About Alice

Most of us have had the experience of becoming “all out excited” over a new hobby or activity only to cool once the “new” has worn off. Usually this leads to an unfinished project, or projects if the excitement was really great, being relegated to a forgotten box on some closet shelf. That was Alice’s story until some 17 years ago when she took a class at the local quilt shop and found herself immersed in a world of infinite possibilities with fabrics. She has never “cooled” or even looked back. In this time, Alice has produced something over 250 quilts, many of them of her own design. Many have won awards in quilt shows and festivals. Her designs and patterns are sold in quilt shops around the country.

In 1987, Alice began instructing, and soon coordinated all teaching at the leading quilt shop in her area. Now she teaches in many shops in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as well as in other areas of the state, other states and in Canada. She has a full schedule of lectures to quilt guilds around the country as well. It is impossible to know how many people this gifted teacher and designer has taught, but it is safe to say they number in the thousands.

Although she designs both traditional pieced and appliquéd quilts, her true love, other than her husband, children and grandchildren, is teaching others the art of appliqué. Through her years of experience she has developed many labor and time saving techniques to aid in the preparation portion of appliqué. These she happily shares! One of her greatest joys is seeing someone develop into a dedicated quilter regardless of the style or method chosen.

Alice is married to Bill, has six daughters, a son and six grandchildren and one great-grandson. She and Bill live in McKinney, Texas, along with their Shih Tzu dog, Molly.

Texas Our Texas Pattern: How It All Began!

In a recent interview about her career as a pattern designer , Alice had this to say:

“This is the quilt that started my life as a designer. I was asked by a local quilt shop in McKinney to teach a monthly Texas quilt. This was the design I came up with….I thought that maybe 25 women in McKinney would want to do this class….so I put lots of stuff in the pattern, from Texas folklore to fact….talking Texan lessons and a favorite Texas receipt. The local quilt shop stop cutting fabric kits at 200. WOW!!! Then other quilt shops in Texas started ordering the pattern and my head grew soooooooooo big!!!! These people like what I do. WOW again!!!!! The Texas Our Texas Block of the Month grew to an overwhelming amount of patterns sold each month. We not only sold to people in Texas but across the USA and Overseas.

“My husband, Bill, told me that he really believed that Texas is not a place where you live, but rather a state of mine. Texas Our Texas, as of today, remains our biggest seller.

Texas Our Texas Pattern: Retiring?

“So why retire it???? Because all of our consumables cost more and we haven’t raised the price of the pattern. We cannot afford to print it anymore. The shelf life of a pattern is typically 2 years and this pattern has been strong since 1998. It needs to retire.

“I do, however, retain the copyright of this design and perhaps in the future, I may convert it to a CD. Who know what may come in the future…. who knew that this pattern would be such a hit! Just to make sure that I would retire this pattern, I taught the Texas Our Texas one last time in Celeste, TX at the Quilt Mercantile as a farewell. I had 24 students who faithfully showed up one Saturday each month and worked on their quilt. View below some of the overachievers.

“So I do retire this pattern with a lot of sadness, and yet give thanks that it was my launch into the pattern design world. So thanks to all of you who had faith in my ability and loved my Texas Our Texas.”

Applique Patterns, Quilt Teacher, Original Applique Quilt Patterns