Look who was sitting at my table at guild yesterday morning. It's Mary Fons!
Mary did a presentation in the morning and showed us this quilt. It is made with fabrics she would buy a dress in. It's really interesting how it all goes together. Don't most of us limit our closet to a few colors mostly; and don't they all go together? Also it's a statement that she has her own style; she doesn't wear her mom's pants.
This is the quilt we worked on in class. Interesting that while monochromatic neutral, she threw a couple ice blues in the mix.
Mary is a great teacher. At 35 years old, she is from the generation that never had home ec. Even threading a sewing machine is new to most her age. And she's from the tech generation, so she knows how to reach new young quilters with YouTube, etc. and starts with the basics. Mary just started quilting 7 years ago. Her background is in free-lance writing. Good communication skills are sure paying off for her in the quilting world too.
Being young, she has tons of energy and told our guild to 'use her' as we had paid for her to come for the day. So we did! After a full morning with us, then a quick lunch with us, teaching all afternoon, we scheduled a catered dinner in the evening with another slide show and talk by Mary.
I had Mary sign my copy of the first edition of her magazine, Quilty, as well as her new book, Make + Love Quilts.
It's so refreshing to see young quilters reaching other young quilters. I'd hate to see quilting die out or even lull.
Also interesting to those of us in her mom's generation to hear about how it was to grow up in the Fons and Porter umbrella.
It was a very fun, but very exhausting day!
