In the beginning was the Mom. The mom made the children simple quilts to call their own. She saw that this was good so she did it again. She made a quilt for her mom and the mom cried tears of joy. She thought that she could do it again so she did again, and again, and again. She surprised even herself with her ideas and drawings. With no classes in art or quilting, Claire has been developing both as an artist and a quilter by designing the images for the appliqué in her quilts and fiber art. My name is Claire Winder and I made my first quilted wall hanging April 28, 1999 for my mother for her birthday. I have since finished a 5ft. by 7ft. wall hanging that took nine months to complete and four other wall hangings medium and small in size. Visit my virtual gallery to see my work. I have a work in progress named Genesis that I hope to finish sometime in 2002. The most exciting thing about what I do is to think of something that I have never seen done by anyone else, like the three grass on the Dog block of Barnwood, The dog block on Barnwood or some of the 3-D effects on Robin’s 3D Pop-Up Quilt. I am using genuine fresh water pearls The coral on Genesis and 14 ct. gold beads on the Genesis Quilt. I have far exceeded the expectations of those that I have quilted for. Whether or not I ever get big as an artist or quilter, as long as I am melting hearts I will love what I do. I have started with using parts of quilt patterns and have migrated to designing my own images as I have learned that I can. My goal is now to design and develop all the art myself. I still have a lot to learn about what I can do. Time is a commodity that I wish I had more of. I hope that someday I could quilt and create fiber art full-time. My mom would tell me not to say, “I hope”, and to “Just do it.” She will when she reads this so I had just better “Do it” now.

Creating with Heart,
Claire Winder