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My name is Marianne Sheldon. I come from Cape Town, South Africa although we have spent the past 22 years living the international life. I remember family gatherings while growing up where all the women kept their hands busy. As a result I learned to crochet, embroider and sew at an early age from my mother but my father taught us to knit. In the late 1980’s we found ourselves living in Brussels with 2 young children. Fortunately the school they attended offered a very extensive Adult Education programme. The first year while waiting for a place on the silk painting class, I did a drawing class. We spent most of the school term doing charcoal drawings of all the winter trees in the area. While I still can’t draw to save my life, I did learn to look at things differently. The silk painting class was fun but had limited appeal. The next year they offered a patchwork class and I was first in line to register. Co-incidentally, my mother and youngest sister joined the Guild in Cape Town at the same time! As so often happens in our nomadic lives the teacher’s arrival in Brussels was delayed by several months. Marie arrived for the first class with 2 large black bags of fabrics scraps for us to play with. We started with English piecing hexagons together. By this time I had a book of patterns and started making my first quilt. We never got a 2nd term as the teacher’s husband was moved to Switzerland. Lynette and I continued to meet once a week to work on our quilts even though we were not too sure how to continue. Some months later while visiting Waterloo, I spotted an advert for quilt classes. I signed up on the spot and was introduced to the wonderful world of quick piecing, rotary cutting and chain piecing. After 3 years we returned home for awhile and I joined the Guild there. It was the year they were hosting the bi-annual Quilt Festival. I still remember walking into my very first Quilt Show. WOW. There were so many wonderful quilts I still feel overwhelmed. Since then we have spend 2 yrs in London, where I learned to use the Internet for quilting as there was very little in the way of quilters/quilting in our area. Another 2 years back home saw me very involved with the Guild in Johannesburg. Then came our move to Dubai. It took some time to find the quilters hiding here and together we started the Guild. I enjoy hand quilting, though my eyes and hands are getting to old to do much these days. I love trying new techniques, taking classes and playing with fabric. Large quilts take too much time so I now make several small pieces instead. That way I get to try lots of different ideas. Thanks to the friends I’ve made through quilting and the Guild our stay in Dubai has been a long and happy one.
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