Photo by Azuree Wiitala

After decades of traveling the US to teach and lecture about quilting, I left the for-profit world for the nonprofit one, first by serving seven years on the Quilts of Valor Foundation Board of Directors. I helped establish the Iowa Quilt Museum in Winterset, Iowa, in 2016, worked with my youngest daughter Rebecca to renovate my town’s historic single-screen movie theater, “The Iowa,” and immersed myself in the craft of fiction. In 2018, I founded the Madison County Mutual Admiration Society, an organization with no meetings, no dues, no officers, no fundraising.

If you like the same things I like, maybe you’ll enjoy catching up with me from time to time.

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My Latest,
Greatest Quilt

I always refer to my most recently-completed quilt top as my “latest, greatest,” because that’s the one I’m most in love with at the moment. Quilters with lots of UFOs may not like knowing this, but I make my quilts one at a time, start to finish, and think of them as passionate love affairs (with fabric!).

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Let’s Just Read!

Shortly after I learned to talk, I learned to read — well before entering kindergarten — and have loved books all my life. I raised three children surrounded by books, and they all turned out avid readers and excellent writers. If conversation ever lags when we’re together, we turn to the printed page.

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Our Little Town
of Winterset

My hometown — Winterset, Iowa — is the birthplace of legendary screen actor John Wayne and the county seat of Madison County, of The Bridges of Madison County fame. Until a few years ago, when a local couple suggested Winterset needed a quilt museum, I took my beautiful little burg for granted. Not any more!

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