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PEACE BY PIECE: A Woman’s Journey with Quilts

	Karen Strid grew up in and around Bristol, CT and moved to Hebron, CT in 1986. She has three children, two sons that have grown and gone and a daughter, Elaina, who is 32 and has Down’s Syndrome. Karen is a seamstress who has worked out of her home since her children were small. Karen began quilting when she moved to Hebron while attending the First Congregational Church of Hebron. The Missions committee at the church would make a quilt a year and raffle it throughout the Town raising money for various projects for the church. When she first began, they would all sit around a quilt frame and quilt by hand. In 2007 she decided to make her hobby, quilting, into a business, naming it Peace by Piece. Left - When Hartford Hospital banned different colored scrubs, nurse Donna Trott collected all the scrubs from her department and commissioned Karen to put together this quilt, which now hangs on the wall of the Cancer Floor at Hartford Hospital. Karen Strid on left.
Today, Karen works with a non-computerized APQS Millennium longarm machine, a frame that can handle up to 120 x 120 quilt. The machine fastens the top of the quilt to the batting and backing. Karen has taught classes out of her home and at the Hebron Senior Center. She exhibits with other local quilters at the Hebron Maple Festival, held in Town for the past 20 years. The quilts are exhibited in the Old Town Hall on the weekend of March 19th and 20th. Beginning last year, she has given quilting demonstrations with her dear friend Nathalie Peltier-Horton at Country Carpenters, LLC during the Maple Festival, and has displayed her many recent projects and her friend’s projects. Karen has donated a quilt to the Horizons LLC, which provides employment for the disabled, where her daughter attends. One of Karen’s quilts, “Simply Fun”, made with batik fabrics, brought $2500 for Horizons. Peace by Piece has been involved in a number of out-of-the ordinary custom quilts, like the one where a woman brought her all of her late father’s ties and asked Karen to create a memorial quilt for them.
Above - A woman whose father passed away took all his ties to Karen and had her make this quilt with them. The quilt now hangs in the woman's stairwell. Right - Quilt "Simply Fun" raffled off for $2500 to benefit Horizon LLC, which provides employment for the disabled and adults with Down's Syndrome. Made with batiks fabrics.	At Maple Festival exhibit in Hebron, CT. Left, Nathalie Peltier-Horton, quilting friend. Middle, Karen Strid. Right, Elaina Strid.

	Left - This quilt incorporates marine T-shirts for a man who loved sailing. Rope braid is in sashing.

“The great thing about having the quilt business is that I’ve been able to be there for Elaina when she has needed me”, Karen told me. “One of Elaina’s favorite things is going with me to the Maple Festival. She drinks up all the pleasure she sees people taking in all the quilts”.