Multi-faceted artist recognized
Kathy Kansier awarded
2008 Jewel Pearce Patterson
Scholarship for Quilting Teachers
HOUSTON—August 13, 2008—International Quilt Market has announced that the recipient of the 2008 Jewel Pearce Patterson Scholarship for Quilting Teachers is Kathy Kansier of Ozark, Missouri. The purpose of the scholarship is to provide a deserving teacher with the opportunity to explore her own creative talent and further develop her classroom skills.
Kansier will be provided round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations, and paid tuition, among other things, for the 2008 International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston this fall. In the following year, she will apply what she has learned—and taught her students—to a display of artworks created by she and her students. This exhibit will make its debut at the 2009 fall Market and Festival.
“We are happy to have Kathy as a member of our teaching staff for the International Quilt Festivals,” says Judy Murrah, Vice President of Education for Quilts, Inc., which produces International Quilt Market and International Quilt Festival. “Her classes fill to capacity, and often we could have filled them multiple times. She has a lot of information to convey, and does so in an easy-to-learn way.”
Kansier says that she has enrolled for a variety of classes, lectures, and events, all of which will help her develop as both a quilter and teacher. “My hope is that I will learn new techniques and improve upon those that I have been using,” she explains. “I want to continue to learn the helpful hints that are needed to make a successful quilt. I’ve always equated quiltmaking to pole vaulting. With each quilt I make, I try to raise the bar as far as the difficulty of the techniques I use and try to perfect my quiltmaking skills.”
A quilting teacher for well over a decade, Kansier has been part of the Festival faculty for several years. Her classes cover a wide variety of quilt styles and techniques including hand and machine appliqué, hand quilting, Crazy quilts, embellishments, and decorative edge treatments—the last of which is the focus of her tremendously popular Quilts with Great Edges class. She teaches other classes on quilt care, the history of quilting, and Amish history.
Additionally, Kansier wrote and published an appliqué book, Ozark Varieties, a booklet on quilt care titled Protecting Tomorrow’s Treasures Today, and regularly contributes articles to the Appliqué Society Newsletter.
She is also a Certified Appraiser of Quilted Textiles with the American Quilter’s Society and has served as a judge at numerous quilt shows across the country. She is a member of the International Quilt Association, American Quilter’s Society, and Studio Art Quilt Associates as well as various other organizations.
“I have been very blessed to have a hobby that has turned into a career,” Kansier says. “I teach quilting, judge quilt shows, and am a certified quilt appraiser. As a result, I see a lot of great quilts and meet a lot of great people. Although I sometimes work long and hard hours, it is difficult to call this work. I love what I do because it gives me the opportunity to help and encourage others.”
The scholarship was created in honor of Jewel Pearce Patterson (1910-2002), a Houston-based quilting teacher who instructed thousands of students in the art of quiltmaking throughout her career. She was one of the co-founders of what is now the International Quilt Association, as well as the Quilt Guild of Greater Houston. Patterson was also the mother of Karey Bresenhan, Quilts, Inc. president and director of International Quilt Festival and Market. The scholarship was first awarded in 1990 to mark her 80th birthday.