NQA Member Spotlight

Hooray for quilts! As an NQA Certified Teacher, I love to share the passion of quilting. My psychology professor husband might suggest that quilting releases endorphins in my brain to make me feel better. (He sometimes has other descriptions of my brain, but I won't repeat those here.) However it works, quilting is the best therapy there is for all kinds of life issues. Yay!

Of course, quilt therapy has been around for generations. In the 1970s, I first examined the blue and tan Drunkard's Path quilt top made by my great-great grandmother. That began a love of quilting that's been nurtured ever since. Today I teach about quilts, create my own, explore various quilting techniques, and study quilts of all kinds.

As a former elementary school teacher and free-lance writer, I now appreciate teaching adults down at our local quilt shop, The Cosmic Cow-The Udder Store in Seward, Nebraska. I don't live far from The International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, NE where I've been a volunteer and tour guide. Through the Study Center, I've learned a lot about the textiles, color trends, quilting tools, and popular sewing techniques available to women through past generations. Learning about quilting makes American and world history so much fun!

In conjunction with a museum display of early 19th century chintz quilts, I taught a workshop at the Study Center on techniques of cut-out chintz ("Broderie Perse"). Working with pre-printed and hand-appliquéd motifs has become a special interest of mine. I've also developed classes in other historic quilting arts such as stuffed work (trapunto), hand-piecing, and working with vine design.

Hand appliqué and hand quilting have been two of my favorite award-winning techniques, yet I love to teach all kinds of quilting from the historic to more contemporary, including knowledge of design principles, understanding color theory, and the use of "home" machine quilting. I love to work with beginning quilters! Plus, enjoying any kind of show'n'tell really keeps my endorphins in great shape.

Being a member of NQA is one way I maintain quilting "exercises" for both mind and body. It's a great way to stay informed on events in the quilt world and get ideas for new projects. It provides a reason for the annual visit to a wonderful quilt show in Columbus every June (maybe I'll see you there!). I enjoy coordinating small groups, too. What better way to encourage a quilter's well-being?

I live in the middle of the country now, under the big beautiful skies of Nebraska, but I grew up in the wine country of California. After marrying, my little family (husband and three daughters) found itself way on the other side of the continent, in Baltimore, Maryland for twelve years. I went from West to East. Now that I live near the Oregon Trail, I imagine my ancestors traveling from East to West - of course, quilting along the way!

Although my great-great grandmother's blue and tan quilt top was stitched in the early 1900s, I discovered that she was a young wife living in Missouri during America's Civil War. I wonder what memories crossed her mind as she pieced blocks together - Did she once do now-forgotten handwork as she waited for news of family members in battle? Did the baby cry, or the cows need milking as she struggled to keep up with mending? Like most of you, I can imagine hundreds of questions!

Thus, quilters somehow carry on...Hooray for us! (kriss.moulds@ymail.com)