My love affair with patchwork started when I was very young and played with the scraps left over from my mother’s sewing. She made most of our clothes and many of the soft furnishings in our home as well. When my legs were long enough to reach the sewing machine pedal I began to use the machine to sew these scraps together.

It was not until my children had all left home, many, many years later that I returned to patchwork.

For a couple of years I browsed magazines and learned different skills and techniques to make traditional quilts but I had a yearning to make picture quilts…. I wanted to make picture quilts that did not have ‘hard’ lines and I envisaged quilts made with small pieces of fabric used like ‘chunks’ of oil paint. These small pieces would then meld together and produce new colours….. just like paint.

In 1992 I made a rainforest quilt and used my confetti technique for the forest floor. I achieved the effect I was trying for and I was off and running. There was nothing comparable being done at the time so I coined the term ‘confetti piecing’ for the technique.

I also make a lot of beaded bags and jewellery and spend a lot of time on my second passion... crazy patch. This genre goes hand in hand with old lace, beads and buttons, which I love to collect. I have made a DVD showing the basics of crazy patch. You could call it 'Crazy Patch Made Easy'!

I enjoy tutoring and have taught many workshops over the years showing participants confetti piecing, crazy patch and silk ribbon embroidery.

They say a busy woman is a happy woman. I am a very happy woman!!!

Cheers,

Ruth