Elly Sienkiewicz

has written eighteen important needlework books on appliqué from plain to fancy. With all these books on appliqué, she is widely recognized as the foremost expert on appliqué. Elly is also a respected scholar on the antebellum Baltimore Album Quilts. Twelve of her books are on the Baltimore Albums; eleven of them comprise The Baltimore Beauties and Beyond series begun with Volume I (C & T Publishing) in 1989. Mrs. Sienkiewicz explores a complex historical style ---"the Baltimore-style Album Quilts" and places it within the grasp of every contemporary quilt maker. She does this through clear patterns and techniques, which demystify the construction process. Her leadership sustains the Baltimore Album Revival, now in its third decade. In a linked fellowship, needleworkers who love this style have taken it to something closely related but clearly now "beyond Baltimore". Elly’s path from academic historian and teacher to stay-at-home mother of three, led her to become one of the first professionals in the nascent quilt movement of the early 1970s. Elly notes that her Wellesley College Class of 1964 is a "cusp generation" — "women who as freshmen expected to live their mother’s 1950’s societal ideal, but who were radically different by the time they graduated.

         Equipped with a Masters of Science from the University of Pennsylvania, Elly taught history for seven years, but when her children came, her traditionalist desire to stay home with them allowed her lifelong love of needlework to come to the fore. She was led to home-centered enterprises; finally to those relating to the burgeoning quilt industry. Her experience ranged from quilting teacher to retail mail-order proprietor, to respected quiltmaker, author and historian, and The Elly Sienkiewicz Appliqué Academy^® LLC, an annual teaching conference with an East coast site, drawing attendees from across the industrialized world.

         A prolific author, Elly’s first book, Spoken Without a Word, A Lexicon of Symbols from the Baltimore Album Quilts with 24 Faithfully Reproduced Patterns is now a collector’s item trading in the three-figures on websites E-Bay and Amazon. Her 18th and latest book combines yet more innovative and traditional appliqué techniques: Baltimore Elegance, A New Approach to Classic Album Quilts (C & T Publishing, 2007). Her books have explored every conceivable aspect of appliqué from the simplest (Appliqué 12 Easy Ways! which won the Quilt Industry Classics Award for Best Book on appliqué; to one-layer "papercut " designed appliqué; to no-sew appliqué (for greeting cards and cloth); to dimensional and ribbon appliqué; to the twelve book odyssey which tutors the modern in the joyous exuberance of classic mid-19th century Album Quilt appliqué. Each of her books has been widely commended internationally. Elly’s devotion as a teacher, her patience, her concern for her students, and her love for quiltmaking have made her a cherished mentor. Because of her expertise on the historical Baltimore Album Quilts, she has been a featured lecturer not only at quilt symposiums and guilds across the country but internationally, on five continents. Her articles and needlework are widely published both here and abroad. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband, and whenever they are home, son Donald and wife Katja [sic] and their four children, son Alex and wife Holly and their two children.

           Elly Sienkiewicz has been designing and making quilts, studying, writing and teaching on quiltmaking for several decades. C&T Publishing sponsored two major Baltimore Album Revival Exhibitions (1994 and 1998) to celebrate the explosive impact of her twelve books fueling this century’s ongoing Baltimore Album Revival. Before becoming so deeply involved with group-made Albums, Elly's individual work hung at shows across the country and at Museums and Galleries in and around Washington, DC, her hometown. She has lectured and had her work hung on exhibition in Canada, Denmark, Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, Japan, New Zealand, and South Africa. Widely admired both as a needlewoman and as a scholar, she writes with sensitivity and insight about quiltmaking and quiltmakers. Consumed by the question of why we all so love quiltmaking so, she is a delightful teacher and an inspiring lecturer. Affirming this, she has lectured from the Smithsonian Institution, the American Quilt Study Group, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Maryland Historical Society, on across the country, and on five continents.

           Since 1973, her work has been widely published in quilt magazines in the USA, Europe, and Japan, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa. Articles by and about Elly and the Appliqué Academy have appeared in The Magazine Antiques, Folk Art Magazine, Country Living, Victoria, Southern Living, American Patchwork and Quilting, Patchwork Tsushin (Japan), Nissan Vogue (Japan), Quilts Japan, Threads, Woman Sense (Korea), The Wellesley Alumna Magazine, Journal of the American Quilt Study Group, Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine, Ladies' Circle Patchwork Quilts, Quilting Today, Quilt, Traditional Quiltworks, Creative Crafts, American Quilter Magazine, American Quilter, numerous European publications, The Washington Post Magazine, The Uptown Citizen (DC.), The Townsman and The News Tribune (Wellesley, MA).

           Elly says she is never happier than when she is teaching quiltmaking, and you'll find that happiness contagious! Lecture Title: "What is this Fascination with the Baltimore Album Quilts?", 2003 marked the 20th anniversary of Elly’s first book on the Album Quilts, Spoken Without a Word" and her long fascination with the historic intrigue and art of these quilts. What is this fascination, shared by so many and for so long? Artistic and historic aspects, symbolism and needlework techniques spin out the intriguing tale of why these quilts are so highly valued. A fast-paced slide talk threads through Album blocks and Album symbols, across continents and through Victorian graveyards! Elly’s website — www.EllySienkiewicz.com — is an elegant source of information on her Appliqué Academy and international teaching schedule.

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