Cherry
Knoll Quilt Restoration
My journey as a quilter/restorer began over 30 years ago, when my mother gave me this "Hexagon Snowflake" quilt, made by her mother. With no real quilting experience to guide me, I attempted to clone it, in case it should be lost or destroyed. When my attempt ran into real trouble, my mother urged me to study how my grandmother had constructed the piece. She emphasized the geometry of the process, the slow building up of one shape to create another shape, and so on. With that brief lesson, I was hooked, and immediately enrolled in a quilting class. I have never stopped quilting.
But how did quilting lead to quilt restoration? As the stack of my own quilts grew, I began to study the history of quilting and fabric, and to collect antique quilts. Independent research and classes at the Vermont Quilt Festival provided more education on dating fabrics and making reproduction quilts. And then in 1994 a co-worker asked me to restore his grandmother's quilt. I was hooked again.
Knowing the history of the quilting art and loving to mend, taking someone's cherished but damaged textile memory and returning it to them "whole" again -- it all fit. Commissions from other co-workers and friends of friends began to arrive, including a quilt with 36,704 pieces. Volunteer work at the Shelburne Museum on their wonderful quilt collection, and attending conferences of the Quilt Heritage Foundation in Omaha, have all broadened my experience with antique quilts. In 2002, I retired from my regular job, launching more fully into the business of "giving people back their history".