Pam Holland Coming To St. George

I am so excited! Pam Holland is coming to St. George, Utah to teach at the School of Threadology for Superior Threads.

I have been a fan of Pam's ever since I read her book The 1776 Quilt.

I was captured not only by the quilt, but also by the story of Pam's life.

Pam is from Southern Australia, and she and her husband are the parents to 15 children. Three of their children are biological, and the rest have been adopted from various parts of southeast Asia. From 1967-2005 they were foster parents to 148 children, many of whom are special needs.

(In my opinion, they deserve a special place in Heaven for their service in behalf of children).

Being a parent of such a large family has included loss. Their daughter Liseby (age 24) was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in 1995.

During Liseby's illness, Pam began to quilt, mainly as "an antidote to grief".

"It was my therapy as I watched my beautiful daughter struggle with her disease; my emotions were hidden in every stitch" Pam wrote. Liseby's Hope became one of Pam's first quilts.

Six months after Liseby's passing, Pam was still in mourning. A close friend of Liseby's invited Pam to England for a 10 day bus tour. She had never traveled alone, or even slept in a bedroom of her own. She purchased a book titled "Quilts" that changed Pam's life, and propelled her into the making of the 1776 quilt. I will tell you more about that journey in tomorrow's post.

Pam now travels the world as a teacher, from Tokyo to Mexico to the United States and everywhere in between.

I feel very fortunate that I will be able to take a class from her next week at The School of Threadology. I know I will learn so much!

Pam is a true artist. From her pencil drawings and sketches...

...to her amazing photography. *This is my favorite picture from her recent trip to Mexico.

Pam also does videos presentations of her world travels for The Quilt Show with Alex Anderson and Ricci Tims.

She is very media savy.

And by reading Pam's blog each day, I would say she likes to have fun. I know she loves color, especially red and orange. These are her latest slippers made in Kazakhstan.

How can you not love a person who would putter around in slippers like these?

This is going to be a very wonderful week.