Who’s Who in Pieced Together Quilters – Joan Penrose

Joan Penrose

Joan has been a quilter for seven years. She loves to sew and admires quilts, but never imagined herself quilting.  A lady in the San Lorenzo Adult School sewing class invited Joan to the quilting class and she had so much fun here she is.  Joan learned machine quilting from some classes in quilt stores. Large quilts she sends out but loves to quilt small projects. Quilting gets her creative juices flowing.

She took sewing classes in High School because her mother recommended it saying she would learn so much more taking a class. She sewed her own clothes before college.

Joan grew up in Kansas but came out to California to teach. She went to College in Nebraska at a teacher’s college. She did want to go into physical therapy but decided to teach so she could use her music skills. She was invited to come to California to teach and be an organist at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.  That’s where she met her husband. The happy couple celebrated their 40^th wedding anniversary in August and traveled to New City for the event. Her only son moved to Texas with his wife and two grandsons, breaking Joan’s Heart. The boys are three and six years old.

Some of her other hobbies are gardening, children’s choir at church, she sings and plays bells and keyboard, reading – fiction and mysteries but recently read      about breast cancer.  She loves to bowl – maybe a fanatic. When she was a kid they threw softballs at milk bottles.

She is a breast cancer survivor – 20 years ago she had a mastectomy and chemotherapy.

Her dad was very strict – but had a fun side too. When she was getting ready to move to California, she and her mother were raising the hems on her skirts. (It was the fashion back then after all). Here dad said; “Make sure you raise them high enough – you have to find a husband!”

A little known fact – she says she is such a blabbermouth that she can’t think of an answer except she was very shy as a child. Going away to college helped her find her outgoing side and more self assured. In High School, her mother suggested taking a speech class – and that really helped because she had to get up in front of the class once a week. They even had to go out into the community and speak to groups.

As one of the original Pieced Together Quilters, we have to thank her for finding the great location for our day class.