The first quilter I knew was my grandmother. She and my grandfather had lake cottages in Northern Wisconsin. The antique brass and wooden beds were covered with my grandmother’s quilts. I spent every summer there swimming and fishing in the lake, warming by a fire, eating my grandmother’s wonderful German food, and snuggling down under those quilts.Their property was named “Timber Haven” That’s why I have chosen the name “Quilt Haven Threads” for my blog.
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| Grandmother’s Basket Quilt |
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| Wedding Ring Quilt given to my mother |
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| My Baby Quilt |
When I got married I thought I needed to make a quilt for our queen-sized waterbed. I bought a kit, signed up for a “beginning” quilting class and proceeded to make a queen-sized, Dresden plate quilt, hand quilted of course. After that I settled down to making a few baby quilts.
In 2002 after moving to Tallahassee, I took a few quilting classes and I was hooked. Quilting since then has become a passion.
I love traditional quilts, but enjoy the modern twist of using Kaffe Fassett, Brandon Mobley, and Amy Butler fabrics as well. Hand quilting turned into machine quilting and in 2012 I bought a Prodigy longarm quilting machine. Now I quilt the way I feel best suits my quilt.
I’ve been teaching quilting clasees in Tallahassee at +The Bernina Connection since 2004. I teach Beginning Quilting, Free Motion Machine Quilting, Paper Piecing and my new love quilts using +Studio 180 Design tools.
In August of this year (2013) I became a Certified Studio 180 Design instructor. I am trained to teach all the Fundamental and Rapid Fire tools. These tools by Deb Tucker are a tremendous help to improve your quilting skills.
Gail Renna 