10 Questions - Peg Shealy

I want to start a new blog feature that will help us get to know each other better. I'm calling the series "10 questions" because that's what this is: a 10 question interview. It's not all family and background. I'm hoping that we can learn some new and fun things about each other. Peg Shealy has agreed to be the first "honoree" .

Peg also sent along some photos of her creative space and of the quilt on her bed. I hope you enjoy getting to know Peg better. I bet you didn't know what she studied in college.....

1. If you live in Hanover (or the area), how many generations of your family have lived here and how did they come to settle here? If you moved here, where are you from and what brought you here?

I'm not from Hanover. We moved here from northern Virginia in 2001. We wanted more land than we could find in Fairfax County, and we wanted to live in a quieter place where we could have a big garden and room for the kids to roam. We looked all over the northern half of the State. We found a piece of land that was exactly what we wanted and we built our house. I love it here. I'm originally from Massachusetts, and my husband was born in Richmond but grew up in Delaware.

2. When you were young what did you plan to be when you grew up and what happened with those plans?

The only thing I remember planning to be was an archeologist. I don't remember when or why I changed my plans. In the first few years of college I considered majors in English, Home Economics, Geology, and several other things, but nothing seemed quite right. I've always loved maps, and when my mom suggested I study cartography, I realized it was the perfect choice. I switched schools, changed my major to geography with an emphasis on cartography, got a job as a cartographer after college, and worked in the field for more than 25 years. It was a great fit for my interests and talents.

3. What are your favorite local restaurants?

We don't go out to eat much. I like Yokozuna Sushi in Ashland (but I never eat their sushi - I like the other things on the menu) and the Virginia Barbeque Company.

4. What hobbies do you have other than quilting? Where do you do them?

I like lots of different kinds of needlework - knitting, crochet, garment sewing, embroidery, etc. I used to do a lot of counted cross stitch but not so much any more. I like to garden, and we also do a lot of dancing - mostly ballroom, contra, and Scottish country dancing. I learned the Scottish when I was a teenager and got into the other dancing from that. And I like to cook and bake.

5. As a child what was your nickname and how did you get it? Do people still call you by that name?

I guess you'd say Peg is a nickname, because my legal name is Margaret. My family called me Peggy when I was little but I switched to Peg when I left for college. I've never been called Margaret - that was my grandmother's name and everyone called her that (only people who didn't know her called her Mrs. Rawson) so it would have been confusing if I was Margaret, too. But it was always a special bond between us, that we had the same name.

6. Is your sewing machine(s) named? If so, what is it and why?

No. I sometimes name my cars, but never any other equipment. :-)

7. Show us a photo (or photos) of where you create.

I need to clean it up first! I have a room that's known as "the sewing room". It has all my projects in it, along with my desk with the computer. Lately a lot of non-project things have been stashed in there which means I don't have much room to work, so I spill out into the living room, front hall, dining room, or even the kitchen. I like to do rotary cutting at the kitchen counter because it's the perfect height. I carry projects around with me, especially my knitting, and do them wherever I happen to be. (I'll take a picture of the sewing room but it will probably be a few days....)

8. Show us a photo of the quilt that’s on your bed right now.

(How many members remember seeing this one when Peg finished it a few years ago?)

9. What quilt is your worst quilt. Not necessarily the ugliest but the one that you liked the least or struggled with the most or just plain hated making. Why did you choose this one?

If I really struggle with a quilt or I hate making it, it usually doesn't get finished. Shortly before we moved here I made a mystery quilt that I didn't like once it was done. If I'd known what the pattern was I would have made different fabric choices and I might have liked it better. It was a wall hanging and I gave it to an auction at my church. I don't have a picture of it.

10. What is your all time favorite quilt and why.

That's a hard question - I like lots of things but I don't really have a favorite, either of my own quilts or of ones made by other people. I usually make relatively traditional, pieced, scrappy quilts, but I really appreciate the more modern quilts made by members of our group, and I love seeing great applique quilts (partly because I know I'll never make one.) I like the quilt that's on my bed right now, and I'm excited about a couple I have in work.

Thank you Peg!