The 2009 Preview Party featured a display of Pat Styring's work.  Pat is a past president of QuiltFest and served on the Board for many years.  She still volunteers every year during the Show.  She is an original member of the St. Augustine Piecemakers and also served as its president.  She has won 3 First-place, 3 Third-place and 2 Honorable Mention ribbons at the American Quilter’s Society annual quilt show in Paducah, Kentucky, and has a quilt in the Museum of the American Quilter’s Society.  At QuiltFest, she has won Best of Show five times, as well as numerous other ribbons.  All of her “significant” quilts have been numbered, signed and dated and she is now in the 140’s.

What is the secret of her success?  Pat started sewing doll clothes as a child and then moved on to making her own clothes. As a young mother, she sewed clothes for her daughters and items for her home.  She began quilting in 1983.  Today she likes to spend long hours in her quilt room just thinking, letting ideas develop.  She tries to make mostly original quilts and finds that if she exposes herself to too many groups or classes, she ends up doing someone else’s idea of a quilt.

Pat cannot stand to rip out stitches.  If she ruins an appliqué, she covers it up with a new one.  A stain or mark on a pristine new quilt will bring out her paint and markers.  She likes to catch the viewer’s attention with unexpected design features, then deliver up-close details when they stop to look.  She reads fewer quilt magazines and more mixed media art magazines.  Currently she is having fun using family history photos and information in artistic endeavors.