Handmade with care, one stitch at a time.
Lectures • Classes • Custom Designs • Quilt Patterns
About Me
Hi, I'm Cheryl E Taylor.
A retirement-years quilter who believes quilting should be fun, the journey matters more than the finish line, and there's no such thing as the "quilt police" — or a dumb question.
My Story
From 'what's a rotary cutter' to passionate creator.
My first attempt at quilting started with a class at my daughter's high school, cheerfully titled “Make a Quilt in a Day”. I knew nothing about choosing fabrics, using the latest tools, or really anything at all. That first quilt- queen-sized- took me three years to finish, and I quilted it on my mother's 1951 Featherweight sewing machine. I had no idea what I had gotten myself into and made many first-time quilter mistakes!
About twenty-five years later, I joined a sewing club in my community. My youngest daughter asked me to make her a quilt from her high school and college T-shirts, and I said, “Sure, why not.” Luckily, I didn't know what I didn't know when I started. Somewhere in the middle of that project, I realized that making quilts for family, friends, and charities is what I wanted — and needed — to do in my retirement years. Creating quilts and unique creations is my passion!
The Studio
One dedicated room, one dining room table, and three very involved cats.
My sewing “studio” is a combination of a dedicated room stocked with more fabric than I'll probably use in a lifetime — plus rulers of every sort and size, thread spools on the wall and in boxes and in bags, and patterns for all kinds of projects, not just quilts — and my dining room table, where my large-throat sewing machine does most of its magic.
Home base is here, but I also keep a portable setup that travels wherever needed — for teaching, for creating, and for community sewing.
Creating at home has its challenges, of course. All three of our cats love to grab the thread while my machine is running, and cat paws get pushed off the needle plate more often than I'd like to admit. But their faces peering through the open sewing space throw me into bolts of laughter. They bring smiles and joy to my life — unauthorized enrichment activities and all.
My feline helpers: upper right - Natasha; lower left - Mama; lower right - Boris, unauthorized playing with sewing bobbins.
Why I teach
Teaching is my reward.
There's a moment in every class — usually somewhere between confusion and "oh!" — when a student's eyes light up because the project that looked complex turns into an easy-to-understand process. Watching someone move from fear or intimidation to a real, new skill is what tells me I've done my job well. That moment is the whole reason I set up the chairs.
Quilting should be fun.
It's about the journey, not the finish line. If you're not enjoying the process, there's almost always another way to do it.
What I believe about the work.
No quilt police.
There are no restrictions here. However you want to make it — scrappy, precise, wild, or wonky — is exactly right.
My philosophy
A welcoming community.
Quilters speak a common language across the world. Every question is a good one, and every maker belongs.