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Nora Creeach
Fifteen years ago she designed and they built their dream retirement home, a log cabin, in East Texas in the resort area of Lake Tawakoni. They've since retired and are enjoying country life. Nora's been a crafter as long as she can remember. In her family it was considered an insult to purchase gifts. The feeling prevailed that if you didn't care enough to make something for someone you shouldn't bother with a gift at all. She was raised in Canada where she was taught by French Nuns. Because of the harsh winters they had a lot of indoor activities which included learning many of the different crafts and needlework. Knitting, crochet and tatting never "took" with her. It seemed the more she tried the more nervous it made her and the tighter her work became until she could no longer insert the needle to make the next stitch. Conversely, embroidery was something that relaxed her and she loved it from the very beginning. Silk Ribbon Embroidery is Nora's own personal love. She's taught "in person" classes in the past and now teaches at Crafty College (www.craftycollege.com). Nora invites you to join the fun and learn Silk Ribbon Embroidery. It can be a very useful and lucrative addition to your crafting portfolio. ReturnRissa Peace Root
Although she works full time at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, she devotes most of her off work hours to practicing and promoting needle arts locally as well as on the Internet. In 2002, she began Mississippi NeedleArts, a non-profit educational organization, and got it chartered as the first chapter of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America in her state. She now serves as President, Membership Chairman and Newsletter Editor. She is always looking for new members and educational opportunities for her group. ReturnJenny ClarkJenny is a founding member of the CQMagOnline.com staff. She retired from the federal government after years in management, training, education, research, economic development, and interactive videodisc design and development. Over the years, she and her husband have renovated seven houses with the last one being a cabin on the fifth largest lake in Florida. The home had to be completely gutted and re-built but they ended up with a four bedroom house with a large living room overlooking this 16,000 acre lake. In addition to full time work and all the many chores of renovation, she has always found time for sewing, crazy quilting, needlework in many forms, painting, and many other crafts. Upon her retirement and even with another renovation to complete, she began to focus more and more on crazy quilting and all the types of embellishment that accompany this quilting art form. With a love for all things Victorian and with her home filled with remnants of family memorabilia, she feels that crazy quilting became a natural part of her life's path forward. She loves all aspects of sewing, embroidery, crazy quilting, beading, tatting, and now machine embroidery and machine quilting. She enjoys working with the magazine staff and seeing the magazine grow into a useful and important resource in the lives of so many crazy quilters. ReturnRita Ellison Goff
After 30 years in Texas, she returned to her native state West Virginia. Once home, she took a class in quilting, and quickly learned that she loved piecing but dearly hated the repetitiveness of 'sane' quilting. On a fateful day in 1995, a fellow nurse brought a Crazy Quilt her Grandmother had made, all velvets with the most exquisite embroidery work. Rita fell in love immediately and began looking for any information on CQ that she could find. Using a borrowed copy of Penny McMorris's book and a purchased Victorian Patchwork & Quilting by Arlene Deltore and Beverly Maxvill, she got out her rusty embroidery needles and began twelve 15-inch square blocks. At the same time, she purchased a computer and joined several online CQ groups. Through them, she participated in many round robins and learned so much seeing the work of others and reading the accompanying journals. Along with learning this multi-faceted art form, she branched out and taught herself needle tatting, re-learned crocheting, learned Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery (BDE) via the internet, and began the accumulation of her vast stash. Throughout it all she found that she prefers to do all hand stitching. While attending two Crazy Quilt Conferences in Omaha, Rita took classes with Betty Pillsbury, Judith Baker Montano, Nancy Eha, and Valeri Bennett, learning Crazy Quilt, beading and dyeing. At the Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery Seminar in Washington, she learned more about BDE. She's also taken several internet classes. Rita began teaching Crazy Quilting and Embellishing two years ago, and this year she added teaching BDE to her repertoire. ReturnNancy Combs
Nancy's has been doing some type of needlework since she was six years old. She's sewn everything from wedding gowns to cheer leaders outfits and "sane" quilting, and has tried almost every kind of needlework known. She's taught cross stitch and "sane" quilting, and is currently very slowly bringing some of her Quilt Guild members into CQ. About 20 months ago Nancy tried CQ and Silk Ribbon Embroidery together. She entered the results in the QA Calendar contest for 2002 and to her astonishment it was chosen for the December Page! ReturnJean BowmanJean is a founding member of the CQMagOnline.com staff and she's been stitching over fifty years, ever since helping her mother make a grandmother's Flower Garden quilt when she was seven years old. Her mother also taught her basic and crewel embroidery soon afterward. She received her first sewing machine, a little hand-crank Singer, when she was about 9 years old. She quickly graduated to her mother's sewing machine and starting sewing clothing for her family when she was about 12 years old. Silk Ribbon embroidery is her favorite needlework but Jean is fascinated by them all and dabbles with tatting, Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery, and fabric and ribbon dyeing. Crazy quilting, her newest delight, has the wonder of being a showcase for all of these. Jean is from Hilltop Lakes, Texas and is proud to be an 8th generation Texan. She's been married to the same wonderful man for almost 47 years, and they have three children and six grandchildren. None of them stitch, but they've always made her very proud that she does. ReturnDean Deerfield
