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Terrell Sundermann's Workroom
Terrell's Life Story
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TERRELL
SUNDERMANN'S
LIFE STORY
Meet the author of Pieced Roman Shades: Turn Your Favorite Quilt Patterns into Window Hangings!
In the late 1980s, Terrell Sundermann found herself in a new home with no window coverings. Having grown up in southwestern Kansas, where her grandmother had taught her to sew and "you were expected to do things yourself," she decided to turn a pieced quilt top into a Roman shade. Terrell loved the resulting treatment so much that over the next several years she covered every window in her house with pieced Roman shades, dubbing them window hangings.
Throughout this creative endeavor, Terrell, who holds a PhD in physics from the University of Illinois and has studied business at Bentley College, worked as a manager in the high-tech industry. Never content, she switched jobs every two years, thinking she would be happy if she could just find the right company. It finally dawned on her that she was in the wrong business. So, with much trepidation, in 1993 she quit the tech biz and founded Terrell Designs, with the grand idea of filling every home in America (perhaps the world!) with window hangings.
She launched her business with just four designs: Log Cabin, Shadows, Churn Dash, and Four Diamonds. But she was good at looking at pictures and figuring out how to make what she saw. She also had an eye for color and fabric combinations, which allowed her to produce stunning designs.
For a time Terrell struggled with the best way to market her work. At first she called herself a manufacturer, then she realized she should refer to herself as a fabric artist.
Terrell initially spent her time designing and marketing, while hired stitchers worked part-time in her home to make the shades. As the years passed, though, her clients asked for more and more custom shades. It became impossible to explain to other quilters how to create certain pieces, so Terrell pulled back and transformed her business into a one-woman shop. She now sells her window hangings as commissioned art pieces. Each is a one-of-a-kind design.
Terrell's beautiful shades hang in homes throughout the United States and have been featured in show homes in Colorado and Massachusetts. During one of these exhibits, Terrell noticed the reaction of quilters to her invention. Home sewers would rush up to her shades, look at the backs, pull them up and down, and stand back and admire them. A little later they would reappear with notebooks (and sometimes fellow sewers) and attempt to figure out how to make such shades themselves.
To acknowledge
their interest, and wanting to share her years of experience with quilting
enthusiasts, Terrell wrote a book containing step-by-step instructions
for making window hangings. Pieced Roman Shades: Turn Your Favorite
Quilt Patterns into Window Hangings was published by C&T Publishing
in February of 2000.
Today Terrell designs and produces valances, wall hangings, pillows, placemats, and other home-decor accessories in addition to her window hangings. A member of the Arapahoe County Quilters and the Colorado Quilting Council, she offers workshops and lectures on window hangings, and uses her web site to keep her students and readers up to date on new designs.
Terrell lives in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado, where she and her husband ski, hike, bicycle, and garden. The understanding Ned allows her to drag him along different routes every time they go out, even though they often get lost and ride or hike much further than they'd planned. "Hey," says Terrell logically, "it always takes twice as long as you thought to create a new design!" Her son is a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Ned's daughters have exciting careers in Texas and Ohio. Terrell and Ned visit the kids as often as possible, but love being empty nesters.
Continue on to:
Learn Terrell Sundermann's Designer Secrets
See Terrell Sundermann's Window-Fashion Show
Purchase Terrell Sundermann's Products