Diane Leighton

My quilting life began in the early 1980's after a weekend of visiting my friend Sally who had recently become a quilter. I was fascinated with the quilts she had created and thirsty for the how-to knowledge. I bought a book that weekend that would change my life forever. It was called You Can Be a Super Quilter by Carla Hassel. Does anyone remember that book?

For a few years, I learned to quilt from books, by myself until I discovered other quilters, the Valley Quilt Guild and what it meant to have quilting friends. During this time my husband and I owned a restaurant and I was recruited to teach in the Foodservice department at Yuba College (which I did for over ten years). In 1985 I asked my division dean, Don Lehman, if I could start a class in quilting (if I could handle Foodservice, I could certainly teach my first love, quilting). That class was the beginning of an adventure that continues to the present.

My involvement into quilting as grown as quickly as these twenty-some years have passed. My biggest fan (my husband) left me five years ago but his encouragement is always in my thoughts. Since I retired from nursing last year, I have even more time for my passion.