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Biography of Trudy Søndrol Wasson
At the age of five Trudy's life long love affair with the sewing machine began. By 17, she had won first place in the local and regional Singer Sewing Contests, with an Honorable Mention at the National Contest to follow, all for a pale green dress covered in free motioned roses. She pursued a career in dressmaking while she stayed home to raise four wonderful children. By 1973, Trudy was looking for a hobby and found it in her own heritage--Norwegian Rosemaling--a stylized form of decorative painting. In 1976, Trudy was awarded the Gold Medal in Rosemaling from Vesterheim, the Norwegian-American Museum, only the 13th person to win this prestigious award at that time. Her first place piece in 1975, a tilt top table, is in the permanent collection at the Vesterheim Museum. She has written and published two rosemaling books and numerous pattern sets. Her books and paintings have traveled the globe. A move to Minnesota brought about a career change. Trudy became a Realtor for RE/MAX and another successful career followed including induction into the RE/MAX Hall of Fame and receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1993, she made her first quilt, a baby quilt for her new grandson. Quilting became her hobby. In 2002, she took her first Diane Gaudynski machine quilting class and realized how her rosemaling background would provide ideas for machine quilting. She also loves to appliqué and in 2003, she designed a "Norwegian Rosemaling" wall quilt which was juried into the 2004 AQS Quilt Show in Paducah. She had miniature quilts juried into AQS shows in 2005 and 2006. Since selling her real estate practice in 2005, she now has time to machine quilt, appliqué, rosemal, pursue her Norwegian Genealogy, study the Norwegian language, and sew. Trudy's daughter, Julie Baird, hand dyes fabrics and during a cold and snowy January visit, the idea for Generations Quilt Patterns was born. Today, you can see Trudy's strong Rosemaling influences in her designs.
Description of Hearts A-Plenty
"This quilt was designed and made in 2005 and juried into the 2006 Quilt Show in Paducah. I love hearts and had fun designing this wall hanging. After determining the size I wanted, I started with the main heart and wanted to quilt it in small feathers. Then, I drew the small feathered heart at the base and had feathers coming from the top of this heart creating a second heart inside the larger heart. The feathers outside the large heart are used to fill spaces and frame the main heart. Free motion machine quilting was used for this quilt. Echo stitching and small stippling filled the background. My background in Norwegian Rosemaling always influences my designs.
My fabric is cotton sateen hand dyed by my daughter, Julie Baird. I used Hobbs Heirloom Wool Batting to give dimension to the quilt. The backing fabric was purchased at a quilt store. YLI 100 weight silk thread was used in both the needle and bobbin. I like the luster it adds to the quilting.
My thoughts on making miniature quilts:
I enjoy creating and making miniature quilts. I love to design machine quilting designs. I enjoy the creativity. Working with miniatures isn't necessarily easier, you get to see your final results faster."