I worked as a med tech in lab and x-ray for years, but quit when my children started being a part of my life. I had 5 children, two boys, and three girls. God blessed me with my children. When I did go back to work part time, it was in a pre-school where my children attended. I found I loved working with the children and little by little I got very involved and finally opened my own day care center. I did that for 40 years and loved every minute of it. I went back to school and got my child development degree and taught part time for a community college here in the area. My middle daughter and I went to college together and that was fun. It took us 7 years to get out degrees. I still do child development workshops, and teach a class occasionally. I enjoy keeping my finger in the pot. As most of you, I have always crafted in some way even as a child. I have done many things and loved them all, but the crazy quilting is the love of my life. I know it is because it is so free and creative and I can "do my own thing". I am a beadier, on fabric that is. Friends tell me I don't embellish, I encrust. On some of the pieces I have done that is true, but not always. I like to get a background quilted, and then embellish it will appliqué, beads, unusual threads and yarns, and just whatever it takes to "paint" the picture I want. I work with thread like I worked with paint. I have taken pictures of pets, or children and worked the background with threads and silk ribbon to recreate a dimensional background. I put my art quilts together much like I do my CQ's, the shapes of the pieces are different. I also work with clay, and my love for that is almost as great as my CQing. My ability to be creative and help from God, got me through some very hard times in my life. It is great medicine for stress. I have so many things started. I am working hard trying to get them finished. I have been working on a quilt I hope to have accepted into the International Quilt Festival in Houston. I am almost three years into that project and I am going to make an all out effort to get it finished this year. I teach SRE, Embellishing, CQing, Needle Books, (first one thing and then another) in the adult continuing education program at the college. First I prayed God would let me live to see my children grown, then to see them educated, and now I am praying He will let me finish my sewing projects. God is good, keep your fingers crossed. ReturnStephanie NovatskiStephanie joined the CQMagOnline.com staff in December 2003. She has been stitching in one form or another since she was 5, starting with printed cross-stitch tea towels. She loves doing needlework in all forms, including knitting, crocheting, counted thread, crewel, and needlepoint. Her first love has been counted thread using all embroidery stitches and combining it with hardanger, pulled and drawn thread and silk ribbon embroidery. About 1 & 1/2 yrs ago, she bought an embroidery sewing machine and started experimenting with quilts. She found them too confining and moved on to Crazy quilts so she could use all the stitches as well as work in embroidered motifs. Stephanie found she enjoyed combining the machine embroidery and hand embellishements--the more the better! She loves the freedom to use so many different fabrics and fibers. She says she has not finished experimenting yet and looks at each piece as a learning journey. She tries to incorporate new techniques as often as possible. Next she WILL conquer Tatting! If you would like to see more of her work, please visit her site: http://mywebpage.netscape.com/snovatski ReturnPat Winter
"I live in Indiana near the Dunes. I just celebrated 21 wonderful
years of marriage and have a terrific 18 year old son. I can't forget to
mention my long haired Chihuahua, Angel, the baby. Twelve years ago, shortly after moving into our 130 year old Victorian farmhouse, I discovered Judith Baker Montano . She was holding a class in St. Joe MI. I bought her first book, and now I collected them all. I am so inspired by her creations and her history. I must give her credit for my ongoing CQ interest . Decorating, beading, SRE, gardening, and crazy quilting are my favorite hobbies. I enjoy making useful items with crazy quilting such as purses, eyeglass cases, neck pouches, and covering journals. A crazy quilt covered footstool was my first project. I sell items galleries in CA, and MI, and at my local bead shop. I also take orders from those who have liked my things and want to purchase a unique gift. Recently I submitted a cloth book with CQ to the Quilting Arts "Alterior Motives" challenge. When I hosted a pouch swap I was delighted with the response. The pouches were a hit and they are quite simple to make. I am thrilled that so many are enjoying them. I believe that you must toss the rule book aside when crazy quilting. Don't take it too seriously and have fun. I am my worst critic but am learning to take my own advice. I know if I am not happy with a projects outcome, I can improve on the next one. My main goal now is to complete a family photo quilt in memory of my beloved father. I always have a dozen projects in the works because happy hands make happy hearts" ReturnAlanna Heaton
Alanna has always done sewing and embroidery for as long as she can remember. She's also always loved color and lamented the fact that she could neither paint nor draw. Then along came quilting. Then a few years after that, she discovered CQ. Now she can play with all her "stuff" at once!! ReturnPam Porter
Pam hails from the coast of Virginia, where she lives with her husband of 20 years, her no-longer-a-teenager daughter, and two furry, barking family members. ReturnKimber Pekora
ReturnMartha Green
ReturnBarbara Smith
Then I met Nancy Combs. She opened up the wonderful world of crazy quilting to me. The first project I finished was a ring pillow for my youngest daughter's wedding. It turned out perfect. You see there are no mistakes in CQ - just new ideas. Return
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Nora is a founding member of the
CQMagOnline.com staff and is the current Editor.
