Georgia Bonesteel
Biography

For 30 years Georgia Bonesteel has been a leader in the quilt world. As the creator and host of "Lap Quilting," produced by the North Carolina Center for Public Television, she has shared her enthusiasm and love of quilting on 12 series of the show since 1979.

A longtime seamstress, Georgia attended Iowa State University and graduated from Northwestern University. A Home Economics and Merchandizing degree enabled her to get a job in the Fashion Department of Marshall Field & Co. after college. Marriage and three children took the Bonesteels to New Orleans where she renewed to her love of sewing. She was a guest on a television series, Sewing Is Fun, sponsored by Sears and Roebuck & Co. where she learned valuable television skills.

This experience started a small business called Cajun Quilters, where she made one-of-a-kind quilted patchwork evening bags from necktie scraps and sold them in the French Quarter. She never forgot the very first bag ever sold. It came back the next day with pins inside. "So, I had to finish it on the spot," she said. One time while stitching on a bag on an airplane the gentleman sitting next to her had the same material in a tie he was wearing. When she moved to North Carolina she became interested in full size quilts and began teaching at Blue Ridge Community College. Soon after that her mother suggested she share her teaching skills on television. The rest is history.

Georgia is a member of the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild and is the founding president of the Western North Carolina Quilter's Guild. She is also a member of the Asheville Quilt Guild where she was presented with the Dorothy Tresner Award in 2002. Her membership with the Landrum Quilt Guild was honored the same year with a lifetime recognition award. Most recently Georgia served as president of International Quilt Association and in 2002 was presented the Silver Star Award at the Houston Festival. In July of 2003 she was inducted into the Quilters Hall of Fame in Marion, Indiana.

Her quilting activities are numerous, consisting of workshops, slide lectures, demonstrations, judging of quilt shows and authoring eight books including: Lap Quilting Your Legacy Quilt, Lap Quilting (no longer in print), More Lap Quilting, New Ideas for Lap Quilting, Easy Does It Quilts, Patchwork Potpourri (no longer in print) and Lap Quilting Lives.

Teaching, Georgia's first love, is her way of perpetuating the art of quiltmaking. Currently she hosts two week-long retreats at Freedom Escape Lodge in Weaverville, North Carolina and one week at The Nine Quarter Circle Ranch in Gallatin Gateway, Montana. Sharing and learning are the benchmarks of these group sessions. Students bring a wealth of hometown quilt knowledge to these groups providing a wonderful interchange of methods and ideas. These retreats are also another kind of the old fashioned quilting bees. Mostly it is just a lot of fun!