I have been quilting since 1986 and teaching since 1987. That's right, I started teaching one year after I made my first quilt. I live in the beautiful Comox Valley on Vancouver Island and in 1986 there were no quilt teachers here. After I had made half a dozen quilts I became the local 'expert' and reluctantly agreed to teach my first class. I was terrified. But, my students were enthusiastic and wanted more, so I added another class to the beginner class I'd taught, and it has just kept on growing.

After teaching locally (by that I mean all over British Columbia) for about 10 years I was invited to teach at my first major quilting conference – Quilt Canada in Vancouver, BC. Since then I have been on the faculty of three other Quilt Canada conferences, in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Ottawa. For those of you outside of Canada, this is our major biennial conference which attracts hundreds of students and thousands of visitors to the city it is held in.

It has been my pleasure to have taught as far north as Yellowknife, and as far south as Mississippi – I don’t think you can count Mexico when the actual class took place on a cruise ship off shore. Quilt groups from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island have also been kind enough to invite me to teach for them. My travels in the United States have taken me to all regions (including Hawaii) and I have loved every minute of it. Well, maybe not the airport stuff – but you know what I mean.

My first teaching trip ‘off the continent’ was to the Cabot Conferences in Bristol, England, and the Lake District. I enjoyed that trip immensely and also the follow-up trip the next year which took me to quilt shops and guilds in many parts of England, as well as Scotland and Wales. In September of 2008 I will have the pleasure of teaching in South Africa and I can tell you that if anybody back in the 80s had suggested this would happen I would have just laughed at them. I am truly blessed.

With the publication of my first book, Reversible Quilts: Two at a Time, in 2002 the floodgates opened and I was invited to participate (or applied to, and was accepted) in many major conferences. Quilting-by-the Lake in 2002 and 2004, International Quilt Festival in Chicago in 2003, and 2004, and in Houston in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007, World Quilt & Textile Conference in 2002, and 2007, Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara, CA, in 2003 and 2004, the Pan Pacific Show in Hawaii in 2004, the Minnesota Quilters Conference in 2005 and more.

I also had the good fortune to appear on Alex Anderson's Simply Quilts program. Sadly, it has never been aired in Canada but I have seen it while visiting in the US. The show was filmed before I decided that if I was going to continue this pace I would have to be in better shape so I enrolled in a weight loss program and joined our local gym. Over the course of a year I lost 50 pounds and feel much better – unfortunately, the Simply Quilts program was ‘before’ the weight loss and I can’t bear to watch it. (Vanity, I know!!!)

My friends won’t allow me to call teaching on a cruise ‘work’ – and I have to agree with them. Having the opportunity to spend a week cruising (from San Diego to Mexico in November 2004), from Miami to the Bahamas (in March 2005) and Seattle to Alaska (in July 2007) with enthusiastic quilters is such a delight and I am looking forward to cruising to the Panama Canal in February of 2009. Now if I could just figure to a way to not gain weight while cruising. It is soooo hard to be disciplined when they offer 10 desserts at every meal – and you can have them ALL if you want.

2004 was certainly a good year for magazine articles as well. I had articles by me or about me in three issues of British Patchwork & Quilting (June, July & December 2004 issues), Patchwork Tsushin (Japan) December 2004, as well as a Quiltmaker article in July 2003, and Quilter’s Newsletter in July 2005.

After the overwhelming acceptance of my first book, Reversible Quilts (which has been reprinted 10 times !!), I decided that there should be a sequel. More Reversible Quilts was published in October of 2004 and was followed by Sensational Sashiko: Japanese Appliqué and Quilting by Machine in October 2005. In April of 2007 “Color for the Terrified Quilter: Plain Talk, Simple Lessons” which I wrote with my good friend Ionne McCauley was released by Martingale & Co. and two months later it was reprinted. We are delighted.

Coming soon to a quilt shop near you – my fifth book – Machine Appliqué for the Terrified Quilter will be out in the spring of 2008 and I am hoping that those of you who might be a bit less than confident about machine appliqué will give it a go.

I cannot provide a list of awards and prizes won as I don’t enter competitions. My focus is on teaching and my energies are spent working on ways to make quilting easier for students.

I enjoy teaching – no, I love teaching – and I feel very strongly that students learn more in a relaxed atmosphere. My classes are full of fun – and information – but the emphasis is on making what we do enjoyable. After all, it is supposed to be fun.

If you are interested in any of my classes I would be happy to provide references and any further information you might need.

© 2001 - 2008 SharonQuilts.com