Featured Quilter

Dorie Whipple:

Quilt Pattern Publisher & Teacher
Reception Thursday, August 7
5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Gallery One
209 Western Avenue

Biography:

Warm funny and talented. These are the words that describe Dorie Whipple. Though she was born in Walnut Creek, California, she has no memory of living in California as a child. Her mother moved the family to Colorado to live with her grandmother until they could get a place of their own. Dorie went to high school in Glennwood Springs, Colorado.

She went with a friend to Alaska to homestead some land. "You got on a train, and when you saw a place you liked, you told the conductor to stop the train so you could get off". But they moved to Seward to escape the cold, stayed a year, and then hitch hiked back to Colorado.

It was during this trip that Dorie, age 19, started making her first quilt using shirts, curtains, and whatever she could get. To this day, she still has this very well used first quilt.

She made her second quilt when her son, Chester, was in kindergarten. But this to be the last quilt she would make for many years to come.

Dorie went to college in Rome City Indiana where she received an Associate Degree in Theology. In 1981 she met her husband David. They moved to California five years ago. They have twin sons Ian and Ben.

While nursing her twin boys, Dorie was inspired to begin quilting again as she watched Georgia Bonesteeel on PBS. She started making lap quilts but soon graduated to making a train quilt for Ian.

The twins are now 9 years old and Dorie has come a long way. Though she has only taken three quilting classes, she started teaching in the Wild Rose Quilt shop in Novato. Now she teaches at the Cotton Patch, Thimble Creek and closer to home at Quilted Angle.

Dorie's favorite quilt is the scrap quilt. She prefers to quilt by hand but because she has so many quilts she would like to do, she also does machine quilting.

Her sewing machine, rotary cutter, and her six inch square ruler are her essential tools. But she does not believe that there is any particular right way to make quilts.

Of all of her numerous awards, Dorie was most pleased by the two from the Marin Needlework show. One award was for honorable mention, the other was a second place award.

Her new quilting company, Goose Hill Quilts, is named for the endangered species Hawaiian Ne'Ne' Geese that she raises. Dorie has published her Hop Scotch nine patch quilt pattern, and has two more patterns in the works. She also does professional machine quilting in her home.

If you want to experience Dorie's quilting excitement first hand, take one of her classes during the Quilter's Heaven Symposium. She will be teaching four classes, all on scrap quilts: Hop Scotch, Chicken Scratch, Sour Dough, and a canvas bag class.