MQResource

After a break of far too many weeks, we are finally bringing you a new featured quilter post!  I'm excited to introduce Shirley Bruner!  I actually had the honor of meeting Shirley in person last week and can't wait for all of you to learn more about this wonderful quilter!

 I have a jack-of-all-trades husband who can repair or build anything. We areboth retired, my husband, Jim, from AT&T and me from thegovernment…Veterans Administration. Jim builds and repairs computers to keephimself occupied…as if all the work on this property isn’t enough. LOL   My only son lives in Granbury, Texaswith his wife and their 9 dogs, 2 horses and a parrot. I have 2 teenagegrandsons who live in Illinoiswith their mother. We have 2 rottweilers who protect our 40 acres. Shimmy, theoldest, spends most of her time on ‘her’ couch and has passed the ‘security’reins to SuzyQ, the youngest. Suzy’s job is to keep the cows in line….she hatesfor them to get too close to the house and is constantly herding them back upthe pasture.

MQR: Where do you call home?

Well, let’s see….I was born in Illinois; lived in St. Louis,Missouri; Little Rock,Arkansas, 20 years in Dallas,Texas; Houston,Texas; back to Illinoisand now retired in Cherryville, Missouri. We are in the Mark Twain National Forest buthardly a bump on the map. The town is long dead….very few people live here anymore….no stores, no gas stations, no grocery, no fast food, no nothing. Thepopulation is way less than 100 but we can round up a couple thousand if wecount the cows. But it is quiet and peaceful...our nearest neighbor is ½ mileaway. We like it here.

I’ve been ‘quilting’ since I was in my twenties…if you want to call itquilting.  I made a lot of quilts on mydomestic machine. Mainly small ones for babies and family. I have always donesome kind of craft…crocheting, painting gourds, macramé…my, that dates me,doesn’t it…. woodworking. If my day had about 20 more hours I would probably bedoing painting and woodworking along with my quilting. But I had to make achoice.

About 5 years before I decided to retire, I bought a small frame that sitson an 8 foot table and made quilts for family and friends. I even sold a few. Ihad seen advertisements for the longarm machines and thought they lookedintriguing. Once I tried one, I knew that is what I was going to do when Iretired. I am sure I drove folks crazy talking about buying a longarm and all itcould do. My friends couldn’t quite grasp the idea and my family just thought Iwas nuts. But I tried them all and went to Paducah 3 years ago and bought my APQSMillennium and have been having fun ever since.

I TRY to get some piecing in….usually I have about 5 projects going at once.I get tired of working on a quilt and sit down and piece for a while. I have amachine in the kitchen at home, so sometimes I piece at night. Sometimes it isa project for me and sometimes for others. I seem to be getting more peoplewanting me to make the whole quilt for them. I really don’t like doing that forothers but have a problem saying NO.

Lately I can’t seem to stay in the studio and quilt like I should. I haveabout 11 quilts in line to do, but find any reason not to do them. Sometimes Ijust get tired of other people’s quilts….either I don’t like the pattern, thefabrics, their choice of quilt design or something. But if I just get startedand say I will just quilt for an hour, usually I keep at it longer. Sometimes Ihave to reward myself….just quilt for 2 hours…then you can go online and checkout MQR. LOL

Yes, I have a business….kind of….sortof. My sister says I will never make any money. I don’t care. I quilt mainlyfor family and people in my quilting class group. I am kind of slow and usuallytake about a week to quilt something. (I take a lot of breaks..LOL).  I don’t want to do too many because I don’twant it to be a ‘job’…I want to have fun. So when someone gives me a quilt todo for them, they know they won’t see it again for 2 or 3 months. They seem tobe OK with that. In fact, people are bringing 2 at a time now.Siggghhh!!!!   My favorite part is whenthey give me their quilt and say ‘just do whatever you think is best’. Then Ihang it on my design wall and look at it for a few weeks while I work on otherquilts till it talks to me.

MQR: What is the most challenging part of quilting for you?

Coming up with new designs…sometimes I get stuck in a rut. I have about amillion books, but forget to look in them for ideas. Or if someone wantssomething quilted that I can’t do at the time. Last year someone wanted a cablein their border…..I bought rulers….read the directions….tried it on paper…justcould not figure it out. I felt like an idiot. Had to do something else thattime. Last week someone wanted a cable…I got out the instructions again, read it,and did it…no problem. Now, why couldn’t I have done that the first time.Sheesh!!

MQR: What are your favorite quilting tools?

My 8” ruler that I use for SID and mostall line work; chalk; and Marvy purple markers. Oh, and adding machinetape….that can be counted as a tool, right? Oh, and Renae’s arcs.

Gardening and canning the results.Reading murder mysteries. Taking road trips with my sister to find new quiltshops. And watching HGTV while on the treadmill. I love those design shows…I amconstantly moving furniture around…drives my husband nuts.

MQR: Anything else?

I want it all and I want to try it all.Jean’s class opened up a whole new world for me with the fabric painting. It isvery addictive. I painted a t-shirt last week…such fun. I am going to paintmore fabric and then make myself a quilt with all my yummy fabrics. I only haveto live another 40 years to make all the projects I have in line. The nextquilt in line is for me and the back needs to be red or black….naturally, Idon’t have enough of anything to use as a back….so, today I decided I couldpaint a backing from muslin. (Thank you, Jean). So, tonight I am painting a redand black backing for my next quilt.

 MQR: What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

French vanilla…with perhaps someHershey’s syrup on top. Yum….  OH, andremember the dreamsicle from when we were kids…..the vanilla ice cream with theorange sherbet inside….i really like those.

MQR: Do you prefer salty or sweet snacks?

Sweet is my all time favorite but I am not opposed to some pretzels orchips. Better yet, is pretzels dipped in chocolate. My daughter-in-law makesthese for me for Christmas…I love that girl.

MQR: What is your favorite beverage?

Raspberry Iced Tea…no lemon, please.

After that, just plain water.

 MQR: What is your least favorite food?

Oatmeal…can’t take it….gags me.   Yuck…also, cooked cabbage, cooked okra.      BUT, oatmeal is GREAT in cookies. LOL

 MQR: What are your favorite books/authors?

 Murder mysteries are my number 1 choice.I pretty much read them all. I like the series where the characters stay thesame and time seems to progress. I have read all of Ed McBain. Years ago I readall of John D. McDonald. Now I skip around and read lots of different people.We go to the used book store in Rolla…about 25 miles away. They trade books….Ihave not paid for a book in years. We take our books in and trade for differentones. Sometimes I get them at yard sales for a quarter and take them in totrade.

 MQR: What are your favorite movies?

Usually I prefer comedies….I like JackNicholson and Eddie Murphy. I like Meryl Streep. I used to stay up late intothe night to watch Sidney Poitier….I just loved his movies. But I do like towatch murders, too.

I don’t guess I have a favorite quote. My favorite thing to say if someoneticks me off is “Bite Me”.  I don’t guessthat counts…does it?   LOL

MQR: What is one of your goals for 2008?

To learn to be morepatient. And have a little more tolerance.

All photographs were provided by Shirley.

Don't forget, you can visit the forum here, if you would like to comment.

Thanks for playing along, Shirley! Tune in next week for the next Quilter In the Spotlight!