Memories of Mary Ellen Hopkins 07-11-13

Mary Ellen was a ball of energy and so very funny. I've been trying to remember the name of her fabric shop; I think it was Crazy Ladies and Friends in Santa Monica. She carried fabrics that one didn't see in other shops, but it was a very small space. She was close with Kaye Rheingans, the founder of Orange County Quilters Guild, who was very tall and "stout". The two of them would be on stage, Mary Ellen giving one of her presentations and Kaye helping her hold quilts. Tiny Mary Ellen would hop up on a chair so they could hold the quilt straight, one on each side. They would banter back and forth and the audience would be rolling in the aisles.  I took a couple classes with her, but I couldn’t get into her PPM (Personal Private Measurement).   She thought everyone should work with their own seam allowance and forget about the ¼” standard.  I had been making quilts for a lot of years and knew that consistency of seam allowance was important.  I couldn’t change to PPM.  But her books offered new techniques and ideas, so I just used my own PPM, which was/is ¼”.   She had a good influence on the growth of quiltmaking, offering quicker ways to create and finish a quilt.  She was a quilting pioneer.