Cynthia Schwartz
Karen McCarty grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska. One day a friend said, “There’s a new quilt store in town. Let’s go take a class.” Karen commented, “I was ready to learn more. And viola, no more cardboard templates!” This class jump started Karen on her 40-year quilting journey. For the first 20 years, Karen mostly hand quilted. Her approach to quilting changed when a speaker at her quilting guild explained that her hand-quilted pieces did not appraise as high as machine quilted creations. Karen commented, “So I fully embraced this new technique.” She continued her quilting journey on the machine.
Karen’s interest in travel and photography became a major influence as she began sewing landscape quilts. She would take photos thinking that they might make a nice quilt. Her art and landscape quilts are wall hangings, including “a doorway in the ruins in Ephesus, Turkey, and a park in Buenos Aires, Argentina.” Karen’s quilts have been displayed in quilt shows, including the Houston International Quilt Show, Arizona Quilt Guild Show, and The Road to California, where she won a First Place award.
Most recently, Karen’s focus is Appli-piecing, an easy way to make curves and sharp points. Since joining the PebbleCreek Quilters Club in 2022, Karen taught an Appli-piecing class and will teach Happy Hexes in February. We thank Karen for sharing her experience and teaching new techniques to our club members.
Carole Schumacher was raised a Mennonite preachers’ daughter. Carole’s Mom held quilting bees at the parsonage where all the church ladies gathered around a quilt frame and hand-quilted friendship quilts. Carole learned to sew at an early age and made all her clothing out of necessity. “Mom was born Amish and instilled the ‘waste not, want not’ theory into everything we did. Mom and her sisters made their dresses out of feed sacks and I felt lucky that I got regular fabric to make mine instead of relying on flour deliveries to pick out the prettiest feed sacks.”
Carole moved to PebbleCreek in 2016, joined the PebbleCreek Quilters Club, and quickly learned new skills, the long arm, machine-quilting, organized quilt retreats, and sewed charity quilts. She taught Quilting 101, Scrappy Bags, rugs, and binding classes. Carole commented, “What now? Sustainable quilts are popping up around the world as a new concept—using fabrics and things from days past and never letting anything go to waste. I never throw away any fabric that is more than 2 inches square.” She has cut up her husband Ken’s Jerry Garcia ties, Chico’s clothing, and other fabrics from days gone by. She is wondering what her next “sustainable” quilt project will be. On a recent RV trip, Carole made a scrappy bucket hat that was auctioned off for $600 at the International Newmar RV Rally in Sedalia, Mo. The proceeds were donated to the local Salvation Army. Thank you, Carole!