In the Beginning

patI learned to sew in 7th Grade Home Economics after all of our family’s worldly goods went up in a warehouse fire after returning from diplomatic duty in London.
I received my first sewing machine that Christmas and have been sewing clothing, home dec, and quilts ever since. I taught Home Economics at the junior-senior high school level for 17 years before a career change to the elementary library.

I discovered how wonderfully extensive the world of quilting was in 1993 and began joining guilds and taking quilting classes. My husband suggested I needed a summer job when our older daughter entered college, so I became RI’s first longarm quilter, developing my longarming skills in the evening while continuing to work as an elementary school librarian during the day.

My Inspiration

I find inspiration for quilting designs everywhere, in architectural elements, a historic wrought iron gate, or a new line of fabrics. I translate these inspirations into quilting designs, which I use on my own, and customer quilts. I also enjoy collecting and studying antique quilts and strongly believe in the quilting designs being coordinated to the quilt, whether by historical period, mood, formality, or ethnicity.

I enjoy all aspects of quilting but have a special love of trapunto wholecloths. I believe that wholecloths are truly a unique work of art for a longarmer to create. They display our skill at design, trapunto and dense quilting.

What I am Doing Now

I enjoy presenting three PowerPoint lectures I’ve created to quilt guilds on the subjects of Longarm Quilting, Quilting Design and the Judging Process. I also relish teaching quilt workshops to quilt guild members. My new passion is designing quilts for myself and the fabric company Quilting Treasures on EQ6.

I am also enjoying my new grandaughter, Sophie Grace,
born March 2, 2010.

sophie

 
Patricia M. Harrison, B.S., M.S., M.L.I.S.
59 Reuben Brown Lane
Exeter, Rhode Island
(401)667-0214
oceanwavesqc@verizon.net