Nancy Hornback grew up on the desert of southern California, where quiltmaking was not part of the warm-weather environment. However, when she was a child, she would sometimes visit the grandmother of a neighbor family that had moved to California from the Ozarks. While sitting in a rocking chair, she would ask the elderly woman questions about her life. At the same time she would peer past her into a room that always had a beautiful quilt on the bed. When Nancy moved to Kansas, she had never actually seen a quilt being made until she started one of her own in 1973, learning from library books.
Now, Nancy researches quilts and quiltmakers, writes, lectures, curates exhibits, collects quilts and makes quilts. Besides her obvious enthusiasm for 19th century floral quilts, she also finds great appeal in figurative applique and pictorial quilts, especially quilts with people figures on them. Her long-time interest in women's history and folk art motivates her research. She was a founding member of the Prairie Quilt Guild of Wichita, co-founder and board member of the Kansas Quilt Project, and served on the board of the American Quilt Study Group.
Terry Clothier Thompson has been on the forefront of our current quilt revival. Born into the fifth generation of a Kansas pioneer family, she grew up in the Wichita area. She watched her grandmother sew and quilt during visits to this family farm called Peace Creek, west of Hutchinson, Kansas. Her stitching passion began when she sewed calico dresses for her daughter. With the leftover scraps, she made a quilt. She became passionate.
Her family's move to Kansas City brought the opportunity to teach patchwork at Johnson County Community College. In 1973, she opened The Quilting Bee, a store devoted totally to quilting, an anomaly at that time. The shop was located on the Country Club Plaza until 1984. She designed a unique line of patterns that she still sells nationwide. Terry was a principal documenter for the Kansas Quilt Project from 1986 to 1989 and was a co-author of
Kansas Quilts and Quilters, published in 1993 by the University Press of Kansas. In addition to her applique patterns, Terry has written six books, each a collection of family stories in different eras, with quilts designed to go along with the stories. She has an extensive collection of vintage fabrics, quilts, laces and all kinds of needlework. Terry's FabriCamp classes are held in her studio in Lawrence, Kansas. She also designs a line of reproduction fabrics for Moda.
