The Early Years

Ann grew up in Northwestern Ohio in an area called German Township which has a farming-focused economy. Couple that with a small, church-centered town and it's not surprising that quilt making and other hand-work are so prevalent.

As a child, Ann was surrounded by quilt making but her involvement with it was very limited. She never designed or pieced any of her own works although she did do a bit of sewing on clothes and occasionally quilted alongside her mom in sewing circles. She had 4-H projects in sewing and also entered a number of sewing contests at The Lion Store (Toledo OH) with very good results, so the seed was laid.

Not long after moving from Ohio to California in 1983, she decided to get more in touch with her heritage and took a class on quilt making. She entered her piece from that class in the Santa Clara County Fair, winning a blue ribbon and the rest, as they say, is history.

Ann's early works were focused on detail and precision precise seams and corners, clean edges, parallel lines. She began with everything being horizontal or vertical, but then started to branch out into diagonal lines. Another class, this one on color, started to influence her use of gradations of color intensity and alternating dark-to-light patterns.

After she did her first quilt, there was quite a gap before more came out. This is because for her second piece, she chose to do a double bed quilt. She pieced it by machine but quilted it by hand so it took her quite a while. In between working on it, she maintained her music career in high gear, composing, arranging and performing on a regular basis with several musical groups.

Then in the late 1980's, she decided to spend more time on quilt making and scaled back on her music. Most of the result is what you see here.


		The Early Years Ann grew up in Northwestern Ohio in an area called German Township which has a farming-focused economy. Couple that with a small, church-centered town and it's not surprising that quilt making and other hand-work are so prevalent. As a child, Ann was surrounded by quilt making but her involvement with it was very limited. She never designed or pieced any of her own works although she did do a bit of sewing on clothes and occasionally quilted alongside her mom in sewing circles. She had 4-H projects in sewing and also entered a number of sewing contests at The Lion Store (Toledo OH) with very good results, so the seed was laid. Not long after moving from Ohio to California in 1983, she decided to get more in touch with her heritage and took a class on quilt making. She entered her piece from that class in the Santa Clara County Fair, winning a blue ribbon and the rest, as they say, is history. Ann's early works were focused on detail and precision precise seams and corners, clean edges, parallel lines. She began with everything being horizontal or vertical, but then started to branch out into diagonal lines. Another class, this one on color, started to influence her use of gradations of color intensity and alternating dark-to-light patterns. After she did her first quilt, there was quite a gap before more came out. This is because for her second piece, she chose to do a double bed quilt. She pieced it by machine but quilted it by hand so it took her quite a while. In between working on it, she maintained her music career in high gear, composing, arranging and performing on a regular basis with several musical groups. Then in the late 1980's, she decided to spend more time on quilt making and scaled back on her music. Most of the result is what you see here.
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