Karen Kuske shares her unique skills with fellow members of Loudon County’s local quilt guild — the Village Quilters, LLC.

Karen mastered the art of combining her hobbies with entrepreneurship.

She is an accomplished sailor and obtained a captain’s license from the United States Coast Guard. She lived with her husband aboard a boat for twelve years. She managed to combine her years of sewing and artistic experience to become a quilt pattern designer and instructor.


UNIQUE QUILTING STYLE

Her unique quilting style combines many techniques with inspiration from her extensive travels.

She noted that “after I made my first quilt, I loved it so much … I started buying quilt books of various techniques and made many different traditional styles.

“In 2002, while living aboard my boat on the Chesapeake Bay, I took a class by Carol Doak on foundation paper piecing and loved it. After that class, I started designing paper-pieced lighthouse patterns.

“I made five Chesapeake Bay lighthouse patterns.”

A LIFELONG ‘PATTERN’

Kuske’s venture into pattern making was part of a lifelong pattern of earning a living through activities she enjoys.

Her career includes supporting boating businesses with bookkeeping and administrative services, teaching sailing, serving as first mate on a charter boat, and importing sails and foul-weather gear from the United Kingdom.

Karen’s quilt-related career achievements include growing her initial five lighthouse patterns to 158 and establishing a website to sell the patterns (www.quiltpatternsmore.com).

Her twenty five years of quilting were a natural extension of her early days in Campfire Girls, 4-H and Home Ec classes, where she advanced from making pot holders to sewing her own tailored suits and wedding dress … and then garments for display in Jo-Ann Fabrics stores.

A LIFELONG LEARNER

A lifelong learner, Karen Kuske gravitated to non-traditional quilting when she discovered landscape quilts, read many landscape quilting books and began creating works to show and sell.

She explained that “in 2006, I started making landscapes and other large image appliqué quilts. I looked for classes to take on landscape quilts and signed up for the ones that were near where I lived in Colorado.

“A few classes I took were by Phil Beaver (hand-painted, raw-edge appliqué art quilts), David Taylor (appliqué landscape quilts), Ricky Tims (various styles of art quilts), Libby Lehman (thread painting) and Kestrel Michaud (raw-edge appliqué landscapes).”

She loved all the classes and developed her own landscape style, leading to many quilts being entered in national shows. Her lovely quilt, “Peaceful Snowy Woods,” was shown at the Houston International Quilt Festival in 2024.

A DREAM HOUSE BUILT IN LOUDON

When asked about her transition to Loudon, Tennessee, Karen noted that she had a home built with the perfect quilting studio and talked about how the guild helped her build a community here.

Karen explained that “being a quilter has encouraged me to join a quilt guild and become plugged into a community of people who love doing what I love … quilting.

“It’s really nice to belong to and be a part of a community where friendships can develop. The sharing of ideas, techniques, experiences and having friends to enjoy on a road trip to a quilt show or shopping are of great value.

“Being an introvert, it’s much easier to just stay home and be by myself, which is not good for most of the time. We all need people.

“Quilt guilds are usually a place with a bunch of nice people.”

Karen’s contributions to the guild have been welcome. She volunteered to coordinate speakers and teach workshops. In addition, her fabulous quilt entries in the biennial quilt show — “Quilts by the Lake” — are sure to draw a crowd.

The next show will be September 25th and 26th at The Venue in Lenoir City. We can’t wait to see what Karen enters!