Who’s Who in Pieced Together - Sandi Gearhart

Sandi grew up on the peninsula and now lives in Castro Valley.  She is second generation Californian with her grandparents immigrating from Italy and Germany. 

She began quilting for fun and started in Kathy’s class with Judy Clavin and Juanita Jones in the early 1980s maybe 1984 or 85.  Judy and Sandi were co-workers and Juanita was a friend with school activities.  Now they all sit together and knit and crochet and Sandi is now learning how to do hand embroidery.  She is currently working on a knitted blanket with no one special in mind. It is Nancy Zieman who says “Enjoy the process,” and Sandi certainly is.

Having been a quilter for so many years, Sandi had made close to 15 quilts. She has a beautiful quilt on her bed, it isn’t one SHE made. She gave all of her quilts away.  Sandi is now committed to making Yellow Brick Road for her bed! She even has the pattern. Good luck – it was harder than it looked!

Sandi is a hiker – she loves the outdoors. She walks frequently with friends and family but hasn’t invested in the walking poll just yet. She loves to walk Lake Chabot, Dell Valle and Pleasanton Regional Park and Prism Trail and all the lovely Bay Area locales. She loves animals and traveling and when she was a kid enjoyed roller skating.  She enjoys football and baseball – loves the local teams and loves attending family sporting events.

A little know fact about Sandi is she is directionally challenged. I can relate – I can get lost in a phone booth.  However, she hasn’t yet sprung for the latest GPS to help her navigate the back woods of Hayward! We share so many challenges…getting lost on 880 on the way to the quilt show, turning around in the parking lot to get the right angle for the journey. We could be sisters.

I’m so glad I got to spend a little special time with Sandi. Just look at that sweet smile. Thank you Sandi.

Who’s Who in Pieced Together - Linda Cain

Linda started in Kathy’s class in 1988 – first as a baby beginner in Thursday evening then switching to Tuesday evening.  Her best friend and she had been involved in lots of crafts, and they joined the quilt class together. Dolores Bjornson and Linda arraigned flowers, embroidered and sewed together until Dolores moved to Pioneer California.  Every now and then they get together and Dolores sends Linda back with quilts to take to the quilter.  (Faye Collinsworth in San Ramon).

As an original Californian, Linda was born and raised in the East Bay and moved from Hayward all the way Castro Valley!!!!! She began work right out of High School and has been with the same job 46 years. Linda looks much younger than her biological years (we won’t even say how much) but she looks great at any age. She has two sons and two grandsons. Linda is the ONLY girl in her family!  The little boys are 2 ½ and 3 ½ - with each son having one son.

Kristy Hanson told us all about Pieced Together Quilters and thank goodness we still have our Tuesday night group! Plus more ladies than we even knew. We rarely socialize outside of our quilt night so having another opportunity to come together in friendship was our salvation.

Linda still has a passion for reading, mostly mysteries and she loves gardening.  But her greatest love is quilting and getting together with Pieced Together Quilters.

A little know fact is Linda was born a twin and sadly lost her brother two years ago. It was a huge shock to her mom, who was only 5 feet 2 inches and only discovered she was having twins when they came into the world. 

Who’s Who in Pieced Together Janet Hill

Janet Hill was born and raised in Hawaii – in a little town called Hana, Maui.  She left the island to go to graduate school at the University of Illinois – studying social work.  She traveled with a friend who was going to school in California and got a job and stayed in the Bay Area.  She was a Social Services Foster Care and Adoption Social Worker for the County of Alameda.  Janet also was an investigator for the juvenile court – investigating child abuse and neglect.

Janet traveled in Portugal to visit her family’s roots (she is involved in genealogy). She visited the church where her grandfather was baptized and  married.

Married to the most wonderful man in the world, they have three children, two girls and a boy and three grandchildren. They also have one great-grandson, Logan. He just turned one on June 21^st . 

 Janet’s mom was a quilter – mainly the traditional Hawaiian quilting. She and her sister helped with the quilting. Living in a small village, she grew up with sewing and quilting and crocheting.  After Janet’s father passed away, her mother realized she hadn’t taught her daughter to quilt from beginning to end so only then took the time to show them the whole process.

