I grew up outside of the town of Smithfield, Virginia. My father had a grocery store and our family lived next door. My dad's store was a true country store. There were hams and fan belts hanging from the ceiling, a potbelly stove, and big wheels of cheese on the counter. There was a smokehouse behind the store and my father cured hams, bacon and sausages. My brother, sister and I had all sorts of fun there and I have many fond memories of sending time with my parents in the store. Our family moved into town when I was around 8 years old. It was about this time that I started to take an interest in sewing and knitting. A neighbor taught me to knit which I still enjoy and I had a little toy sewing machine and made clothes for some of my dolls.
I started taking home economics in the 8th grade and pursued this all the way through high school making many of my clothes. Our teacher, Mrs. Cox, was an avid knitter and sewer and I learned much from her. After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia I moved to Colorado and attended Colorado State University studying biology. This was about 1974. I arrived at the university a couple of weeks before classes started and decided to do some sightseeing. I went up to the Denver Art Museum. It turned out to be an unforgettable experience. I didn't realize it but the Denver Art Museum has a fabulous quilt collection and they just happened to have an exhibit of their finest quilts. I saw Myrtle Fortner's Matterhorn quilt, several quilts my charlotte Jane Whitehill, as well as many other examples of exquisitely pieced and appliqued quilts. I left the museum determined to make a quilt. I went to a fabric store (no quilt stores around then) and purchased a book, McCall's How to Quilt It and taught myself how to make a cathedral window quilt.
I moved to Monterey, California in 1975 still working on the cathedral window quilt. About this time Good Housekeeping Magazine sponsored the Great Quilt Contest in which Jenny Beyer was the national winner with her Ray of Light quilt. The quilt exhibits in museums as well as the quilt contest occurring about the year of the bicentennial, 1976, were the major contributing factors to this great quilt revival that has been going on for more than 25 years and continues to grow. After moving to Monterey I found a quilt class through the county and finally learned to make a pieced block. I was still trying to finish the cathedral window quilt. As I looked back at the first windows I had sewn they were already starting to come apart! My sewing skills improved quite a bit after taking some quilt classes. About 2 years later some ladies in Pacific Grave expressed the idea to start a quilt guild. I attended the first meeting and was active in that guild for the next 9 years serving at one time as newsletter editor. I made my first pieced quilt, entirely by hand, and made a sampler quilt which was also popular at that time. Back then it was a big no-no to piece a quilt on the sewing machine. How times have changed! I worked at the US Department of Agriculture in the Agricultural Research Division as a biological technician working for a plant geneticist studying tomatoes and sugar beets. About 1980 I met my husband to be, Peter, and in 1984 we married and moved to Sacramento for better job opportunities. Peter works as a hydrologist for the United States Geological Survey. I did finish that cathedral window quilt but the "little windows" needed to be mended frequently due to my early poor sewing skills. I was pretty tired o mending and took it to the Salvation Army Store. As I walked in the back of the store there was a closet to put donations in. I threw that quilt in there and walked through the store looking for vintage fabrics and other sewing goodies. As I walked back out the store I glanced into the closet and noticed someone had already grabbed the quilt! My husband and I have a sailboat. There is a saying that the best day of your life is the day you sell a boat and the day you but one. Maybe this can be said of some quilts, too. I was glad to give it away and someone else was glad to have it!
The second day after we moved to Sacramento I went to a quilt store, Quilter's Corner, and found out where the River City Quilt Guild had meetings and have been a member since. I enjoy making geometric pieced quilts with 80-100 fabrics in each piecing them on the sewing machine and quilting by hand or machine. I have won the best scrap quilt award twice at the River City Show, California State Fair, and Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara and one quilt is featured in the book, Color, The Quilter's Guide by Christine Barnes.
In addition to quilting and knitting, I also hike, cross country ski, practice yoga and sail with my husband. I have been employed since 1984 at the Veterinary Genetics Department at the University of California at Davis. I do DNA typing in animals, primarily horses, to verify parentage. We are the largest lab in the world for this type of work and employ around 55 people. We are currently DNA typing around 20,000 horses a month. Our major contracts are with the American Quarter Horse Association and the Jockey Club, which registers all thoroughbreds racing in the United States.
I have come a long way in quilting since making that cathedral window quilt thanks to the wonderful teachers our guilds bring to the area. Mary Ellen Hopkins, Yvonne Porcella, Judy Mathieson, Doreen Speckmann, Margaret Miller, Sharyn Craig, Blanche Young, and Bernice Stone are just a few of the speakers I have enjoyed hearing at guild meeting. I feel lucky to live in an area with such wonderful quilt shops and have enjoyed taking classes and helping out the economy through purchasing lots and lots of fabric. When I am in the need of a little "retail therapy" I usually head to the quilt store. In addition I have been a member of one of the neighborhood circle groups since 1985. Our group is called the SNOTS and stands for Sacramento's Notorious Omnipotent Thread Society. I have learned quite a bit from my SNOT sisters on quilting and we have made lasting friendships and are very supportive of each other. I am very pleased to have been the 3rd SNOT sister, in addition to Blanch Wood and Lindy Munday, to be selected featured artist at the annual quilt show and consider it to be one of the highlights of my life. Thank you very much.
