Mary Ellen was a ball of
energy and so very funny. I've been trying to remember the name of her fabric shop;
I think it was Crazy Ladies and Friends in Santa Monica. She carried fabrics
that one didn't see in other shops, but it was a very small space. She was
close with Kaye Rheingans, the founder of Orange County Quilters Guild, who was
very tall and "stout". The two of them would be on stage, Mary Ellen giving
one of her presentations and Kaye helping her hold quilts. Tiny Mary Ellen
would hop up on a chair so they could hold the quilt straight, one on each side.
They would banter back and forth and the audience would be rolling in the aisles. I took a couple classes with her, but I
couldn’t get into her PPM (Personal Private Measurement). She thought everyone should work with their
own seam allowance and forget about the ¼” standard. I had been making quilts for a lot of years
and knew that consistency of seam allowance was important. I couldn’t change to PPM. But her books offered new techniques and
ideas, so I just used my own PPM, which was/is ¼”. She had a good influence on the growth of
quiltmaking, offering quicker ways to create and finish a quilt. She was a quilting pioneer.
7 comments:
I'll never forget the time that my husband walked in on Mary Ellen on one of the quilt shows rotary cutting through several layers of fabric with this almost manic energy - He said - wow she's certainly into this! And yes she was!! She'll be missed!
Very sweet, Del. It is always so difficult to lose a fellow quilter. I am always so sad thinking what quilts they didn't get to do that were on their bucket list.
Thank you, Del.
I never saw her in person, but "energetic" was apt for her appearances on television. She contributed a LOT to the modern quilt world, and her energy will carry on.
Yes Del, very well said! I remember those meetings, I was a new quilter and she was exhilarating! My PPM is like yours, Most of the time!! Lovely to read more about Mary Ellen.
I took a class at Quilt Market from Mary Ellen Hopkins. I loved her spirit and attitude even though I wasn't very impressed with her quilts! She was certainly the funniest quilter I knew. She had us in stitches--pun intended.
I've never forgotten her advice about color. She said that she had analyzed the quilts that really worked for her and found they all had something in common. No matter what color the quilt was ostensibly, it contained somewhere within it a patch of black, green, or purple. I've used that ever since and it really works. I also love her dictum about always making a quilt for a child going off to school because "he or she will be reluctant to do anything under or on that quilt that you might disapprove of." A sweet, funny, and WISE lady.
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