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Member Artist

The quild members have selected Mark Palmer as our Featured Member Artist for the 2024 show.  

Mark's Quilting Journey:

After I retired, I purchased a sewing machine so I could do some simple repairs. Never having sewed before I looked around for a sewing class. The first class I found was a log cabin table runner. That was nice so I looked for a second class and, knowing nothing, signed up for a Judy Niemeyer wall hanging called “Tumbleweeds.” Oh boy! I remember I was so new I asked if I was using my rotary cutter correctly. In fact, I was too cheap to buy a cutting mat so I tried using a piece of plywood. That worked for exactly one cut.

My third quilt was a mystery quilt potluck. I think the other ladies in the class thought I was nuts. I picked out the required quantity of fabric, the flashiest colors I could find, not having a clue what I was doing. When done it turned out to be the ugliest quilt ever made. By a small miracle I sold it to a nearly blind woman who just wanted something colorful. It was that!

Within 9 months I traded my machine in for a sewing/embroidery machine and I was on my way. I was advised to keep the original machine but I couldn’t justify two machines. Silly me, in just a few months I went back and bought the same machine again so I could sew and do embroidery at the same time.

I tried renting a longarm to quilt some of my quilts and was very unhappy with the results and didn’t like having to quilt with a forced time constraint. I also didn’t like the idea of having someone else finish my works of art. I knew in order to do the kind of quality work I wanted I would have to take a leap and buy my own longarm, so I did. I am a one-stop-shop for sewing and quilting.

I love sewing. I don’t understand all these people trying to tell you how to speed it up and make it go faster. I want to slow it down and enjoy it. My absolute favorite thing is machine embroidery, and especially machine applique. And don’t forget it’s what’s inside the quilt that you can’t see that keeps you warm at night.