Thank you for visiting my site and allowing me to share my love of Quilting with you. I am 100% self taught and began quilting in May 1991 having previously run a small but successful business making machine knitted jumpers - not very satisfying on a personal basis as there were too many restrictions with regard to the colours I could use and also the designs.  I had always been interested in dressmaking, home decorating and crafts and after decorating one of our bedrooms in May 1991 and having made some new curtains I then decided we needed a new duvet, and to cut a long story short I decided to make a quilt but did not know where to start. Surprisingly my local  WH Smiths had a book on the subject and in the back were some Quilt Shop Addresses ! - Even better was one close to hand - The Quilt Room in Dorking, and having drafted my design of a sampler quilt I called in and was so lucky to meet the owner, Rosemary Miller, who was so kind and understanding that I then became a Quilter rather than a person who just bought lots a fabric to fill a cupboard !.

In 1994 I started teaching workshops and gave lectures throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and the USA, my quilts have been given numerous prestigious awards in both Britain and the USA (I have listed these on a separate page - Exhibitions and Awards). I have also written two books on the subject of Quiltmaking and produced 4 videos as well as providing numerous articles for quilting magazines. I am currently working on a third book, so watch the site for future announcements !. I was delighted to be asked to feature in an advertising campaign for Poly-fil Battings and Waddings produced by the Fairfield Processing Inc. of the USA and also thrilled to appear as a guest on the US TV Quilting programme - Simply Quilts which was put out on HGTV. I am now heavily involved in teaching in the UK but also more and more I am being asked to teach at Quilt Shows, Guilds and shops in the USA.

Those of you who know me also know that the second love of my life (apart from Peter !) are my pets -  I have two lovely little Chihuahuas - Gertrude and Mildred - Gertrude being the baby of the family. We have two parrots - Polly, who is at least 50 years old and is a Green Amazon and has for company  an African Grey parrot  called Irvine - who flew into our garden in 1990 and has become part of the family - difficult to know how old he is, probably not so old as Polly . I also, as you would imagine,  love cats and Jacob is lord of his own domain.  There are a couple of photo's of Gertrude, Mildred and myself at the foot of this page.

Details of my Books, Videos, Workshops and Classes as well as some pictures of my quilts can be found by taking the links from my home page below.

Don't  forget to say Hello if you see me at a show......

Barbara

A little postscript - we now have a third Chihuahua - Ethel - she joined us just before Christmas 2004 and has really made herself at home - fits in really well with Mildred and Gertrude, Will get a picture up on the site as soon as I can stop her from running all over the place......

---

Gertrude on the Patio - if you compare the size of the pots you will realise how small she is.

Gertrude (not looking at the camera !) , Mildred and Me
with Dots Gone Crazy as a background

And here is the latest addition to my growing family !

                                              Ethel - Early 2005                                                    Ethel - December 2005
 

Gertrude, Mildred and Ethel 2005	You would not beleive they could be so good!!!!

---

---

Page amended JMarch 21st 2008  by The Man from Rio
© 2008 - Barbara Barber

---