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Lakeside, California
I made my first quilt in about 1988, from a kit I got from a magazine. I got hooked right away and began taking classes, visiting every quilt shop I could find, took the Quilt in a Day Teacher Training class in 95, and attended the C&T Teacher's Retreat at Moraga, California for 3 or 4 years. I began teaching classes for local shops, then added in lectures and trunk shows for guilds in 2000.
I always was a seamstress, made clothing, home dec items, etc. When I moved to California, I started taking classes in subjects that interested me, like oil painting, pastels, acrylics, watercolors, drawing classes, calligraphy, even pottery. They were fun, but after about a couple of years of that, I was tired of them. Nothing stuck around for long. After trying that kit quilt, the addiction started!
I mainly taught myself initially, then took classes from the big girls, like Sharyn Craig who is in my area, then the C&T Retreat teachers like Jan Krentz, Ruth McDowell, Louisa Smith, Jane Sassaman, Libby Lehman, Sally Collins, Linda Schmidt, etc.
Yes. I have a younger sister in Northern California who also quilts. Her name is Deanna Apfel. She and her quilt group, the Mendocino Quilt Artist Guild have embarked on challenges with each other (there are 12 in her group), and have won several group quilt awards from AQS.
I have 5 children, 4 boys and 1 tomboy. The tomboy was the youngest, and with 4 older brothers, she is a pistol! She is a Police Officer in Maryland! My children live across the United States in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and California. Mostly they think that this quilting thing is Mom's little hobby, bless her heart! The first time I was asked to babysit in an emergency (sitter was ill), and refused because I had a class to teach, was somewhat of an eye opener for my son. Now that I have a book out, they are a little more impressed, but still, none of them, including my daughter, are interested in quilting.
I live in the San Diego area, which I love! My first pictorial quilt I called "Celebrate San Diego". It is a realistic pictorial appliqué quilt with 13 blocks representing buildings and events in this area.
I am a tourist at heart. I love the tourist sites wherever I go. I take lots of pictures and make them into quilt appliqué blocks. I also love to cook and try new recipes, but that doesn't affect my quilting!
I was thinking about this not too long ago, and I realized that I have come full circle here! I loved making art projects, especially furnishing the doll house my grandfather made for me. Back then you had to make your own furniture, since doll house furniture was not readily available. So I made little bitty rag rugs, cut little pictures out of magazines and made frames for them for the walls, formed fruits and veggies from clay and painted them, and made dishes for the tables. Tables and other furniture were made from Popsicle sticks and balsa wood, then painted. And here I am at age 67 making my pictorial quilted appliqués almost in the same way, miniatures of the real thing, but formed with fabric this time around!
I do not have any pets at the moment. I am allergic to cats, and travel a lot so it is not easy to have a dog, which I would like to have. All our kids are out, it is just the two of us and my husband isn't wild about dog walking and Super Dooper Pooper Scooping!
I retired early in '96 to work with a friend who had opened a quilt shop. I was an Admin Officer and Tech Editor for a Government contractor and previous to that worked in Washington DC as an Administrative Manager and Security Officer. Now my work is my quilting and the sale of patterns for my City Quilts, and now my book.
I used to sew in a spare bedroom, then my husband said the formal upstairs living room would be ideal for my studio since I needed more space. It was formerly a game room with TV, pool table, piano, and we seldom used it, mostly used the main floor family room/great room. So we got rid of the pool table, moved the piano and TV, replaced the carpet with wood flooring, and it became my studio! After all, I have lots of stuff now!
My favorite machine is my top of the line Pfaff. I also have a serger, my original old Kenmore, a Viking, a Janome Gem and recently sold my Featherweight.
Actually I love the entire process. I like designing a new pictorial…I like piecing regular quilts…I like embellishing…I like quilting. Quilting is so many processes, I never get bored with any of them, and as soon as I finish one quilt I start on another. Well, to be honest, I usually have several projects going at the same time.
I am inspired by nature, by travel, by quilt books, by the huge array of fabrics available to us nowadays. I like color, jewel tones, bright fabrics, and learning new techniques.
Jan Krentz's quilts inspire me because of their technical excellence, color, embellishments and various themes. Peggy Martin's quilts inspire me with their rich color and workmanship; Ruth McDowell's quilts because of her technical skills and vision, and use of printed fabrics that you would never guess would work!
The San Diego Season! You have four seasons here, early spring, spring, summer and late summer. I love having the sun shine nearly every day at some point. I love not having to bundle up against the ice, cold and snow!
Well, here is an interesting story. One of my guilds had a UFO Challenge last year. It started in September, and we were to sign up with a list of our UFO's (unfinished objects), at least the ones we thought we could finish by June. My list had 18 quilt projects that I had started and never finished. It motivated me to finish them, which I did by June! Including an Indian Orange Peel paper pieced quilt I had barely started. I was a happy camper. But now I have about 4 in progress with lots more in my thinking about it stage!
Right now I thank my lucky stars for my work. My husband, the love of my life and my best friend, has been diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease. He is on meds, but he cannot think and is in a fog most of the time. He can't do the things he used to be able to do and it depresses him. He sleeps a lot, but still tries to take care of me. I spend a lot of time in the studio when he is asleep. Quilting and designing both calms me and excites me. I can't imagine what I would do without this "little hobby"!...My saving grace.
