QUILTER | TEACHER | AUTHOR | FOUNDER
She became my sister-in-law when I was 21, my ex-sister-in-law when I divorced her brother at age 39. She remained my friend, championed my pursuits, cheered my successes, told me (when I was my family of four’s sole financial support) … Read More
A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to make it into a special, yearlong writing class offered through StoryStudioChicago, a writing center located in the Windy City. The class, called “Novel-in-A-Year,” was to be led by one of … Read More
UPDATE! A recording of the delightful launch party for Patchwork & Prose is available free here. It’s loads of fun, and Yanks like me will enjoy it if for nothing more than listening to Jenni Smith’s and Kay Walsh’s lovely … Read More
In the early 1970s, I was a young bride earnestly making a new home out of an old farmhouse seven miles from the nearest town (Winterset, Iowa, county seat of Madison County). Not yet a mother or a quilter, my … Read More
Once upon a time, while meandering through the Egyptian Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, I noticed an elevated sarcophagus—without a lid. “Goodness,” I thought, “a person could easily reach up, drop any sort of … Read More
Last year, I mentioned in a post that my (unpublished) short story (“My Ashes at The Met”)* had been adapted into a feature film by Jack C. Newell. In the now completed movie, titled MONUMENTS, a bereaved young man (Ted) … Read More
If you read my posts regularly you know I love books and writing as much as I love making quilts. You probably also know I live in two places—Winterset, Iowa, most of the time, and Washington Island, Wisconsin, from time … Read More
For several years, now, as I’ve pursued my love of fiction—as a writer rather than a reader—I’ve taken lots of classes, most of them at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival in Iowa City, a production of the University of Iowa, … Read More
Jennifer Egan’s The Keep was recommended by one of my teachers in a workshop at this year’s University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival. The class was on point of view, and my teacher used excerpts from The Keep and another … Read More
In the quilt world, common acronyms are FQ (Fat Quarter), UFO (Unfinished Object), QM (Quilt Market), and QOV (Quilt of Valor). My new career in fiction introduced me to a whole new set of shortcuts. WIP is one’s Work-in-Progress—and (BTW) … Read More