was obviously homemade and my daughter’s friends made fun of her? What if I wasted the fabric??!! I stopped making clothes and didn’t sew much at all until I needed that table runner.

Up until junior year of high school, I had planned to become an elementary school teacher. But in my honors Trigonometry and College Algebra class I met and fell in love with a computer geek. His love of computers rubbed off, and my college major was hormonally chosen… Computer Science. The bad side of this…I decided second semester of my senior year that I would be eternally miserable programming computers 24-7 and was without a career. The good side… I married the computer geek and we have three fabulous children!

I came back to the idea of teaching through the Girl Scouts. I had volunteered to be my oldest daughter’s troop leader in kindergarten and loved working with those kids. I volunteered to assist with classes at our local Girl Scout program center and in a short time went from assisting to designing and teaching my own classes. The first class I helped with, and later took over teaching, was a class where the girls designed artwork and made a quilt for a baby in crisis. My classes at Girl Scouts of DuPage now include three different sewing classes, numerous cooking and art classes and assorted cultural programs.

Several years ago, our Girl Scout council decided to do a major service project involving making baby quilts and lap quilts for senior citizens. We wrote instructions, assembled kits, and organized mass quilt tying parties. Our goal was to make one hundred quilts to donate to area shelters, hospitals and homes. The program was so successful that we ended up with 535 quilts instead! By now the Girl Scouts and I have constructed and donated well over 600 quilts and I have received the Girl Scout Appreciation Pin.

Through that big service project I met my first “bee”. The original committee enjoyed each other’s company so much that we decided to meet once a month to sew. We have a wide range of talents in that group and have been together through good and bad, including our children growing, our parents dying, and a divorce. I am currently also in two other bees, so you can see how important my sewing friends are to me!

Through my first bee friends, I found both of the guilds in which I am currently involved: the Salt Creek Quilter’s Guild and the Hinsdale Embroidery Guild. In SCQG, I have held many board positions and have designed the layout for our last four quilt shows. I consider myself extremely lucky to work with so many talented ladies in both of my guilds.

In 2002, I had the privilege of teaching grown ups for the first time! I taught a curved piecing class at Needles in Naperville, IL and I absolutely loved it! It was a very small class and we had a wonderful time with the technique which I learned from author Debbie Bowles. I had so much fun and was planning to start teaching at the store on a regular basis. Unfortunately, at that time my mother suffered a stroke and needed quite a bit of care. My quilt teaching had to be put on hold. Shortly thereafter, Needles closed its doors…no more quilt store five minutes from home!

Aside from that curved piecing, I also enjoy traditional piecing, foundation piecing, fabric origami, thread painting and love to embellish with beads. I have recently fallen in love with design and have done several original quilts. I plan to continue expanding in that direction. I also enjoy weaving, shibori, Sashiko, and many other forms of embroidery and have incorporated some of them into my quilts. In short, I love all forms of textile arts and would love to keep expanding my knowledge and experiment with merging many of these techniques. Although quilting is my favorite, I LOVE THEM ALL!

The most important advice I have for new quilters is ENJOY! Don’t stress out over perfect corners or using every scrap of fabric efficiently (Repeat after me, “There is always more fabric”). If a project is frustrating you, get a fresh opinion at a local shop or guild, or put it away for awhile. You’ll come back to it with a new perspective and it may become your favorite creation!