I have been quilting since the late 1970’s and appliqué was my frustration and challenge. I took classes from Elly Sienkiewicz and Dierdra McElroy, became better at appliqué but it wasn’t until I took a one-day two-fabric appliqué class from Nancy Lee Chong that my “valleys”, inside curves and points became perfect. My first full-size two-fabric appliqué was Tea Ceremony. Boy, was I nervous to start the stitching! It turned out great and my daughter loved it. My next challenge was the Hawaiian quilt, Woodland Lei. I followed the pattern instructions exactly for folding, marking, pinning and basting. It came out great and my other daughter loved her quilt. I love how fast and easy the two-color quilts make up but for pure appliqué and quilting enjoyment nothing beats the Hawaiian designs. I recent completed Flowers That Never Fade using the Anthurium templates. Rather than keeping it just a two color quilt I used a red fabric for the Anthurium and a yellow for the stamen. The next project in the queue is my take on Bird of Paradise.

In addition to Nancy, I have had many great teachers in my quilting life. I took a beginning quilt class at the community college in Marin County from Sylvia Campbell-Landman who taught me to pick fabrics, hand quilt, and how to create templates and patterns; Harriet Hargrave taught me to machine quilt. I have mostly been a traditional quilter but as I dabble with art quilts I look forward to where this craft will take me.