Suzy Williams

September 28, 2022

QSOS-211

Virtual interview

Laura Hopper (LH): Hello and welcome to this Quilters' Save Our Stories Oral History with Suzy Williams of Suzy Quilts. Suzy Williams is the founder of Suzy Quilts, a quilt pattern company known for its deep love for the heritage and tradition of quilting and a desire to craft unique contemporary textiles. Since the founding of Suzy Quilts in 2015, Suzy has published over 60 quilt patterns and over 400 blog tutorials and articles, growing a loyal and enthusiastic fan base along the way.

Suzy is an award-winning quilter, Bernina Expert Ambassador, Craftsy Instructor, and member of the Modern Quilt Guild who's been published in multiple books and magazines. She's worked in collaboration with large corporations such as Toyota and Crate & Kids, as well as quilt industry companies including Birch Fabrics, Windham Fabrics, Hoffman Fabrics, Cloud9 Fabrics, and Art Gallery Fabrics. Suzy lives near Chicago with her husband John and two young children, Desi and Joanna.

My name is Laura Hopper and I have had the pleasure of working alongside Suzy as the Creative Operations Manager for Suzy Quilts for the last year and a half. I'm also the co-president of the Quilt Alliance Board and today I'm thrilled to interview Suzy for our Quilters' Save Our Stories Oral History project. Today is Wednesday, September 28, 2022 and Suzy and I are both in our homes near Chicago.

Suzy, thank you so much for being here and sharing your story today.

Suzy Williams (SW): Laura, I didn't think, okay, so you told me you said, I want to get into some deep questions, I want to, you know, really know you as a quilter and I'm already tearing up with that intro. I read it before you said it and just hearing you say it.

LH: Good. That was really wonderful. Thank you, Laura.

Yeah, well thank you for being here. We couldn't be more excited. You've made big contributions to the quilt community and we're really thrilled to record your story today.

So let's start by talking about the touchstone quilt that you chose for today, which is a quilt that holds significant meaning, yeah, to you and your quilting journey. So tell me about this quilt and why you chose it.

SW: I, you know, in my, I guess, journey from being a kind of a wandering artist to finding textiles, I kind of feel like I've had these major pivots and I picked this quilt as a touchstone because it was kind of a pivot for me. I was in graphic design for a while, you know, we might talk about that later and, you know, I learned how to machine quilt finally when I was about 18 and I was so intrigued by hand quilting though and I learned that later in my mid-20s and I was really shy about it because I hate, I hate being bad at things and it actually can be a hindrance for me because I don't want to try new things because I don't want to be bad at them. But anyway, I just thought, okay, you might just be bad at this for a while and so I, you know, did all this research on how to hand quilt and I just dip my toe into it and in this quilt we can, you know, show a more detailed image of it but there's a ton of machine quilting and then just these little touches of hand quilting that kind of imitate the piecing that I did with the fabric and it turned out pretty good and I don't know, it was kind of like a moment because I was so worried during the creative process that I would fail and that has stopped me so much in the past when it comes to, I don't know, just so many different techniques.

I think sometimes I can be kind of a one-trick pony. It's like, well, yeah, I quilt because, you know, I got good at it and it's, you know, the thing that I just want to keep doing because I'm a little bit scared to not be good at something but I think, you know, it's something I'm working on. It's something that I think maybe we all feel a little bit and yeah.

LH: Yeah, I think a lot of quilters can really relate to that. I know I can. I have a lot of practice quilts that I don't show people for this reason.

SW: Yeah. In this community, I feel a lot of, you know, through the questions I get, I feel a lot of people worried about messing up and I, it's like if I could share one thing, it's that I feel that too. I feel like, am I bad at this?

Does this look bad? Am I, you know, am I an imposter? Oh my goodness.

When I learned the term imposter syndrome, I thought, oh, that's me. Oh, yeah, there's a term for that. I remember learning that it was a girl, I was in Switzerland because I was doing some filming for Bernina and if you've ever heard of Yaya Han, she is quite famous.

While I was walking around with her, she was getting spotted for being quite famous. She is famous in the cosplay world. Anyway, she just told me that she struggles with imposter syndrome and I thought, that's, that doesn't make any sense.

Like, you're factually amazing but then I kind of, I just thought about that and I've digested that ever since. I don't even know when that was, maybe 2018 that was and I just thought, how many times do all of us just feel like we're not, you know, as successful or we're not as creative or we're just, you know, not, we haven't arrived. It's like, oh, we're just trying.