When she retired in 1989 she joined Kathy’s class. Janet dropped out two or three years because her Yoga class conflicted, but went back to San Lorenzo Adult School shortly before Kathy became ill.  She was in Wednesday afternoon class and Betty Collier brought her to Pieced Together Quilters.

Gardening and reading are Janet’s other hobbies. She loves the murder mysteries. 

A little known fact about Janet is she had a “Sister” doll dressed in a habit and wanted, for a short time to be a Catholic sister.

Who’s Who in Pieced Barbara Heep

I’ve been asked more than once who would interview ME!  I guess we can answer that! HA!  I’m German-Irish and grew up in El Paso, Texas.  I joined the Navy in 1968 and retired after 20 years in 1988.   At the end of my enlistment, my dear friend Janet Dawson, insisted I move up to the Bay Area from San Diego as this is where I had a larger support system. (My aunt and uncle lived here as well).  So, that’s how I ended up in San Leandro.

The first appliance I ever purchased was a sewing machine. I had that Kenmore for 20 years when I upgraded to a newer Kenmore – which is still my primary sewing machine. It is old, and has few features, but I love that little workhorse. I know it so well. I don’t even have to stop and think about how to make it go faster – like I do with my fancy embroidery Kenmore.  Do you recognize a theme here?  Kenmore is a trusted product. 

Hand crafts, hand embroidery, needlepoint and cross stitch were my favorite creative outlets but I always enjoyed sewing. However, I only began quilting in 2000. My Star Trek buddy (yep, I’m a huge Trekkie) Fran Ford, the president of our Star Trek club, had been attending Kathy’s class for some time. She invited me to join her and I started in the middle of the term in Baby Beginners.  So I took Baby Beginners again the next semester AND the next semester. Finally, Kathy kicked me out of Baby Beginners and I eventually finished a quilt two years later.  Did anybody else have trouble with the math? I mean ¼ inch – isn’t that a fraction!!!

It took a few years before I felt accepted in the class so when I finally made friends I was super bonded to the ladies. I think that is why, when Kathy passed away, I not only lost my dear teacher, but I was afraid I had lost my whole network of quilt friends. Fortunately, our dear Joy picked up the mantle and brought us together to continue Kathy’s legacy.  I joined Pieced Together Quilters shortly after I met Joy when she came to the Plaque Dedication naming the sewing classroom in honor of Kathy.

I am so grateful to Joy and to you my quilting sisters. I would be so sad without you.

Who’s Who in Pieced - Sandy Gard

My sweet sister quilter, Sandy Gard, is a native Californian, born in Oakland and lives now in San Leandro! Wow what a world traveler.

In 1980, Sandy began quilting with Linda Cumming. Kathy Honeycutt was one of the STUDENTS!  Can you imagine! Having Kathy as a classmate! She began quilting because she finally has some free time. She went to class, scheduling around her kids school time. She did interrupt her quilt time when she worked full-time but soon came back to us in 2000.

After retiring, she stayed in the Tuesday evening class at San Lorenzo Adult School and joined Pieced Together Quilters when Joan Penrose mentioned the group. Sandy and Joan had been in Donna Sorenson sewing class so they are old friends too! 

Married a very long time to the best guy in the world, Rich and Sandy enjoy life together. They have four children, seven granddaughters and on very spoiled grandson! Kyle is her most handsome and favorite grandson.

Her other hobbies are knitting, – cleaning her sewing room - color me shocked -, yoga and hiking. She uses hiking poles – we’re talking hard core! OK, hubby is hard core, Sandy is a moderate hiker. She loves all the other things we all enjoy, reading, cooking and gardening. She tries to force herself to stay in bed until 6:30AM, but that doesn’t always work. (Sounds like Martha Stewart).

A little know fact about Sandy is she rescued her nieces’ retainer out of a public restroom – Sandy says her sister still owes her big time.  She reached right in, grabbed that device and gave it back to the poor kid who had just barfed it up!

Sandy told me about the on-line shop hop – where I won the $10 prize THREE times. Sandy has won $100 prize on the on-line hop AND a free sewing machine on a local shop hop. Next time I’ll sit beside her when I Bunny-Hop through the on-line shops.