Ann L. Petersen describes herself as an "obsessive quilter". She is also a talented and prolific quilter. At the August 9th meeting, she treated EVQG members to a showing of many of her quilts, including several award winners. It was a stunning display of artistic talent and workmanship. Enjoy these photos of her quilts and read a brief bio below.
Ann learned to sew as a child by her mother and grandmother. Neither one was a quilter, but her father's mother was and she loved to watch her beautiful quilts come alive. She was gone before she took advantage of her knowledge, so she turned to the local Parks and Recreation department for classes. This was in the early 1970's and she didn't love the templates and fabrics so completely ignored traditional patchwork. In the mid-1980's when Eleanor Burns, Nancy Zieman and Kaye Woods began to appear on PBS and enticed her back to the quilting world.
By the early 1990's, quilting was her main focus. She took a job working at a local quilt store in Denver, Great American Quilt Factory. It was one of the early stores in the quilting world, and the owners, Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith, also published Possibilities books and Dreamspinners patterns. The constant exposure to so many talented quilters (co-workers and customers and suppliers) only further fueled her obsessive interest. In 2002, she decided to enter her local guild's quilt show, The Arapahoe County Quilter's Festival of Quilts. She made a pattern from a book by Trudie Hughes called Shadow of the Bear. It won the Best of Show award and she could not have been any more surprised!
In 2011, Great American Quilt Factory went out of business and she found herself retired and sewing full time on the things she loved. She now quilts mostly for shows. Friends and relatives have more quilts than they probably actually want and her house is well padded with quilts of all sizes. By making quilts for shows she can test her skills and try to keep improving. Her latest adventure is teaching on-line for Craftsy.com. You may also go to her Facebook site and follow her quilting life there: Username: www.facebook.com/ObsessiveQuilterAnnLPetersen.