It's like, no, we're trying and we're there, you know, and reminding myself that all the time is imperative to my creative journey.

LH: Yeah, I think that's important for all of us. It's a good reminder, Suzy. Can you tell us what the quilt is called behind you?

SW: Yeah, so I made this and it's called Mod Mountains. It's a simple name for a pretty simple quilt. Yeah, it imitates mountains.

It's really like a pared down graphic form of mountains and I think, you know, minimal graphic style really, as I feel right now, it's kind of the aesthetic that I've grown into because of my graphic design history, because of, you know, the aesthetics that I am drawn to. I think it's really, really exciting when you can piece a quilt that's very minimal and add layers of interest through stitching, through hand quilting, through fabric texture and, you know, it's that thing where from far away you see it, it smacks you in the face and you think, wow, and then every step you get closer to it, you see the dimension of it and you're drawn in. It's the story of quilting.

It's why we all love quilting, right?

LH: Now, the most memorable quilt to you was made before you had any graphic design training and it couldn't be here with us today because you don't have it anymore. It was the first quilt you ever made. Can you tell us about that quilt?

How is that different from the quilts that you make now too?

SW: Yeah, you asked, you asked me about my most memorable quilt and I, it's such a funny thing because I'm very much an in-the-moment quilter, so the quilt I'm working on right now is the most important quilt and, you know, you even once asked me, I think, what is a significant moment for you as a quilter? And I think, well, now this one, you and me talking and I, the more I try to dive into the past and I try to dissect the past, I think sometimes I either rewrite history or I put my, you know, my present over the past and I even just wonder, I don't know, what, like, is this even true? You know, the only thing I really know what is true is, like, what I'm doing right now.

Okay, so, right, that was a rail fence. My first quilt was a rail fence quilt and I was, I was 15 years old and I made it for my then boyfriend, Chris Brown. You know, actually, he's a musician right now.

He's, he's in Nashville. He's a producer and a writer and he goes by Topher Brown. So, I'm sure if here were to hear this, he'd prefer I used his professional name, Topher Brown. He's, he's very talented and he always was. He, you know, he was 16 and I was 15 and I made this rail fence quilt with, with fabric that had musical notes on it and it was gold embossed musical notes and I thought that was very fancy and, you know, he was, I thought he was kind of, you know, very, very cool. Anyway, it's funny because, like, that was very kind of trendy in the moment, this gold metallic and then it, now it's made a resurgence.

Now we're in 2022. So, that was, I don't know, over 20 years ago because that was 20, that was 2001 when I made my first quilt. Anyway, so in the process of making this quilt, I cut off my finger and I, I was, I, so at this point, I, I didn't have a sewing machine of my own and I just discovered one of my friend's mothers knew how to quilt and I was desperate to learn because I would sneak into her sewing room and I would see all of her fabrics and she had Bernina machines.

She had a few Bernina machines, machines. She was very fancy and she, and I just begged her, I said, will you please teach me to sew a little bit? Because no one in my family sews.

I don't have that, that wonderful, you know, generational sewing story. But she was kind of shocked, you know, like, what? Because I was 15 and she had four daughters and none of her daughters wanted to learn how to sew.

So, I became, you know, a surrogate daughter and I loved it. I love her. We still keep in touch.

Her name is Brenda Winklemeyer and, and I didn't have my own sewing machine. So, you know, I'd call her up on, on the landline because we didn't have cell phones. I'd call her up and, Brenda, I finished my homework.

Can I come sew? And I'd have to get a ride because I was only 15. So, my dad would, you know, come bring, give me a ride.

And, you know, I, anyway, so I'm, you know, so excited. I'm going to make this quilt for my boyfriend, you know, just really show him my everlasting love, which of course did end six months later. But we're still, we're still, we're still acquaintances.

But anyway, I was in a hurry because I showed up an hour early to her daughter, my best friend at the time, her 16th birthday party. I showed up an hour early because I wanted to do some sewing. And so, when you mix a 15-year-old who's not very good with the rotary cutter and speed, you get emergency room.

That is the equation. You just add it all up and it just equals emergency room. So, sadly, I did ruin her birthday party because I sliced off my finger and I'm in this back room, you know, all the kids are like, they start filing and they're hovering.

What happened? What happened? You know, there's like blood.

My finger, this is so gross. This has to be recorded though. My finger was on the table and boys, like these 16-year-old boys who are so gross because boys at 16, I mean, all 16-year-olds are just gross.

