Celebration of Kentucky Crafters: Quilter Mary Bauer Shows Off Her Creations
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Kentucky last spring everyone was impacted including award-winning quilter Mary Bauer. Even though she credits quilting with getting her through the pandemic, she had to adjust the way she approached her favorite craft.
Social distancing kept her away from her quilting buddies and her favorite fabric stores but it also forced her to stretch her creativity, dive into her extensive fabric stash and find new online suppliers.
Mary has been quilting since 2003 and loved it from day one. She’s self-taught, learning through trial and error. Over the years, Mary has earned many awards at both local and international shows with ten major awards at the Kentucky State Fair, including Best of Show, Best Quilting and Sweepstakes. She’s also won at the Bluegrass Quilt Festival, AQS Grand Rapids, Daytona Beach, Charlotte and Phoenix and from IQA in Houston.
Most people are surprised to learn quilting requires not only creativity, but strength. “Quilting is sometimes quite the physical work-out. The quilt I am currently working on is very large and very heavy. Pushing the quilt around under the sewing machine needle to create the quilting design takes muscles!” said Mary.
If you’re considering picking up quilting as a new hobby, she would recommend finding a good introduction class either online or at a local quilting shop. There are also thousands of YouTube videos to help with specific techniques and Pinterest is an unending source of free patterns.
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