About Me

About Me:
My name is Kris and I live in S.E. Nebraska.  I have been surrounded by quilting all my life. My mother was an avid quilter starting when she was around 16 until she died in the fall of 2012 at the age of 93.  I started out sewing blocks together by hand, embroidering blocks and making doll clothes.  I made my first clothing items for myself around the age of 8-9.  I love to sew clothing still but in the last few years I have devoted most of my sewing time to piecing and now machine quilting quilts on my home sewing machine.

My mother's first piecing of a full sized quilt:

 She finally put this on the frame and quilted it in the mid to late 1980's.

 I am the lucky owner of this quilt now and this photo is from an ongoing project I am doing, trying to document all of my mother's work. I am on the Left and in the small photo frame is a picture of my mother when she was 16.

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When I was between 16-17 years old I made my first large quilt. I started looking for solid scraps in my Mother's stash. I made a cardboard template and drew around and cut out each individual piece with a scissors for my Amish Trip Around the World:

This quilt my mother finished and quilted by hand when I went off to college. I did use it and many of the pieces now are shattered and showing much wear but I still have it and cherish it. 

I was given a sewing machine for my high school graduation and I took it off to my dorm room with me and made numerous clothing items including my own wedding dress. 

Here is a picture of the quilt my mother made for us on our wedding: 

Poufy 80's hair ...I know. :)  It is hard to see my dress (and huge shoulder pads) but it was heavily beaded.  The "Wedding Dove" quilt was featured in our local newspaper at home for winning at the County Fair. 

Shortly after our wedding I started dabbling more and more in quilt making. 

Here is my quilt from a locally taught Quilt in a Day class. 

I don't know what possessed me in the color and (no) value choices but there you have it. It was hand quilted by my Mother in 1995. 

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I have a BA degree in Speech Pathology and Communications Disorders. I worked at a local rehabilitation hospital for about 5 years. I worked with mostly elderly stroke clients and head injury patients. This was very stressful for me and so I indulged in working part time at a local fabric store. I continued to do this off and on for over 15 years. I have gotten sidelined from working outside my home because of chronic back issues. I got my Mother interested in quilting quilts I made for Project Linus over the years. She since has made several 100 quilts on her own for this project. 

One of my first Debbie Mum quilts: "Black Sheep of the family". My mom went on to hand quilt this and several others from the Debbie Mum books. I was supposed to donate them but I just couldn't part with them. Now I am glad that I still have them. 

I like all forms of quilting and appreciate all the workmanship that goes into each project. I was looking online and finding so many lovely quilt projects I started to feel I wanted to be part of the modern quilt world. That is my current journey. 

When my mother first was hospitalized in spring of 2012 and we didn't think she would recover I was devastated.  She did recover somewhat and I was able to show her things I was learning. When she died, I didn't think I could go on even sewing. One day while reading a quilty blog I just knew I had to keep going.  I hope she is proud of what I am doing. 

The Blog Begins:

"Sew Sunshine" was born because I wanted to dedicate my sewing adventure to my Mom. She loved the song "You are my Sunshine" and I felt this was a very fitting tribute. 

My husband is a huge supporter to my love of sewing. For my birthday in 2012 he took me to Grand Island, Ne to Material Girls quilt shop. (I had never been in a quilt shop outside of Lincoln NE. since I left to go to college). He bought me fabric for one entire quilt and a Kaffe Fassett quilt kit and I hope to finish both of these yet this year.....and so, so many more projects waiting in the wings.  

This is us on a cruise to Alaska that my husband was given for years of service at his work.

Can you say cheese?

Some of my mini's:

1.  Regatta 2. Quilt guild BOM 3. Nature's Pirouette 4. What's you sign challenge

5. My Sunshine 6. Japan project Cornerstone block 7. Reverberate 8. You are a seed

9. Sequence Patone challenge 10. Japan project Dogwood 11. Rift 12. Japan Project Coral

Update:  I am not a certified instructor for Sew Kind of Wonderful Quick Curve Ruler 2022. I am ready to teach some curves!!