Froncie Quinn of New London, New Hampshire
I learned quilting by default almost 50 years ago! I was bored and lonely as a new, young elementary school teacher in a town where I knew no one. I walked into a quilt store one day and was amazed at how just pieces of fabric could create such stupendous quilts. That quilt store was Schoolhouse House Quilt Shoppe and the owners were Bob and Judie Rothermel. She was my first quilt teacher when we all worked by hand using templates. The templates were metal and precisely made. LONG story short, I ended up buying the Roy Daniel Template business and began my own business called Hoopla.
Various moves from Ohio to New York to Vermont and now New Hampshire have provided me with quite a collection of quilt experiences. Not only have I vended at quilt shows all over the country, but also teach hand quilting workshops and have an array of lectures I have created.
Upon moving to Vermont, I approached the Shelburne Museum about writing patterns for their quilts and, to my surprise, they took me up on it! As a result, I was given the opportunity to be the pattern writer of Enduring Grace, Quilts from the Shelburne Museum Collection. I also had the fun of being on Alex Andersons’ HGTV show, Simply Quilts, as a result. That launched my career in an entirely different direction. I gave up the template portion of the business and now work entirely with various museums writing historic quilt patterns. I am your eyes to quilts you may never see and work diligently to bring as accurate a reproduction of the quilt as I can. I include a great deal of historical research for each pattern. My mission is that of education as much as giving instructions on making the quilt. My current project is creating the pattern for The Major Ringgold Quilt from the Shelburne Museum.
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Jen Daly of Grantham, New Hampshire
Jen Daly is a quilt designer, author, and Etsy shop owner from Grantham, New Hampshire. A lifelong sewist and lover of textiles, Jen started quilting in 2003. Her first quilt design was published in Quilters Newsletter in 2011 and since then, Jen’s designs have been featured in magazines, calendars, and the Moda Bake Shop. Jen’s first book Stitching for the Seasons (C&T Publishing) was released in 2019. More recently, she has contributed designs to the Martingale/Moda Bake Shop books: Best of Moda Bake Shop (2020), Moda Bake Shop: Did Someone Say Cake? (2022), and Moda Bake Shop: Rollin’ Along (2022).
Colleen O’Neill
Colleen O’Neill, of Cornish, NH. Colleen has been a quilter since 1985, when her first niece and goddaughter was born. She has been sewing since age 7 when her mother allowed her to use the family Singer sewing machine.
She owned her own long-arm quilting business, the Cornish Quilt Studio, from 2001-2006.
She was a board member of the Vermont Quilt Festival from 2011-2015. She was a past president of the Northern Lights Quilt Guild in Lebanon, NH, the NH State Quilters Association, and the Green Mountain Quilters. She is currently a member of the Northern Lights Quilt Guild and the Cornish Quilters. She is also co-chair of the Cornish Fair Quilt Dept.
Colleen loves to sew and enjoys teaching quilt classes. She celebrates all quilters and reminds us all to sign and date our quilts.