The old standard: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, to change those that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
When I was creating the San Diego quilt, I had a block of the Giant Panda that I had seen at the San Diego Zoo. It was in that year that the panda gave birth to baby Hua Mei, so I decided to add the baby panda to the block. I rushed to the studio, drew up a baby panda and made it up. Holding it in my palm (it was about 4 inches high), I showed it to my husband saying "Look, honey, I am going to add the baby to the quilt, isn't it cute?" He said "Oh, did you made it about a third of the size of the big one?" "I don't know, I just drew it." He then asked "Did you just reduce the size of the other panda to make it small?" I said "No, baby pandas are rounder than the big ones, I had to make it round." Then he remarked: "If you add that one to the already made block, everything will be off center, won't it?" At this point I said to him, "Honey, all I asked was 'isn't it cute'! I didn't want an engineering evaluation!
When I am making wall size quilts, I do the machine quilting free motion style. When I am making queen size or larger, I let the long arm quilters do it. I have several friends who are in that business and they get my business for that: Susanne Fagot of El Cajon, Nancy Hofius of San Diego, Lorrie McManus of El Cajon, and Laurie Daniels of Alpine.
Actually at the moment I am making a teddy bear for a person who has lost of loved one and the bear is made out of their loved one's clothing. It’s for the San Diego Sharp Hospice group.
I do have some antiques, and one in particular is my favorite. A gentleman called me one year (when I was President of the San Diego Quilt Show), to ask how he could sell some quilts that his mother made years ago. And he asked if I thought they would sell. I said I would need to see the condition of them before I could give an opinion, and he invited me to come see them. He brought out a beautiful irish chain quilt that was made with 30's fabric in pastels and white. His mother had hand quilted it and it still had about 4 inches around the outside that needed to be finished. He wanted $50 for it and I wrote him a check right then and there. When I got home I realized her needle was still in the quilt with several stitches on it. Once I thought about it, I decided to finish the quilting with her needle and add the binding. I called the man back and asked him for some information on his mother so I could put it on the label. Her name was Martha Earhardt, born in the 1890s in Chicago. She moved with her family to CA in the 20s and married late, having only the one son. He never had any children so had no one to give the quilt to. I added the label with Martha's information on it. So now I feel that Martha knows somebody loves her quilt.
I think the biggest thing it has taught me is that I was meant to be a teacher. I get so much out of working with people and seeing them light up when they learn something new. And after all the art classes I have taken over the years, I realized that has prepared me for what I am doing now, creating pictorials and using texture and color as my "paint". And it has taught me, through meeting many, many quilters that quilters are warm, giving, nurturing people who do so much for their communities and their country. They quietly make quilts for those in need, sew lots of other items for hospitals, nursing homes, wounded service people, kids with life-threatening illnesses, police departments, fire departments, breast cancer stricken people. I love quilters and have made many life long friends in this industry.
I belong to the Legacy Quilters of Santee, the Friendship Quilters of San Diego the Stitching Sisters Quilt Guild of El Cajon, and the Creative Stitchery Guild of San Diego. I don't always get to every meeting, but I try! It’s nice to belong to groups who have like interests, and to participate in these groups regularly. The only disadvantage is that I can't always make it to every meeting. I love quilt guilds!
I used to like quilts that were standard old patterns and that looked like antiques. Now I like the newer techniques and fabrics and bright bold designs and colors!
I prefer ocean themed quilts, tropical themes, good bright colors and hand dyed and batik fabrics.
I did with my City Quilts. There are "Celebrate San Diego", "San Francisco!", "Washington DC", "California Missions", "TEXAS!", "Aloha Hawaii" and my "Hawaiian Critters" quilts.
Every tool that comes out! PLUS…batik fabrics, hand dyed fabrics, "construction" fabrics like wood siding, roof tiles, stucco, river pebbles, cobblestone streets, etc.
Most of my ideas about quilts come to me at night, around 2 or 3 in the morning!
My fingers get sore from too much hand work, arthritis I guess, so most of my work is by machine.
I love embellishing my pictorials for realism, like using tulle over a distant mountain to give it a misty look, organdy over the Golden Gate Bridge to simulate the San Fran fog, or Angelina fibers for light through the ocean or to create a waterfall.
Quilt Your Favorite Photos is my first book. I hope to do more!
I’ve entered shows many times, won a few ribbons, but just seeing your quilt hanging with other beautiful quilts is gratifying.
I teach lots of classes from other people's books, I teach my own projects like the San Diego quilt as a Block of the Month, and a class on basics, oh, and my own pattern for a quilted handbag!
All my friends are quilters!
I sell my own patterns and my book on my web site, and I have a page dedicated to new designers, whose patterns I distribute for them.
Joining a guild and making quilting friends is fun and helpful, a place where you meet other experienced quilters who can help you learn too. My Best Advice-–take classes, I still do and always learn something new.
My husband is very supportive and the best advice to find more time to quilt is GIVE UP HOUSEWORK! I find that is easier to do if I remove my glasses before cleaning the house, there is a LOT less to do when you can't see the lint and dust!
Thanks Betty for sharing your story with us!! I love your thoughts on giving up housework...although just taking off my glasses may not be enough...perhaps I need to invest in some blinders (you know, like they used to put on horses to keep them from getting distracted!).
You can learn lots more about Betty by checking out her website:
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