By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

“Forest Creatures” by Anna Fell of Georgetown earned the Best of Show title at the recent event in Fayette County. -- Staff photo by Taylor

April 4, 2006 - If you’re like many people, the first thing you think of when you see a quilt is someone special to you … like a grandmother or great-aunt … who you watched quilt, when you were a child. A special quilt in my family offered pieces of material that were left from dresses made by grandmothers on both sides of the family.

Throughout the centuries, ladies (mostly) have handed down the love of special fabrics and patterns that are cut and stitched to represent special times in individuals’ lives.

The Best Little Quilt Show in Texas, which is sponsored by the Colorado Valley Quilt Guild, presented their annual show in Fayette County in late February, with quilters from all over Texas attending the show.

Rosie de Leon-McCrady of Scarlet Today and Redwork Plus Patterns served as this year’s quilt show judge. She is a Certified Square in a Square teacher. -- Staff photo by Taylor

Attendees weren’t disappointed, per usual, with beautiful quilts, new designs and patterns along with specialty items available that are used by experienced and beginner quilters.

The judge of this show was Rosie de Leon-McCrady of Austin. She is the owner of Scarlet Today and Redwork Plus Patterns, and is a Certified Square in a Square teacher.

While she learned to sew and embroider from her mother when she was a child, McCrady credits her love of quilting to her mother-in-law, Kathleen McCrady, who showed her the craft 16 years ago.

During the past five years, McCrady has had a retail quilt shop and taught many quiltmaking and embroidery classes all over Texas, as well as judging quilt shows and lecturing to the many guilds across the state and outside of Texas.

While “red work,” a vintage type of quilting, is her favorite, she is hoping to bring the color purple to the same degree of adoration. McCrady says that the colors remind her of her mother, and she thinks people who have enjoyed working with red will go for the purple, too.

“I like to say ‘scarlet, today and purple, tomorrow,’” laughed McCrady.

As far as quilting supplies, McCrady says that the needles used for quilting and embroidery are the most important tool used, although many quilters do not realize it. She has made it a priority in her classes to introduce the attendees to the various sizes of English needles that she purchases from Europe, and shows them how each works and why size does matter.

One of 10 children, McCrady says she is “living her dream,” with the support of her husband Phil. A graduate of the University of Texas, she retired after working for the State of Texas for 31 years, before starting her quilting career.

“Do it (work) where you want to do it, and do what you want to do,” was the advice given by her family as she was growing up, noted McCrady, and she feels like she’s very fortunate to be able to do so.

In the next five years, McCrady is hoping to expand her business to include all types of hand embroidery classes with all kinds of threads, as well as all hand-quilted quilting lessons. Today, she conducts small classes in her “studio” at her home, but envisions a “special” building in the future where she can teach and/or rent out the space to other quilters interested in learning more in the field.

With families and lives moving at such rapid speeds, new technology, fast foods and children pulled from soccer to music lessons, along with regular studies, it would be nice if we could all remember a “softer and gentler” time when children were free to watch grandma create a masterpiece out of scrapes that would last a lifetime. Hopefully, it’s not too late for quilters to introduce the craft to a new generation.

(To contact Rosie de Leon-McCrady: 800-578-2027 or www.scarlettoday.com)