Stories inspire your work regularly. Can you explain that process?

I like telling stories and including people I love in most of my quilts. I found an old grandmother's flower garden quilt top in my grandmother's things after she died. I took that quilt and where it was coming apart down the middle, I released the stitches and added a light blue panel. Then I appliqued down a grandmother, cats, flowers, a tree with a birds nest and baby birds, a house and path and kids running through the garden catching butterflies and grasshoppers. It is one of my favorite quilts in my new book Quilted Memories/Celebrations of Life (C&T publishing). It has my grandmother's name stitched in and the name of the town in Canada she lived in. I have many memory quilts in the new book and I enjoyed adding old pieces of quilts and orphan blocks to the tops.

I also made a quilt a year ago for my son and his wife when they got married. I put a bride and a groom on a large wedding cake on a great scalloped cake platter. The name of the bride and groom, the church, and the date are all included as a piece of history that will last as long as the quilt lasts. These are the kind of thing that I hope to keep doing as if I was doing a quilted journal or diary.

Buttons and embellishments are also a big part of my quilt recipes.My new saying is "clean out your drawers and closets before your family gives those treasures to the rummage sale."