Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Our February Queen Bee

We would like to introduce our February Queen Bee, Laura Lowe

Tell us a little bit of your quilting history and experience:

I started quilting in high school, and remember my first quilt was "tied" with yarn, and I bought the material at The Quilt Patch when they were in a two-story house on Oak Street, ok did that age me? I took a 15 year leave of absence from quilting before picking it back up, and have been making tops since then. About 6 years ago I purchased my first mid-arm on a frame, and 2 years later upgraded to my current long-arm machine. I opened my quilting business 2 years ago, and truly enjoy doing computerized quilting.

What does quilting means to you?

Quilting means lots of different things to me, but the first things that comes to mind are family and comfort. We have a family of quilters, my mom made quilts for the pediatric unit in 1961 and I cherish a Springfield News article showing her quilting group with me as a 9 month old on her lap. My sister Betty started making quilts about 3 years ago. Our daughter decided to start quilting 3 years ago, when her 6 year old daughter reminded her she had made 3 quilts, and she had made none. Both our granddaughters 9 and 12 enjoy piece work, and quilting their own quilts.

Why did you want to join our bee?

I love the friendship quilts bring, and felt like the bee would be a great way to remember a great group of quilters, so that's why I joined the bee.


What was the reason or thoughts behind your choice of block/design/project for the bee?

I love thumbing through magazines, and a pattern kept jumping out at me each time I picked up that issue. I made myself a challenge this year to use more fabrics from my "stash". As I was looking a fat quarter bundle that I had purchased at Spring Quilt Market kept jumping out at me. The funniest part is, it has "owls" on it, and I do not like owls, but I thought it was cute, so what the hoot....