Meet One of Our Members!
September 23, 2015
Valli grew up in suburban New York and started sewing clothing when she was ten. Although her mother quilted, Valli didn’t attempt quilting until she and her husband moved to Colorado.
There she found a quilt guild in the town of Wheat Ridge, a hotbed of machine quilting, influenced by local quilters like Harriet Hargrave. At first she thought of herself as only a quilt appreciator. But she loved the group’s energy and support so much that she soon started making her own quilts. After eighteen years in Colorado, and a shorter stay in Texas, her family ended up in Naperville. Valli sought out Riverwalk Quilters Guild as soon as they arrived in town and since then has served as treasurer and programs chair.
Valli grew up in suburban New York and started sewing clothing when she was ten. Although her mother quilted, Valli didn’t attempt quilting until she and her husband moved to Colorado.
There she found a quilt guild in the town of Wheat Ridge, a hotbed of machine quilting, influenced by local quilters like Harriet Hargrave. At first she thought of herself as only a quilt appreciator. But she loved the group’s energy and support so much that she soon started making her own quilts. After eighteen years in Colorado, and a shorter stay in Texas, her family ended up in Naperville. Valli sought out Riverwalk Quilters Guild as soon as they arrived in town and since then has served as treasurer and programs chair.
When asked which quilters she admires, she quickly mentions two – Debra Wagner, for innovative machine techniques, and Judy Martin, for pieced quilt designs. Valli has been competing in regional and national quilt shows since 2001, when her first entry won an honorable mention at the Houston International Quilt Festival. A Riverwalk Guild workshop with Sharyn Craig sparked the design of Valli’s Mille Fleurs – a quilt that appeared on the cover of Quilters Newsletter Magazine in 2008.
(For more, see: http://www.quiltersnewsletter.com/articles/Mille_Fleurs)
Always looking for new ideas, just now Valli likes “modern” free motion quilting, using straight lines, ruler work, and geometric patterns. She does all her own quilting on a domestic sewing machine.
(For more, see: http://www.quiltersnewsletter.com/articles/Mille_Fleurs)
Always looking for new ideas, just now Valli likes “modern” free motion quilting, using straight lines, ruler work, and geometric patterns. She does all her own quilting on a domestic sewing machine.
She chuckles as she tells of her mother, whose casual and spontaneous approach to quilting contrasts with Valli, who is all about precision. When they do a project together, she says, there is a lot of negotiating going on. They worked together on a memory quilt made from the shirts of a dear friend who died. One quilt was planned, but they couldn’t bear to waste any shirts, so it turned into several quilts for his family and a very satisfying project despite their different approaches to the work. Valli has drawers full of orphan blocks and very much enjoyed using them to make the improvisational quilt, shown here, that she’s currently working on. When asked how her family views her interest in quilting, she considers for a moment, then smiles and says, “Bemusedly.” Then after another quiet minute she adds, “You know, many quilts have to age before they can be a bed cover . . .after all the work is done, sometimes they just turn out to be too precious to use.”
Thanks, Valli! September 23, 2015 |
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