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Harriet Hargrave
Harriet comes from a family of quilters. Her grandmother,
mother, and several of her 8 Aunts quilted in the 1930's and
1940's. Her mother tried to teach Harriet to hand quilt in
the early '70s, but to no avail. Harriet mastered machine
embroidery in the mid-1970's, and adapted machine quilting
from there. She was machine quilting when the local quilt
guilds thought machine piecing was not kosher, let alone
machine quilting! She was teaching machine piecing,
appliqué and quilting through the adult education system by
1978, and opened her store, Harriet's
Treadle Arts, along side her mother in April of 1981. The store
started out to be machine arts, but quickly was taken over
by machine quilting and piecing classes and supplies.
In 1983, Martie Michelle saw Harriet's antique reproduction
pieces and was amazed at how hand quilted they appeared.
Harriet essentially introduced nylon thread to the quilt
world through those quilts. By 1984, she was demonstrating
at Houston Quilt Market and teaching the last day of Mary
Ellen Hopkins week long seminars. Martie Michelle asked
Harriet to write a book on machine quilting for her
publishing company, then known as Yours Truly. The first
edition of Heirloom
Machine Quilting was released March of 1987. C & T
published the second edition, expanded and updated, in 1990.
The third edition was updated again in 1995 and the most
resent 4th edition was updated, re-written and released in
2004. The first
edition of Mastering
Machine Appliqué was released in 1991 and then revised
and re-released in 2002, From
Fiber to Fabric in 1997 (out of print) which is the
quilters bible for textiles and their care and keeping, and The
Art of Classic Quilt Making in 2000 that Harriet
co-authored with her friend Sharon Craig and is the ultimate
guide to learning how to piece.
Harriet has also worked side by side with H.D. Wilbanks of
Hobbs bonded fibers to develop an exceptional line of
natural fiber battings to meet quilters' needs. P & B
Textiles has printed four very successful lines of
reproduction fabrics for Harriet. She is now working on more
fabric for P & B.
In 1994 Harriet was chosen by a panel of her peers as one of
the 88 Leaders of the Quilt World for a book that was
released by the same title out of Japan, and in 2006 was
nominated for Professional Quilter's Teacher of the Year.
She has traveled extensively worldwide since 1985, including
England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and every
state in the US. She has definitely spread the word that
machine quilting is okay, and that our quilts are not
machine quilted, but "hand quilted with an electric
needle."
Harriet's Treadle Arts
Opened in 1981 by Harriet and her mother Fran and was the first quilt store in the Denver area to
specialize only in machine quilting, piecing, and appliqué.
Now it is the standard in almost all stores nationwide. The
store is now run and managed by Harriet and her daughter
Carrie .
Starting in a small 600 square foot house, the store is now
4000 square feet of quilting heaven. Over 3000 bolts of the
finest quality cotton fabrics, over 17 different types of
batting to choose from, extensive thread selection, and
notions for every use are offered in a very warm, homey
atmosphere. Park benches and magazines are offered to keep
the husbands entertained while you shop.
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