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Myrna Giesbrecht's Workroom
Myrna's Life Story
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MYRNA
GIESBRECHT'S
LIFE STORY
Meet Myrna Giesbrecht, author of several quilt books and columnist for Quilter's Newsletter Magazine!
A career in quiltmaking came as a surprise to Myrna Giesbrecht. Originally intending to become a high school teacher, she was sidetracked through jobs as a dispatcher, accounts-payable clerk, hair stylist, receptionist, general contractor, home renovator and interior designer. She currently works very part-time as a psychologist's assistant, administering cognitive testing, and recently completed a diploma in adult education. She is, she says, "very slowly" working toward a master's degree.
Myrna is always making something. Crafts of all types used to appeal to her; in particular, she enjoyed designing and sewing fashionable clothing and home accessories. All went by the wayside in 1984, when she discovered quilting by stitching a Trip Around the World quilt for her bedroom. What began as a recreational creative outlet quickly consumed her, eventually turning into a career. Today she writes books and magazine articles, teaches quilt and garment design and pattern writing throughout North America, and designs quilt patterns for her own web site, Press4Success.com. With all this, she laughingly points out that she's come full circle and is now a teacher.
Though her first piece was machine quilted, Myrna decided to create her works entirely by hand when she heard Nancy Martin's "Pieces of the Past" lecture in Edmonds, Washington. Myrna felt an affinity to the women Nancy described, and envisioned her own carefully constructed masterpieces being treasured by later generations. That decision lasted through the piecing and quilting of one Dresden Plate Christmas Wreath pillow! Since then, Myrna has created works entirely by machine. "Works made by hand are absolutely awe-inspiring," she says, "but I can't sit still that long, and life is too short!"
A lively, audience-oriented instructor, Myrna is popular with her students. Perhaps they can tell she learns as much from them as they do from her. Myrna wants every student to leave her workshops with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment at having learned something new. She even does reverse stitching for them, so they won't become frustrated! "I think it's very important to encourage learning, individuality, and creativity," she explains.
Myrna may be best known for "The Quilter's Web," a column about quilting web sites that appears in each issue of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. Her books include Triangle Delight (Shimp Personal Publication Services, 1993), Strip Quilts in a Hurry (American School of Needlework, 1994), Setting Up Your Sewing Space: From Small Areas to Complete Workshops (Sterling Publishing, 1994), Press for Success: Secrets to Precise and Speedy Quiltmaking (That Patchwork Place, 1996) and You Can Be Debt Free (self-published e-book, 1999). One of her quilts, "The Stars of Today's Show," appears in the compilation Sunbonnet Sue is Alive and Well (American School of Needlework, 1995). These days Myrna is in the drafting and proposal stages of a new book.
In the late 1980s, when she decided to leave the corporate rat race and start her own home-based business, Myrna looked around for role models. "It's been my experience," she wrote in the dedication to Press for Success, "that the best way to achieve a goal is to find a role model who lives as you want to live, then work out a game plan following your model's example. The quilting industry is full of wonderful, talented individuals, most of whom are willing to help you along." Many would argue that Myrna has become such a role model herself.
A member of the Canadian Quilter's Association, the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters, the Fiber Art Network, and the Studio Art Quilt Association, Myrna is moving her work away from geometric shapes and toward freeform images. "In spite of the learning curve," she says, "it is providing a fresh excitement in quilting." Her work hangs in collections in Canada, the United States, Germany, Malaysia, and New Zealand.
Myrna lives in Kamloops, British Columbia, with her husband, daughter (born in 1986) and two sons (born in 1989 and 1993). "It has at times been difficult to develop a career while raising a family," she says, "and some things have had to be put on hold. But the payoffs of doing what you love, working from home, surrounded by those you love and who love you, are well worth any compromises." She walks her kids back and forth to school to get in regular exercise, reads whenever she can, does hand stitching during her kids' piano lessons, and loves to talk, do coffee or lunch with friends, redecorate, and shop for fabric.
Continue on to:
Learn Myrna Giesbrecht's Designer Secrets
See Myrna Giesbrecht's Fashion Show
Print Myrna Giesbrecht's Free Patterns
Purchase Myrna Giesbrecht's Products