She's been married to the same man for 35 years and they have 2 sons. Her sons have
made Nora and her husband grandparents nine times and great-grandparents four times.
Rissa has been actively stitching for all of her adult life and has
mastered a wide variety of beading, embroidery and quilting techniques.
Although she only discovered silk ribbon embroidery and crazy quilting in
the late 90’s, it has become one of her passionate interests. She has a
large personal web site devoted to silk ribbon and other forms of
embroidery. Through her contacts on the Internet, she was able to meet
other people with similar interests in her own state, as well as across
the globe
Rita Ellison Goff, a founding member of the CQMagOnline.com staff and a retired
registered nurse, lives on a 15 acre mini farm in West Virginia. 
Nancy is a founding member of
CQMagOnline.com. She's been married to her husband for 53 years, and they have five
children and six grandchildren. She's retired from the West Virginia University
Extension.
I live in Midland, Texas. I moved here three years ago from a much smaller
town near-by. I had lived in Fort Stockton over 50 years. My four children
were all grown and gone, I had retired a year before I moved, and it was
time to move on with my life as well.
Pat Winter also joined the
CQMagOnline.com staff in December 2003. 
Alanna
says she's a 50-something old hippie broad and has been happily married
for 15 years. The only children she has are 3 fur kids (kitties) and a DH
(yes, he counts as a kid!!). She's lived in over a dozen states and
traveled through 49 of them. Somewhere along the line she missed Minnesota
(oops). All this traveling has let her see so much beauty and so many
unusual things, her brain is almost overflowing with images she want to
transfer to fabric somehow.
Pam Porter, a software analyst/project manager and retired Air Force member,
has been doing various forms of needlework since she was a child. She started
crazy quilting in early 2002, and says she immediately became convinced she's
found her passion. Along with soaking up every bit of learning about CQ that
she can, she helped launch the original CQ Mag by doing web design for the site.
Kimber
(werkimberjoe), an experienced crazy quilter and a founding member of the
CQMagOnline.com staff, has returned to after a short hiatus. She's
from New Jersey, where she's a non-practicing cosmetologist and runs a
boating business with her husband. She has been addictively doing crazy
quilting the past year and a half now. Other needlecrafts that she enjoys
are counted cross stitch, sane quilting, silk ribbon embroidery,
crocheting, and she does a bit of tatting. She's willing to try any craft
and among her favorites is playing with Play- Doh and coloring with her
twin boys.
Martha Green is a professional artist with over 30 years of graphic arts
and teaching experience. She has a B. F. A. from the University of
Oklahoma and has done graduate work in Fine Art, Education and Human
Relations. She was an Oklahoma State Artist-in-Residence for 14 years
and has participated in over 150 gallery shows and art festivals. She is
most recognized as a fiber artist and has developed the "Carny Roadside
School of Crazy Quilting." She was on the faculty of the 2001 and 2002
National Crazy Quilt Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. In 2002 and 2003 she
was invited to teach at the European Crazy Quilt Conference in La
Bourboule, France. She has been crazy quilting for over 30 years. She
has been a featured artist on the Caron Threads web site. She was a
winner in the 2002 Quilting Arts Magazine calendar contest and has a
quilt block represented in the calendar publication. Her work will soon
be featured in Magic Patch Magazine, which is a French publication.
Lives in Muskegon, Michigan close to Lake Michigan and married to high
school sweetheart, Charlie, for 42 years. We have 3 grown children and 3
grandchildren. "Cheap and Gaudy" describes my style in life and decorating. I
have always embellished, whether cooking or sewing. Embellishment is a way
of life and has led to my new passion - Crazy Quilting.