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Maria Elkins |
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I have loved fabric and thread from the time I was very young and my mother let me play with her bag of fabric scraps. My mom taught me to embroider when I was 5 and I learned to use her sewing machine when I was 9. I was sewing most of my own clothes by junior high and high school. I can't remember when I was first introduced to quilts. No one in my family quilted, but when I was in high school I collected all my blue and white fabric scraps, cut them into squares, and created a patchwork fabric which I used to make a blouse with a white mandarin collar. I loved that blouse and I wore it regularly.
In college I majored in fiber arts and spent hours absorbing every quilt, fiber art, and historical clothing book I could find. I made my first quilt in 1984. It was a 45'' x 60'' lion baby quilt in turquoise and lavender. I continued reading quilt books and collecting fabric, but I didn't make another quilt again until 1991. That quilt was a feathered star with hand appliqué and hand quilting. I have made numerous quilts since then. The quilts I make now are usually original designs, although I still mostly design quilts in my mind and collect fabric for my dreams. Visit Maria's website to see more of her work at www.mariaelkins.com/biography.asp |