MILDRED (MILLIE) SORRELLS

   Through the years Millie has crocheted, knitted, been a seamstress, done handicrafts and learned to paint using acrylics and watercolors. These skills were good training for quilt making, because they each incorporated color, texture, design, and precision workmanship. In 1981 Millie decided she wanted to make a quilt. She had seen the book"Let's Make a Patchwork Quilt" advertised in the Farm Journal magazine; She ordered the book and in a year had made a Sampler quilt.The next year she made another Sampler, which had thirty different blocks; and, since then, has made over 200 quilts, large quilts, wallhangings, miniatures, and clothing. She has a constant urge to handle fabrics and has so many ideas that she won't live long enough to accomplish them all. There are several projects going all the time. Her first tendency was to do traditional quilts; but, as time went by, she wanted to design something different getting her ideas from all kinds of resources. She machine stitches most piecing, enjoys intricate applique and hand quilting,and in the last five years has began doing heirloom machine quilting. Millie likes the relaxation of the handwork and the portability.She has learned a lot of new techniques out of the many books that are published and enjoys teaching these different techniques to her students. Millie teaches at a local quilt shop and presents trunk shows and teaches classes for guilds around the country.
  She has been sending her quilts all over the United States to contests. Sometimes they win something and sometimes they don't, but one of the things she likes are the comments she receives, which tell you what you need to improve on. Millie’s quilts have placed in the following shows: American Quilters Society Show, Houston International Quilt Festival, National Quilt Association,World Quilt and Textiles, Minnesota Quilters Show, Indiana Heritage Quilt Show, Quilt America, Dollywood, Quilting in the Tetons, Rockome Gardens Show, Miniature Quilt Magazine Contest, Better Homes &Garden Blue Ribbon Contest, Labor of Love Contest, the Illinois State Fair and quite a few others. Some of the Publications that her quilts have appeared in are: Miniature Quilt magazine front cover and pattern, Better Homes &Gardens book American Heritage Quilts-picture and pattern, Quilters Newsletter magazine, Quilting Today magazine. 1998 and 2001 AQS Calendar, 2001 Quilt Art Engagement Calendar and 2005 Lang calendar "American Quilt Calendar" put out by International Quilt Association. In the Spring 2009 issue of Machine Quilting Unlimited  her quilt "Past to the Present" was on the cover and she was the featured quilter with a nice article about her machine quilting.                                                                                                                                                           
   Millie is a charter member of the American Quilters Society and has attended all twenty five of their shows. She also belong to National Quilting Association, International Quilters Association, Land of Lincoln Quilters Association-served as President 1998-99, Prairie Quilters guild-served as President, and Quilt Expo 90, our Macomb show, served as chairman of the show. In Aug of 2002 the Land of Lincoln Quilters Association inducted her into their Quilting Hall of Fame.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
  Some of her other interests are exercising, snowmobiling, ice skating, hosta and flower gardening, thimble collecting, genealogy, and going to quilt shows and getting together with other quilters.