Sylvia: I started piecing when I was 4 or 5. I was an only child so had no one to entertain me. My mom was always busy as we lived on a farm. When she was sewing clothes for me on the sewing machine, I begged for something to do. So my mom started cutting pieces for me to stitch together by hand; then on a little child’s crank machine, and eventually on my mom’s big machine. I was not fond of making clothes, though! After college, I started my high school teaching career, and in 1980 I married Jim Aufderheide. His mother, Joyce, was a well-known quilt historian who enjoyed collecting antique quilts and fabric. Joyce did some hand piecing and hand quilting and was opposed to using a sewing machine. I also was never fond of a sewing machine, especially if it was used to patch working men’s clothing. Joyce order fabric squares from Jinny Beyer’s quilt shop and we were both fond of Jinny’s border fabrics. We ordered border fabrics together but the rest of my quilts included only a few other fabrics. When Joyce died, Life seemed to be busier for a while and I stopped stitching until I retired in 2004. I started quilting again and it just became an addiction. Now the more different fabrics that I can use, the better! I had never entered a contest, but Mary Chalmers encouraged me to enter the MN Quilt Show and I was pleased and shocked to win First Place the first year I entered. In those days, ideas often came from magazines, especially Quilter’s Newsletter. When I saw the circular feathered star, I wanted to make it, so kept it in my file of ideas. As my niece says, “Quilting and collecting fabric are two different hobbies.” I do both. I bought a yard of fabric with metallic, which I had not previously liked to use. I was fascinated with this fabric and I knew it would be right for the feathered star. Of course, I did not have enough of the fabric, but was able to get more via the internet. I like fussy cutting and I managed to find a Jinny Beyer fabric waiting in my stash and also purchased some batik. The teal fabric was in my stash thanks to a close quilter friend, Bev Keltgen. I was also lucky to find the perfect binding fabric designed by Ricky Timms. The backing fabric was in my stash from a quilt show purchase, and the floral worked perfect for the back of the quilt. At one of the MN quilt shows, I saw some quilts machine quilted by Mary Alsop. Mary’s husband David grew up in New Ulm so I was familiar with that name and I also knew that the Alsop’s had been friends of the Aufderheide’s. I was disappointed that two years ago this quilt did not place at the MN quilt show. I did receive a ribbon from one of the instructors that year. Also, the quilt was accepted and displayed at the Des Moines quilt show in 2016 and being accepted at an AQS show is high praise. So the people involved and fabric choices all make this quilt one of my favorites. Oh, I like the name I chose too: Dazzling Dahlia. I try to find catchy but appropriate names for my quilts!