An excerpt

This book began in Winona Lake, Indiana, in 1990, when my car wouldn't start. It was Labor Day, and time to leave for home. The car battery had run down, and my uncle hooked it up to the charger and said that in a couple of hours it would be charged up enough to drive home.

At the time, most of my quilts contained leaves. While waiting for my battery to charge, I went out in search of some interesting leaves for a future quilt. That is when I first found the ginkgo trees at the swan pond. They were the most beautiful leaves I had ever seen. As a bonus, they were from my favorite spot in the world!

I appliquéd some of these leaves onto my next quilt. I found that they weren't realistic enough when I outlined them in a satin stitch, so I dropped the feed dogs and covered the surface with free-motion embroidery. That was a life-changing moment! Stitching from the base of the leaf to the outer fanlike edges created beautiful leaves.

For me, quilting has always been like a treasure hunt. There are lots of trails, ideas, and clues to follow. It's good to be flexible because one idea will always lead to another, which may lead to something unexpected, unplanned, and wonderful.

I never know where I'm going until I get there. Each quilt becomes a new collection of experiences and challenges; that's part of the hunt and discovery. I hope you will enjoy your adventure in the world of free-motion embroidery.

What Is Machine Embroidery? Embroidery is the process of decorating or embellishing the surface of cloth with thread. Machine embroidery is decorative stitching done with a sewing machine. My definition of machine embroidery is stitching on the fabric, patchwork, appliqué, or other fused elements adorning the quilt top. This is not the same as machine quilting, which is stitching that goes through all three layers of a quilt. Quilting can be seen on the underside of the quilt; embroidery stitches cannot.