Stephanie Franke
Quilting has been a part of my entire life. My mother inherited ten quilts made by my maternal great grandmother, along with stories about the neighborhood bees she hosted and the long ago attendees. I learned to love to sew at a very young age while making hexie’s with my paternal grandmother for a grandmother’s garden quilt and watching my mom make quilts. I continued to learn in school, sewing multiple machine projects in home economics, I loved using the machine so much, my mom introduced me to hers at home. I expanded my abilities by learning embroidery, hand stitching, and cross stitch. I didn’t start combining all of it together to make a quilt until I saw my first quilt book, which was an Amish sampler. It was my first quilt, completely hand sewn!
Over the next twenty six years, I married a wonderful man and had four children to whom I passed my knowledge while making them quilts, clothes, pillows and even stuffed animals. One thing about being a military wife you tend to volunteer. I made over 600 quilts and pillowcases for Operation Kid Comfort and a quilt to raffle for the Andrews Air Force Base police week. I also have a mother who made a great partner in crime. She loves quilting, and we have enjoyed traveling all over taking many diverse classes and learning new techniques. I have grown to love traditional quilting with a modern splash of newer fabrics and colors.
I have had many wonderful opportunities over the last 5 years to teach classes in inking, hand quilting, trapunto, boutis, sashiko, appliqué by hand and machine, machine embroidery, kids sewing and beginning quilting. This led to an opportunity as a Thread Educator for Wonderfil threads. Additionally, I have worked as the newsletter coordinator for the Baltimore Appliqué Society and currently serve as the President of The Old Dominion Appliqué Society. I enjoy designing my own patterns and in the past year I opened my own online quilt shop, Firework Quilts N More to facilitate the amazing world of quilting and crafts for my fellow sewers.
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