Mary Lou Donahue Weidman began quilting with her Maternal Grandmother. Mary Lou’s Father was an artist and musician and encouraged creativity and to look at the world in a curious, positive way. Color, texture, shapes and composition were discussed at an early age and any drawing, coloring, painting or crafts of the day was encouraged. Painting was my Dad’s number one love and he passed this along to me. After taking Fine Arts in school and selling both oil paintings on canvas and posters of girls in bikini’s to fraternity boys, Mary Lou graduated and did layout work for the city newspaper, store windows, rodeo billboards, and other avenues in art. All of this with three small children in two and the dream of going back to owning an art studio and doing what I really wanted….to grow in my discovery of art.

After spending time with my son at home while he went through many cancer treatments over a five year period, I longed to go back to painting and to do a folk art style. My son got better and I had started quilting alot while he was in the hospital though I still kept drawing pads close and did both painting and drawing at home. Around 1988, I started teaching story quilts which I had discovered quite by accident. It was through this discovery that I realized that quilters have the opportunity to tell the world who they are and what and who they love. These quilts will surely be the ones to be studied in the future as they tell about people today and the details of their lives. What does your artwork tell about YOU? And once you die, what will your memory be and how long will that last? A quilt can last for hundreds of years and you have the opportunity to tell your story and to put in pieces of Grandma’s dresses, old table cloths, handwork, watch, necklace or earrings. I have done all of these and you can do the same with your things, your Aunts things, your best friends things, your husbands things and so it goes on and on.

Now I am at a new place in my art life. I am painting again on fabric and I am piecing alot and appliquing and stretching and not doing the same things over and over. I know that I am truly an artist and as a nun who was one of my best art teachers said “good art doesn’t need a description next to it, it either works or it doesn’t. My artworks and I work hard to make it work. It is my passion and will be until I pass.

Mary Lou has written five quilting books for Martingale and C&T, owns a pattern company, has designed fabric for 14 years and 10 of that for Benartex, represents Bernina (she loves these machines), has written many booklets and has taught all across the US (she is missing 2 states only), Canada and 8 countries.