Brenda Henning
Hi. My name is Brenda and I quilt. I've been known to sneak fabric into my purse in case I need a fix while away from home. I take a calculator to bed with me to compute quilt yardage and block piecing in the middle of the night. I disguise fabric purchases in the checkbook register, titling the check as a grocery purchase. I even lift my favorite sewing machine into airline overhead storage bins rather than leave her home alone. I live in Alaska. Our winters are 6 months long, who really wants to go outside and get cold anyway? I am a quilter... and I am addicted! My husband considered an intervention to discuss my problem... But soon realized that if a group of my friends were to meet together, we would just QUILT!!
Brenda Henning is a compulsive quiltmaker with a fondness for traditional design and a desire to incorporate today's speed-piecing techniques with yesterday's well-loved patterns. Brenda's machine sewing experience began at the early age of 10 on her grandmother's treadle sewing machine with the first quilt following at age 14. Brenda became a compulsive quilter in the mid-80s, and began teaching quiltmaking in 1989, after her third child turned one. Writing and self-publishing that work have been byproducts of teaching quilting. Brenda is the author of numerous books and individual patterns available under the label Bear Paw Productions. Stained glass quilts were first introduced to Brenda in a workshop. All steps of the process - basting, bias tape placement, quilting - were completed by hand. With three young children, and a busy schedule, Brenda knew that she could not complete a second stained glass quilt in the time available. She set out to devise a method to reduce the time necessary to make a stained glass quilt without compromising the results. The introduction of fusible bias tape has really streamlined her approach to stained glass quilts. Brenda lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her husband, Richard, and their three children, Beth, Christi and Joshua. Two Rottweilers, Kaia and Jade, share copious quantities of black dog hair with every quilt that leaves the premises. The addition of a cleaning lady to her life has greatly reduced the stifling effect of housework! Brenda teaches regularly at The Quilt Tree in Anchorage as well as for other shops and guilds throughout Alaska and the United States.
