NQA Member Spotlight

I have been quilting for more than 30 years, thanks to my friend’s mother, Alice Snyder, a kind and extremely patient mentor who took me under her wing and taught me to quilt.  Along the way she shared a love of fabric, design, and a wonderful sense of color selection. Over the years, I have won many first place ribbons locally and been accepted to several major shows,  AQS, Paducah, DesMoines, Knoxville; Quilters Heritage, Lancaster; IQA, Houston where my ‘Ode to a Serial Quilter’ traveled for three years with the Floral Exhibit.  Also, I was accepted to Hoffman Challenge where ‘One More Ride” traveled with their exhibit.     My focus changed a few years ago when  I fell  in love with the Asian influence in our textiles and sashiko stitching as an art form.  As I started teaching sashiko,  the history and the beauty of sashiko led me to start designing patterns to showcase the lovely handwork.  Voila!  Simply  Sashiko  Designs was born.  Needless to say I keep busy, but quilting is not work, it is pure joy.  If you have any questions about my quilts, feel free to email me at maryderay@sbcglobal.net
                                       

Mary DeRay