They're like picking up the finger. One of them like flew it, you know, like flicked it at somebody. I mean, it's so, it's just so gross when I think about it.

And they thought it was funny. And Kari, I mean, Kari is Kari Winklemeyer. She's Brenda's daughter.

I mean, she's so upset because I ruined her party. You know, she was turning 16. This was like a big milestone in her life and nobody cared.

Everyone just was flicking the finger around. I know. So what did you say?

LH: What a first quilt story.

SW: Right. So my first quilt was about perseverance because you would think after chopping off a finger, either my mom or Brenda or somebody, even myself would just say, maybe this isn't for you. You're obviously pretty bad at it.

And no one said that to me. And I never even thought it for a second. I just thought I got to get this finger healed up so I can get back to quilting.

And, you know, it was awesome. I got out of gym class for a couple weeks and really it was a blessing in disguise. The quilts I made Chris, well Topher, it was deep burgundies.

So my blood just, you know, totally matched. You can't even tell. I mean, it was meant to be.

It really was. So he kind of loved it that, you know, like my blood got on his quilt. Because again, he was a 16 year old boy.

He was kind of gross.

LH: That's very funny. So you gave the quilt to Topher. So you don't have it anymore.

I also love that you made this quilt at a time, you know, now you make a quilt, you're taking a picture of every single step. You're posting it online for so long and tutorials. But you made this quilt before we had cell phones, before we had cameras.

I love that story about it. Yeah.

SW: And I don't regret that at all. I don't regret at all that I don't have a picture of it. I think maybe I don't even remember it accurately.

And I kind of like that. It's fuzzy, you know, the image of it is fuzzy. And I think I remember all of my seams lining up.

And everything was pressed really well. And I'm sure it's just a really fantastic quilt. I'm sure, you know, everything about it was very, very well done.

LH: Those are all of our first quilts. So after you had that first experience with quilting, it sounds like you really persevered through it. Like you said, like you were dedicated to getting back.

Was there ever a time when you waned in quilting when you didn't quilt as much? Or has this stayed a constant, important part of your life since then?

SW: I would say there was definitely a time because I learned that at 15, I quilted all the time in high school. It was just my favorite thing. On the weekends, I would get really giddy.

I would think, oh, I'm going to put in a VHS. Because I'd go to the rental store. I'd rent my movies.

I'd put in the VHS. And I would just binge. I would just sew and binge my VHSs.

And I would only get maybe two because I have to rent with my own money. And I didn't have very much money. So I just watched over and over and over.

And probably, I mean, I just rented really the same movies. I'm sure they knew me. They're like, there's the girl.

I watched Bridget Jones Diary. I feel like that should maybe be put in the vault. How much I loved that movie.

And I still love it. It's a great film. Anyway, and I would just sew all the time.

And then I got to college. And I actually, in college, I thought, well, I went to college for a fiber arts degree. Because I just knew the only thing I care about is sewing.

So I have to do this for, I don't know, a degree. I didn't really think about a whole job thing. The job thing didn't really cross my mind.

Anyway, I got stuck with a random roommate. I don't, I won't say stuck. I got divinely placed with a random roommate who asked me, you know, for the first time ever, she really sat me down.

She was very pragmatic. She said, Suzie, what are you going to do? What kind of job are you going to get?

Are you going to make money? Are you going to pay off your loans? And I was just like, oh, my gosh.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, money. Right.

I need that. I need a job. And so she, you know, she was just like, you need a five-year plan.

You need to get this sorted. And I mean, I am so glad she said that because my parents and Brenda and these really, you know, encouraging adults in my life just loved my creativity. And they were just like pouring lots of water and encouragement on it.

And that's so wonderful. You know, and I think it really was exactly the order of things that was good for me of this like fertile soil where I had this. Also, I had this amazing art teacher in high school who I didn't even know.

I was in, I was a band kid and I just randomly had a free period. And so I jumped into an art class and she just saw something in me and she pulled it out and she gave me so much confidence. I, you know, I think it is so scary to take an art class for the first time because there's blank canvases everywhere.

And you just think, I don't know how to fill those. I don't have anything inside me. And it took this high school teacher to pull it out of me.

And she got it and gave me, you know, all the tools I needed. So I had that going into college. And then, you know, I had this this roommate who was just like, you need it.

