As a 4-H member at the age of nine or ten, Karen took the sewing classes offered. They happened to be taught by her mother. "It just must have been my niche. I understood everything, my fingers seemed to take naturally to fabric and I just fell completely in love with fabric and sewing," Karen says.

"I remember one time when I wanted to sew, but had nothing to work on. I asked my mom if I could hem some dust rags for her. My Grandma, who had gone through the Depression, answered before my Mom could, 'Oh no, we don’t hem dust rags. That’s an awful waste of thread!' Bless her heart! "

 "My Grandma was always sewing or knitting. Her mother was a professional seamstress in Norway, and when my Grandma and Grandpa immigrated to the US, Grandma carried on the tradition. She sewed clothes for several ladies in a nearby nursing home and various things for her grandkids. She made me a blue fake fur vest which I thought was cool!"

 "Although my grandma was a seamstress, the only quilt I ever saw her work on was a Cathedral Window. My aunt has that quilt now and it is my hope that it stays in the family. Cathedral Windows are such beautiful quilts! When I

was very young I had a Sunbonnet Sue quilt. I don’t know who made it for me, and unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to it. These are the only two quilts I remember from my childhood."

When Karen was in her thirties, she saw a Lone Star quilt at a women’s retreat she attended with the ladies of her church. It had beautiful appliqués in the corners and was quilted by hand. It was also the only one she recalls seeing there though she feels there must have been more. "Right then and there, I knew I would learn to make quilts. It marked a turning point for me," says Karen. Slowly but surely, she did learn. "Lots of mistakes and some odd-looking things resulted from my efforts, but I improved little by little and was finally able to state that I knew how to make a quilt!" she explains.

Lone Star Log Cabin Quilt
from Log Cabin: A Brand New Story

Since third grade Karen says, she always felt that she simply had to sew something. She had to play with fabric in one way or another. She made clothes for herself and for her children, curtains, and place mats. Eventually she tired of it all. For one thing, her children were older and began wanting clothes purchased at the mall. With that Lonestar Quilt in mind, Karen says, "I turned my seamstress days into quilting days."

Karen taught herself to quilt. Since she was already an expert seamstress she thought that quilting could not be too much different. At the time, local quilt shops were not prevalent, but she did have lots of fabric left over from sewing. “It didn't’t take me long to realize that not all of my fabric could be incorporated into a quilt!"

After learning to quilt, Karen started selling the quilts she made. She and her sister began doing the rounds of craft fairs thinking it would be an easy way to make some extra money. "Hey, why not start at the top?" they thought. They

put together an interesting array of crafts and submitted them to one of the juried shows in their town. "Now that I look back on it," says Karen, "I laugh when I remember the products that we thought were so wonderful." They received a polite, "Thank you, but no thank you," and started all over again, this time, at the bottom. Interestingly, after they had been doing their shows for a few years and had found their niche, that same juried show invited them to be a part of their show. Unfortunately, their schedule was solidly booked and they were unable to accept.

Karen's Design Sheet for her
Star Gathering Pattern

They decided to get the smallest booth at the new Craft Mall, but had no idea what to put in it. Karen's sister, Kris, came up with the idea of small, cute, wooden items of her own design and Karen made a few primitive dolls. Her quilts were simply added as a background to feature their other work and give their booth a homey look. To her surprise, what sold were her quilts. In fact, she found that they sold just as fast as she could make them.

"Eventually we found our style and our groove and began working in earnest. My goodness but that was hard work! We spent twelve to fourteen hours a day making our share of the inventory. Doing the shows was absolutely backbreaking – setting up the booth, selling for two to three days straight, and then tearing down the booth. What were we thinking? We were earning, but it was definitely not easy! We did collect a very devoted following of customers. We sent them postcards to let them know whenever we were going to be at a fair and they were always there waiting for us. They came to all of our shows and immediately bought up our best items, which was very nice."

Karen and her sister held yearly shows which they uniquely named The Spring Chicken Boutique. They used their mother’s house because it was large and centrally located. They worked hard to clear most of the bottom floor and set up shop. They enjoyed not having to deal with small booths and felt their setup was "interesting and quirky." They arranged a small play area for children and served "coffee and yummies."

Their boutiques were very successful and everyone who participated had a great time, but again, they found it a tremendous amount of work. Their mother enjoyed this, calling it her "Annual Spring Cleaning."

Karen enjoys teaching quilt classes. She likes getting to know the quilters and finds it fascinating to watch them put their own spin on her patterns. She is not sure whether she will continue to teach because what she enjoys most are the days spent in her sewing room, designing, making quilts, or writing pattern directions. Also, being newly married (she and here husband celebrated their first anniversary last month) she does not want to do the amount of travelling that would be involved.

Karen’s original business is the Idaho Quilt Company, but when she married last year, she moved from Idaho to Missouri changing both her name and her State just as her first book was published. She is in the process of starting up a new design company, Cotton Spice, which will be launched in the fall of this year. She would like to do more contemporary designs, not quite art quilts, but something a little different. At the moment she is having her patterns tested and although she does not want to give away any secrets just yet, she will be using some different techniques.

Yellow Stars
This award winning quilt pattern will soon be available on Karen's site.

Between them, Karen and her husband have seven children, five grandsons, and two grandbabies on the way. They live in a big, old house that has been in her husband’s family for many years. Their home is filled with quilts, and threads cover the floor. Her family has learned to check her for threads before leaving for church, and also to make sure she is not wearing her slippers.

Log Cabin: A Brand New Story by Karen Murphy is a unique book combining beautiful, new, log cabin variations and a wonderful story about the first log cabin quilt. Karen’s sister, Kris Lammers, is the artist. Kris is also an illustrator for Gooseberry Patch, and designs quilt fabrics for Maywood Studio.

Read the review of this beautiful book our August 2005 issue of this newsletter.

Karen is busy preparing a series of nine to ten Rail Fence patterns which will progress from easy designs for beginners to more complicated ones for experienced quilters.

To learn more about Karen and to order her book, please visit her site, Idaho Quilt Company.