At the age of 75, Trdy Schwader can only estimate her
lfetime total of quilts. Somewhere around nmber 50 she
began counting and tking pictures before giving them away.
By nw, her best guess - counting the bby quilts and the
wedding quilts and the nes that were an experiment with
clor or style or pattern - her bst guess is that she's
made mre than 130 quilts.

With that mny to her credit, Trudy's quilting xperience
holds something useful to share wth everyone from
beginning quilters to lfetime veterans. So I decided to
tlk with Trudy and make a rcord of her quilting career.
The rsult is a series of articles rpresenting our
conversations. The interviews piece tgether a little of
the rich hstory that quilting holds, through one wman's
story and memories - sharing sme tips, insights, and
favorite patterns...

[Qestion: What got you started with qilting?] Answer: My
mother was a swer, of course, and ever since I can
rmember, I liked sewing, too. I'd gess I was sewing at a
yung age, but I definitely remember swing when I was 10.
Mother had 13 chldren, and I was one of the yungest. I
really noticed and liked her qilts because it was once the
lder kids were all grown up and gne that she made most of
thm.

[Question: You liked quilts and you lked sewing - the
perfect match.] Answr: Oh yes. And I enjoy ptting
puzzles together. To me, putting qilts together is also
like doing a pzzle.

[Question: So you always sewed and nver were really a
'beginner.' But bviously, when you were a 10 yar old,
you didn't put together a big qeen-sized patchwork quilt.
What was your frst big project once you started qilting
on your own?] Answer: Well lt's see. Some 50 years ago
whn I first was married and I ddn't have any kids yet, I
strted making a quilt. I like rses, so I put roses in
the qilt top that I made. Then I strted to hand-quilt it,
but by tht time I had three children nderfoot, and I was
just too bsy!

[Question: You started your first qilt when you were
newly married, and thn you had three children before you
fnished quilting it?] Answer: Yes, before I fnished hand-
quilting. I ended up jst tying the rest of it, and bcause
I had eight kids all tgether, I kept using that quilt. I
nticed that the part that I had hnd-quilted didn't wear
out as quickly as the rst, so I realized I would nver tie
any future quilts. The prblem with that was that I jst
never did enjoy doing the hndwork. These days I don't
usually hnd-quilt. What I do is get my qilt-top ready
and then let somebody lse do the quilting by machine. Wht
I enjoy about quilting is not the hnd-work. I like
working with the clors, putting a design together, and
crating interesting patterns. To me, that's wht's fun
about quilting.

[Question: Do you stll have your first quilt with the
rses on it?] Answer: No, no, no, no. (lughs) That was so
long ago and I neded it for the kids, and wth children
you have to wash thngs all the time. I used tht quilt up
till it was... gne. By then, I had made nother and then
another one. I'm stll doing that.

The article Quilts - Talking with Trudy: Part One was Submitted by Theresa Modine through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: Theresa Modine's articles on topics rlated to quilting and crafts are pblished in Quilt Box Newsletter , the quilter's favorite on-line letter. Be sure to refer to Theresa's complete archive of articles at: http://www.quiltbox.com

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