Hi Everyone! Welcome!
My name is Meg and I am 39 years old, and an avid quilter, beader, knitter, crocheter and scrapbooker. While this is primarily a quilting place, I do sometimes give myself over to other creative media. I hope you will enjoy and be inspired by those tales I will tell, after all it is all relative.

Why I Quilt!
I love to be busy with my hands, and that is what I will be sharing with you here: the things I create and why I create them. It is a fine thing to use the abilities and the creativity we have; things that I believe are God-given gifts, especially when it is for gift-giving or a charitable organization. Don't get me wrong, I make plenty of stuff that I keep and use, but once in a while I participate in doing for others, and it is all good.

Quilting is at the top of my list, but all types of creativity are a huge passion for me, and fulfill me in ways that I would never have imagined. Winning ribbons at the show, having a pattern published in a book or a magazine, or giving that handmade gift and seeing the look on someone's face when they realize the love you put into it, that's the good stuff in life!

Busy with my Guild!
One means of "doing for others" is through my local quilt guild, of which I just finished a two-year term as president. Check out our guild website at http://www.willowriverpiecemakers.com/ and you can see some of the quilty goodness that we share. I can't stress the skills and confidence that I gained by joining my local quilt guild. Those ladies help me so much, with everything from my binding stitches to learning the names of blocks, to finding out the differences in quality fabrics versus junk and making friendships that will and have, lasted through thick and thin! I strongly encourage you to look into joining a local guild for quilters or artists or some type of group where you can share the results of your creative journey. I guarantee that it will open your eyes to new and exciting things!

Getting Started!
My first quilt blocks are still that. Just blocks. Those were created when I was 18, and tried to just make something using a quarter-inch seam allowance, as opposed to that 5/8" garment sewing seam allowance (which now seems so HUGE!). Well, much to my dismay the LeMoyne Star is a total pup tent, and the other blocks are not much better. They are each their own unique size and while supposed to be square, they are also their own unique shape! Yikes! That is why I haven't ever sewn them together. Some day I will, really. I may even be brave enough to post pictures of them here. Would you like to see them? The fabrics are so hilarious - really, but not as funny as my color sense. After creating those blocks, I put them away for quite a while, as you know my current age. However, I was thoroughly intrigued by patchwork and graph paper, and somehow I always knew I would come back to it after college. In 1996, I began creating baby quilts for family members, and embarked upon a queen sized log cabin variation. The rest is history, and I was hooked. More quilting as a hobby and the gradual collecting of fabrics while working at a "Northwest Fabrics" store really got me going.