You need a plan, girl. So, you know, I ended up getting a graphic design degree, which I felt like was the perfect mix of getting a plan, but also taking that, you know, that artistic view I wanted to share. And with that, I was able to, you know, graduate and get a job.

I mean, unfortunately, you know, I did graduate in 08. If anyone remembers 2008, that was, you know, kind of when the economy just went. So the job I got was, you know, a cubicle job, I had to commute a far distance, but I was grateful for it, you know, because you got to pay rent, right.

But it was during that time when I was driving far distances working in a cubicle. I definitely dipped in how much quilting I did. You know, I was living in Chicago, I had a bunch of roommates, we were just having a ton of fun.

And I did set up a sewing space in my apartment. But, you know, solo cups were stacked on my sewing machine, you know, it was not like the, you know, the quiet haven, I think I probably needed to really dive into a quilt, because quilts take time. Also, quilts get big.

So, you know, if you have all these roommates and roommates, you know, boyfriends and whatever walking through, it was like, my quilt blocks were just getting stepped on, you know, and anyway, but after I after I got married at 25, I nested, and I had space, you know, that all to myself. And that's kind of when I got I got back into it, I had a little card table that would rattle. You know, so it's so new rattle.

And I had to go I had to do half speed. Otherwise, my machine would just rattle off the table. Because we had this little teeny studio apartment, john and I, my husband.

And, you know, there wasn't space for anything. So it's really sweet thinking how he just let me just spread out. I mean, I just took up I had stuff on the bed on the couch, you know, the card table, I even would lay out quilts for basting on our, our one little kitchen island.

You know, everything just had fabric. And it really sucked when we got bed bugs. That was that that was also a dip in my clothes.

Yeah, our condo had a bed bug epidemic. It was real bad. That's a city living though, right?

City living.

LH: It is. You went from this little studio apartment, you started Suzy Quilts in 2015. First as a way for you to sell finished quilts that you made.

But it really quickly transformed into one of the most successful quilt pattern companies in the country. So tell us about how Suzy Quilts started. How did it grow?

And how did you get to where you are today?

SW: Oh, my gosh, Laura. Well, I love that you said that. I mean, we're not fact checking that.

But I do love that you said that. Well, okay, so I had I was talking about shifts. Okay, so this quilt behind me that that was a shift.

Another big shift was this idea that you have to market your art. And this was it shouldn't have been a totally new idea for me, because I was in the world of graphic design. And I was in the world of marketing.

But I was kind of of this idea that I'm going to make a quilt. And if it's pretty enough, if it's good enough, people will buy it, people will flock to it. Actually, I will I will get some I don't know, maybe notoriety, just on my skills as a quilter alone.

Okay, I really, I really hoped that in my heart. Okay, I had one of my best friends at the time, Perrin, I call him poet Perrin, because we were in college together. And he is a poet.

He's a beautiful poet. He randomly also needed a job. And he started working for this company that optimized websites.

Okay, this concept, not only was it foreign to me, I was actually quite resistant to it, it felt very inauthentic. I thought my art needs to stand alone. If I'm, you know, you know, like doing search engine optimization, if I'm, I don't know, in my head, I thought gaming the system.

It's not it takes away from the art. Okay, so I was very staunch. I was like, Perrin, you're, you're kind of a sellout here, buddy.

You know, you're like, you're you're a poet, but like, what's happening here? This is where the show happened. I came out with my second quilt pattern.

You can't even get it anymore. It's the revised version is called modern fans. But at the time, it was called propeller.

Okay. And the whole key to this pattern was a video was might have been even been my first YouTube video ever. Okay, so there's a video in the pattern.

It was, you know, I was very excited about this, like whole concept of a hyper link. Okay. And I put the YouTube out there, I put the pattern out there, I don't know, maybe five people bought the pattern.

Okay. Nobody wanted this pattern. And I was so sad.

I just thought I'm not good at this. And then Perrin said, let me just toss that YouTube link up on Reddit. And I didn't really know about Reddit.

I still don't really know about Reddit. And he was like, let's you know, let's see what happens in a day, it got 2000 views. And I was like, I didn't change anything about the pattern.

I didn't change the YouTube video. I didn't change anything. It was literally just where you put things to get eyeballs.

It's like if you just think about marketing as I just you, your eyeballs weren't seeing it. And I'm just going to put it in front of you. And now your eyeballs see it.

It's like take it or leave it, you know, and the more eyeballs that see it, you know, the I don't know, it's like, it just it didn't occur to me. So I wasn't being inauthentic. I wasn't gaming the system, none of that.

