To say Shirley Thiessen is a quilter would be an understatement.
“The addiction is broad,” jokes her husband Elmer Thiessen, as Shirley gives the Tribune a tour of some of her quilts on display in and around her home on Anderson Road.
Colourful, intricate patterns of various designs in the theme of summertime hang on walls in the hallway, rec room and entryway of her beautiful, well-appointed home. Soon though, these 20-or-so quilts will be lovingly stored away in exchange for another 20-or-so fall-themed quilts of different sizes and shapes. A few months after, of course, the Christmas-themed quilts will come out.
“She’s always changing them,” adds Elmer.
After just coming home from some summer holidays, the mother of six, and grandmother of 19, is scrambling to complete several quilting projects she has on-the-go to submit in time for judging at the Williams Lake Harvest Fair. She has entered a quilt in each of the 20 categories available.
“I have a lot of work to do,” Shirley says as she walks into her quilting room.
Featuring four sliding panels in front of multiple shelves stacked with fabric in every colour imaginable, the room is a quilter’s dream and one created by her son Brad, a builder. Several finished quilts are pinned up, while others are draped over chairs and tables in various stages of completion. All are beautiful.
Shirley says she “dabbled in sewing” when she was in high school, but really discovered her passion for quilting when she was a stay-at-home mom and a quilting course was being offered. She managed to slip away for a few hours from the demands of family to take the class offered by Linda Wally, and she has never looked back.
“I love it,” she says of quilting. “Far too much, actually.”
Traditional, contemporary, pictorial; she almost always sews with Harvest Fair categories in mind these days. But she had quilted for quite a while before friends finally convinced her to enter her quilts in the fair some years ago. She had resisted for fear of being judged.
“Then I thought, if I’m not going to do it, who’s going to?”
Since then, she has won quilting twice at the Harvest Fair, with the most recent win just last year. Shirley pieces the quilts together and also does the quilting.
“I do everything,” she says. “I want the satisfaction of finishing it myself.”
Many quilting projects also require hand embroidery, which she can take with her on trips abroad with Elmer, whom she has been married to for 57 years. Shirley is also a longtime member of the Cariboo Piecemakers Quilting Club and enjoys the camaraderie of the group who get together to share new ideas and techniques, and to visit.
Every Christmas, Shirley hosts a potluck for club members at her home, which has become something of a tradition.
“Quilters are fun people to be with,” she says of her quilting friends.
