Quilts are made of beautiful fabrics and colours as well as interesting designs, all of which Romance the Eye of the viewer.  However, following the Second World War when manufactured blankets became affordable and readily available to the general public, people lost interest in the making of quilts.  All except farm women who kept the tradition alive.  And then in the late nineteen-sixties when the hippie movement espoused `going back to the land and making things by hand` handicrafts and  quilting experienced a strong revival of interest which has grown into massive proportions today.  Quilts which resided on family beds as coverlets now adorn the walls as works of art.   Quilts and quiltmaking have given meaning to many quilters lives in so many different ways.   It is true, quilts are a labour of love in the making of them.

In 1972, when I had been making quilts for twelve years, I suddenly found myself widowed one morning and left with the care and financial responsibility of two very young children.  I did not make a quilt for two years after that.  But then, one day, I noticed an ad in the newspaper, a Community College on the opposite side of Toronto to where I lived, was offering quiltmaking classes.  I spoke with the teacher of the class who allowed me to audit her class for one session.  I knew after that I also could teach others how to make quilts as I had attended Teacher`s College some years previous and was familiar with how to set up a course in teaching quilting.  I approached Humber College, in my end of the city and suggested they carry a quilting course in their extended education department.  After submitting an outline for my proposed course, they agreed to carry it for two semesters and my classes were enthusiastically filled up to overflowing. Following that I was able to bring my classes into my home studio where I taught for the next nine years.  Looking back, had my husband not died, I would never have had the need to financially support my children on my own.  Quilts and quiltmaking made this all possible.  And with the help of my Humber College students I was able to form the second quilt guild in Canada, the Etobicoke Quilters Guild in 1975.  In 1977, with the support of my guild, I conceived of and co-convened the first Canadian Quilt Conference which was held at York University and which included teachers and lecturers from the United States and Canada.  It was hugely successful.  Quilters came from all over North America to attend the conference.

Quilts and quiltmaking have offered me opportunities I would otherwise not have had.  It has sustained me through some very difficult periods in my life such as in loosing my husband to a very serious accident and in recovering from his death.  It was his mother, Maude Small, who first introduced me to quiltmaking in the first place and she also encouraged me to take oil painting lessons, which helped me understand colour in the future making of my quilts.  In my early forties, quilts unexpectedly took me into the Ontario College of Art to study colour and design.  It was a privilege to have been a part-time mature student for six years at the College where I learned so much and which stimulated my creativity in creating original designs for quilts.

Quilts are my life.  My designwork has now led me to creating quilts that tell a story, which I call my `statement`quilts.  In this, because of my own experience with Intimate Partner Violence, I am now using my quilts to try and bring awareness to this very serious and often tragic proglem in society today.  In my advocacy work towards Violence Against Women, I have added pages to my quilt website now which offers information on this painful issue in addition to my quilts that visually tell the story of how Intimate Partner Violence feels to victims of abuse.  It is my hope that through these pages, those who are experiencing Intimate Partner Violence or those who are recovering from it, may be helped by not only the visual illustrations of my quilt designs but in the information offered here.