So he's the one who really taught me how to write blog posts to get eyeballs, is what I'll just say. So this idea of search engine optimization. You know, with quilts, it was like, they don't have to oppose each other.

They're not enemies. They actually are really compatible. Because if nobody sees what you're doing, I mean, then you know, they can't access it.

It's not it's not because you're bad at it. And I you know, that's that's actually hearing myself say this. It's like, I still need to remember that.

Because, Laura, I mean, so much of Suzy Quilts as a business started because of social media, and really specifically, Instagram. And you know, that was 2016. Instagram was very different than it is now in 2022.

And I feel like an old dog that's having a hard time learning new tricks now. And a lot of it is because the things I'm doing are not getting those, those eyeballs. And, you know, it's like reminding myself, that doesn't mean what I'm doing is bad, right?

It's like we've come full circle here. It's just, you know, yeah, trying to roll with the times.

LH: Rapidly changing.

SW: Yeah.

LH: Yeah. Okay. So you built Suzy Quilts, built this business that keeps growing now.

And in 2019, you had your first child, Desi. And then in 2021, Joanna was born. So how did having children change your perspective as a quilt business owner?

And did becoming a mom change your thoughts and feelings about the meaning of quilts?

SW: Oh, my goodness. Well, I mean, technically, I became a dog mom in 2011, which is really funny now, because I really thought that that was going to help me in my journey as a mom to humans. The overlap is there is quite small.

Humans need more than dogs. Unfortunately. So yeah, I had Desi.

Well, prior to having Desi, I did have, I had a miscarriage. And, you know, you asked me, what is a quilt that is very significant to you? And I think, you know, I was, I was going back and, you know, in time thinking, well, it could be this quilt, it could, you know, I was going through all these different milestones in my life, where quilts were always there.

And I but I still do think, you know, it's, it's whatever I'm working on now is still the most significant, but there are these little, like, you call them touchstone quilts. And I worked on a quilt, I ended up turning it into a pattern, it's called reflections. And it has just thousands and thousands of hand stitches.

And so at this time in my life, I'd had no kids. And I had a miscarriage. And I just I, you know, maybe everybody's like this, but I'm only in my own head, I can just be such a warrior.

And I just I go down the worst case scenario in this vain attempt to prepare myself for the worst case scenario. And I just I thought, okay, Suzy, you're never going to be a mom. Like you had a miscarriage, and this is it for you.

You have your dog, you have your quilt, just stitch a million stitches into this quilt. While you reflect on that, you know, like while you accept that. And, you know, a year and a half later, I did have my first kid.

But it was like, I started off making this quilt, fighting this reality. You're not going to become a mom. Throughout the course of making this quilt.

I accepted that I wasn't going to be a mom, which really, I mean, the saddest part about this whole thing is just what I was thinking, because I wasn't really basing it in reality. And then I did, I did have a child, and I ended up making him a ton of quilts, made him lots and lots of quilts. But I still I look at that quilt, and I look at all of those, all of those stitches.

And I, I cannot separate the sadness in that quilt. And this very, you know, like, deep, I don't know, accepting that this is, this is your lot. It's never going to get better.

I don't know. I don't know why I felt like that was my truth. But you know, you can't, that's what it was in that moment.

So I can't even say that that quilt helped me. It didn't help me, you know, feel better. It was just there while I was feeling that.

And it was what I was working on.

LH: What does it feel like to see people make their own interpretations of that quilt reflection, since it's a pattern now?

SW: I've seen a lot of people make that under similar situations, actually. And I've seen people make that for their loved ones who are going through hard times. And, you know, even, you know, one woman, I remember she made it for her friend who was going through chemotherapy.

And I don't know, I think maybe it should make me feel good. But I think honestly, it just makes me feel sad, because I remember the deep sadness. And I hate that other people are feeling that deep sadness.

And it's, you know, it's that connection. And there's that's just the human condition. It's what we all feel it, you know, we all experience it.

And I think I see someone make that pattern. And, you know, because they're also going through a hard time. And I, it just makes me sad.

I'm sorry, they're going through a hard time.

LH: Maybe they're getting some relief from making the pattern, though.

SW: Maybe, maybe. Yeah, yeah, I think there is there is something to be said for feeling like you can channel your emotions into a physical element, you know, release it, get it out. Maybe even make something beautiful in the process.

