About the Quilter

My quilting journey began in the early 1970s simply as a means of putting left over scraps of dressmaking fabric to good use. I did not intend to become a quilter. Those early quilts were just a random assembly of squares and rectangles without much thought to pattern or colour. They weren't much of a challenge nor very pretty.

As I became more skilled in the technical processes, I began to pay attention to the work of published quilters and was fascinated by the beautiful designs that could arise from a more judicious slicing and dicing of the fabric. Over the years, I have explored most of the quilting genres that have been popularized in books and magazines. My journey has taken me from simple pinwheels cut out with cardboard templates to watercolour quilts, bargellos, landscape quilts and modern abstracts.

More recently, I have expanded to fashion accessories, home decor, and special-purpose quilts for children (pay mats) and the elderly (fidgit quilts and walker buddies), and of course, cat toys!

Every quilt is its own journey. An image or scene from everyday life will spark an idea that will develop gradually, perhaps over weeks, months or sometimes years! Even when the quilt is in process, the idea will continue to evolve and change direction: layout changed, fabrics swapped, borders added or eliminated. I never really know how a quilt will turn out until it is done! But the journey still fascinates!

Deborah Brooks, Homestead Quilts