Wife, mother, and grandmother Trudy Smith has been quilting for 25 years. She had an interest in quilting starting in the early ’80s when she happened to be running her own craft store, and as serendipity would have it, renowned quilter Sally Collins walked into her shop one day looking to teach classes and start a quilting guild. For the next 10 years, Trudy would learn under Sally’s guidance.

She currently teaches quilting for Adult School, conducting classes at The Quilters’ Studio in Newbury Park, where she happens to work as a manager.  She believes a loving, friendly setting encourages and emboldens her students.

“The classroom validates them being a quilter,” Trudy says. “It fosters the idea that others are doing what you are doing, and it becomes a way of life—you learn patience, kindness, and become excited about learning.”

The class caters to all levels—beginning to advanced—and many students, Trudy says, just like having the time set aside, access to communal space, and fellow quilters around for advice. Beginners are taught the “bare bones” and are then welcomed to ask questions as needed.

“Really, it’s about doing the work,” Trudy says. “Quilting is about doing, not just me teaching and lecturing; that’s more ego-based.”

Trudy especially enjoys witnessing her students find true joy in the projects they undertake.

“I really like to see people get excited—especially older people—about something other than TV, and discover that they actually have a passion they like to pursue in their spare time.”

And there are countless ways to get excited about quilting, what with innumerable techniques, styles, and themes to choose from.

“I like to think about it as a giant tree—each branch of it has a facet,” Trudy says.

She lists applique and piecing as two common quilting approaches. And thematically, the sky is the limit. Everyone makes quilts for different reasons, too.

“Some do it for volunteer reasons—Binky Patrol, Project Lioness, group homes, hospitals, fallen soldiers,” Trudy says.

In the past, she has made quilts for wedding gifts and birthdays but her current motivation has to do with her “own personal legacy.”

“Right now I make them more to look at, to be in awe over,” she says. “If I wanted any old quilt I think I’d rather go buy one at Target.”

Trudy also sees quilting as a way of working through one’s inner struggles and difficulties.

“Sometimes it’s your life problems you’re solving…it’s just with a needle that you’re doing it,” she says. “It’s like doing a re-do of your life; sometimes I’m undoing an emotion behind the quilting.”

It helps to have a group of people with whom to share those sentiments, Trudy adds.

“If we can come together as women, we can take a few hours during class and forget about everything until we have to go home and face it,” she says.

Interview & article by E. Kane