There's a redemption in that. I Yeah, going back to me in that moment, I didn't feel redemption. I even wrote I wrote something about it.

And I said, I think I'm supposed to feel better now. But I don't. And sometimes that's just how it goes.

I feel better. I mean, I'm not in that place. Now.

I can really quickly jump back into that place. You could probably hear it in my voice. But I mean, now I have two kids, I have a three and a half year old, a one and a half year old.

And oh, my goodness, they make up a lot of time.

LH: That changed things for you and running a business having to be you know, a mom, especially during the pandemic when we all know parents, you know, we're stretched much more thin than usual.

SW: Yeah. Oh, gosh, Laura, I don't I don't know how. I mean, honestly, my youngest, my one and a half year old, she just started daycare two weeks ago.

And it was just two weeks ago. But I still look back and I think, how did you do all of that? I mean, I was with her all the time.

You know, I was watching her. She was home with me. You know, with Desi, like his his daycare was getting shut down constantly.

So I would just, you know, I would have both kids. Really? I mean, you, Laura, you in so many ways, you kept the wheels on the wagon, just turning.

And, you know, also, this quilt community that just exists. But also, I do feel like we've created this acceptance, this outlet, a lot of people in this community, we're going through the exact same thing. And I think for us to hide it and act like we we have it all together, you know, we are these mommy robots, and we are perfect.

And you know, like, you should be quilting every day. And you should be, you know, feeding your kids vegetables every day, you know, I don't know, I think they liked seeing the mess. And, you know, I think they definitely saw the mess.

I think anytime I would get on social media, and they would see me or they would hear me talk about it. You know, a year actually, a year after I had my first, I had insomnia, intense insomnia, I would sleep sometimes two to zero hours a night. And it was, I think, just because I felt like I have this momentum with this business, I got to keep the momentum going.

Okay, now I got a kid, but that's okay. I'll just strap them to my back. And I got to keep on going.

You know, and that's not how it works. You know, with kids, they're, they're like, Nope, stop everything. Stop everything.

I'm here, I've arrived. I am what you're working on now, you know, and everything you're working on that's in the backpack. And that it took me a solid year to wrap my head around that.

And I didn't sleep. I just didn't sleep. And I think that gave me so much.

I learned how to meditate, I discovered meditation, I discovered yoga, it taught me that, you know, it's, it's just okay to lose momentum. It's okay to pause. It's okay to have seasons of slowness.

And I just saw it as failure. And I, and I think going back to even just this, this quilt, how scared I was to fail. And I don't know where this fear of failure comes from.

But I see it threaded throughout my journey here. And I, I'm excited because I think it's getting better. And I think it takes these it takes having a baby, you know, having a miscarriage, having a baby having insomnia, it literally takes me just getting kicked back, you know, lat on my on my back to realize it's okay to fail.

LH: So I think I'm going to try and get in two more questions for you. Here's the first one. Your kids are so important in your life.

And they have taught you so much to like you just said to us, if you could say anything, that's a little snapshot right now to Desi and Joanna at this moment in your life. What would you tell them? What would you want them to hear if they listen to this when they're grown ups?

SW: I would tell them that. Oh my goodness, how am I supposed to say this without crying? Maybe I just make it lighthearted so I don't sob my way through it.

LH: You say what you need to say.

SW: I would tell them that they're my most beautiful creation and they always will be beautiful.

LH: Yeah. All right. Last question.

Why do you think quilts matter?

SW: Well, this is something you and I have talked about. Why do I think quilts matter? And I think I asked myself, do they?

Do quilts matter? And that comes back to sewing in the moment. I'm when it comes to my quilts, I mean, people are always saying, where do you what do you do with all your quilts?

To tell you the truth, I don't really care. I give them away. I donate them.

I mean, they get thrown around my house. My kids spill on them. And I'm totally fine with that because really the most important quilts I'm working on is the one I'm working on.

And do quilts matter? I think quilts matter because not only is it an outpouring of the moment of the creativity, I mean, but also it's something you can share and something that is form meets function. But I think something I hold very, very as a like a deep pillar of truth is not to take it too seriously.

You know, when I look at the pivots in my life, it's all people. It's people that were the catalyst of different things. And it's just quilts that is the outpouring of those relationships with people.

LH: That's really beautiful. It's a wonderful way to end to I want to say thank you on behalf of the Quilt Alliance for recording this oral history with us today for our Quilters' Save Our Stories project.

SW: Thank you, Laura.