In the summer of 1984, I found the San Francisco Quilt Guild in a booth at a needlearts fair at the Cow Palace. And ever since I have had the third Tuesday of every month on my calendar.

Quilters are special people. I have spent eighteen years meeting with these people at five different locations. Good friendships have been made! Some friends are now sadly gone but new friends continually join and take their place. Together we have learned from speakers and their workshops, shared in our show and tells, created friendship blocks for each other and made outreach gifts at so many Quiltathons. We have worked together to show off our work at Quilt Shows, made opportunity quilts, competed together in quilt challenges and even ate and showered together at Quiltaways.

The Guild has given me so many opportunities to share my talents and hone my skills. I have attended many years of board meetings, holding many different jobs including Membership. Then there were all of those Quilt Show and Quiltaway committee meetings. My favorite years were as the NCQC [Northern California Quilt Council] Representative, networking with many other guilds. I also won the honor of designing two quilt show pins: with love and friendship, 1988 and Memories, 1990. Then I designed the logo for Quiltaway 1991. Teaching at two Quiltaways was great. And there have been a few show ribbons along the way.

I have always sewn. Fabric and sewing have always been a part of my life. I learned to sew on my grandmother's Singer treadle machine. I started with clothes for my dolls and then made them for myself. My graduation gift from Junior College was my own Singer machine. I clothed two children on that machine including their 1970's patchwork fashions. By the time that the quilting revival had begun, I had saved up for my own Bernina. Twenty years later it is still sewing my quilts. I have other creative outlets including oil painting but I love fabric. I have designed, woven, printed, painted and sold textiles. My sewing machine remains open every day for that moment of sewing.

My production of quilts has slowed in the last few years as I now have a real job. For several years I volunteered in the library of the American Quilt Study Group while they were located in San Francisco. My other volunteer job in Special Collections/Library of the California Academy of Sciences turned into a job. I get to work with great visual images, photographs, slides, digital images and clip art every day. In my sewing my varied and eclectic tastes still dominate my work. I love the handwork of applique but today I approach my work with a sort of painterly expressionist rotary cutter, cutting without templates. I also have added three-dimensional details as 'flaps', buttons zippers plus irregular edges. I also like taking on creative 'challenges', working within restrictions. I haven't hand quilted in years, so I have many tops waiting for that next step. Today I have a sideline that I call 'I Do Stuff', where I help people finish their quilting projects from doing bindings to putting together friendship or school quilts for non-sewers.

Thank you SFQG for all the good sewing friendships.