Home on the Plains: Quilts and the Sod House Experience
Kathleen L. (Kathy) Moore lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she divides her time between volunteering at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum (IQSC/M), researching Nebraska history, making quilts, quilting with friends as often as possible and wrangling her husband, Ray, and two cats, Chester and Jessicat. She also has two beloved daughters and three beautiful grandchildren.Already an accomplished dressmaker, Moore began quilting in her 40s while living in Lawrence, Kan. Her first quiltmaking class required her to hand piece and applique a small sample quilt. She finished the piece, thinking all the while that a sewing machine would make the project go faster. Many quilts and a few years later, Moore and her husband moved to Lincoln.When a friend of a friend invited her to help vacuum and fold quilts for storage at the newly created IQSC, a new aspect of quilting opened itself to her and soon she was working on a second master's degree, this time in textile history with an emphasis in quilt studies.Moore is a current member of the Lincoln (NE) Quilters Guild and the Nebraska State Quilt Guild; a board member of the American Quilt Study Group; a member of the American Quilter's Society; the Nebraska Statue Historical Society; and a friend and volunteer at the IQSC/M; and a member of the Textile Society of America.Stephanie Grace Whitson is a full time novelist/lecturer, an incurable quilt enthusiast, a student working on her Master's degree in history, a grandmother, and a biker who enjoys motorcycle trips with her blended family and church friends.She began quilting in earnest as a young mother. Soon thereafter, she co-founded Mulberry Lane, a quilt pattern design company that also marketed sewing-related pewter to jewelry shops. She has been an antique quilt and sewing tools dealer, has taken several quilt appraisal/textile dating classes, and volunteers at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum.Offered a publishing contract for her first historical novel in 1994, Stephanie has published sixteen historical novels, three contemporary novels, two works of non-fiction, and recently signed a contract for a series of quilt-related historical novels. She is a frequent lecturer/guest speaker/workshop leader for various church and civic organizations including quilt guilds.