In the studio with Maree St Clair

Maree St Clair believes she started her stitching career when she was around five years old. She learned to sew mostly from her grandmother, first by hand and then, when she could reach the plate, on the treadle sewing machine. “My mother and my grandmother both knitted and crocheted and did embroidery, so I learnt those skills from them as well,” Maree explains. She continued to sew and used to make a lot of her own clothes, also making all of her three children’s clothes.

With the arrival of her fourth son, Maree began patchwork and quilting and made fewer garments. “I have tried many crafts, but I found patchwork and quilting in 1995 just prior to the birth of my son, Andrew. I started off with machine piecing and was mostly self-taught.”

In 1997, her family made the move to the United States for three months for her husband’s work. She spent a lot of that time gaining more knowledge of the art of patchwork and quilting. Upon their