Meet the Makers

Note: Makers are added to this list periodically, it is not at all complete.

Holly Cheatham

Holly grew up in Marin County and never lived in town. She is 71 now, and has only experienced the city life for four years. She moved to the San Juan Ridge seven years ago, though she had come visiting regularly for 12 years before.

Before retiring she had worked as a nurse and a paramedic. She now enjoys reading and needlework of many kinds (Though she doesn't knit, and wants to learn how). She is also an avid photographer and painter. Her artistic intuition is a huge help for finding the color and balance in embroidering, though she says it is harder to "get what you want" when working with the tapestries. She plays the key role in creating the beading on all the tapestries.

One day, while at Mary Moore's home, Holly saw a tapestry in the making and was prompted to work on it. She has been involved in the project ever since.

Mary Moore

Mary grew up in Southern California, and spent most of her time on the beach. She moved to the San Juan Ridge in 2002, after drawing a two hour travel circle around her son's new home. Before retiring, Mary worked as a librarian. She also taught for a short period of time, but stopped because "I liked the teaching, but not the discipline, for me and for the students". She now spends her time fostering a gazillion dogs (a lot), quilting, and reading. She also studied art and color theory, which she says helps her see embroidering from a distance, and "it can't hurt to speak the same language as the cartoonist".

She started the tapestry project with Marsha Stone in 2005, and the first tapestry spent four years in the making. There's more to tapestries than just the stitches, and planning got the better of them. In 2008, the project took off.

Mary says her favorite embroiderings are the hills in the diggings, which can be seen in "The Land Then and Now". She is also proud of the dust on the left on "Don't Mine Our Water".

Next October, Mary will go on a trunk show in Downiville to show her many quilts and some of the tapestries (A trunk show is a fancy quilting term for a presentation tour which consists of stuffing as much of your work as you can into the trunk of your car and going to show it off in faraway places).

Susan Moser

Susan Moser grew up in Southern California, where she liked to read and play on the beach. Now, she lives right here on the San Juan Ridge, where she still loves to read, and do things with her grandchildren. She also likes to take walks and, obviously, work on the tapestry. “I work on the tapestry mainly because it draws in so many interesting people, and you meet new people almost every day,” she says. 

As a San Juan Ridge dweller, Susan participates in the Blind Shady Road Association, as the Secretary, organizing meetings weeding, brush removal, leveling of the road, and many other things. When asked what her favorite thing embroidered by herself, Susan mentions a chicken which can be found tumbling head over heels through the “Great Disruption,” otherwise known as the middle section of “The Land Then and Now.” Susan’s favorite thing about the tapestry project is “the companionship of it all.” 

Jane Brice Hill

Jane was born in San Francisco, but she feels she is more of a Ridge person due to the fact that she has lived in North San Juan for 15 years. When asked why she joined The Tapestry Project, she recalls a year in which she visited the Sierra Storytelling Festival and saw the tapestries for the first time. She was amazed at the beauty of the embroidering, and as she looked up and wondered, she heard a voice ask, “Would you like to embroider with us?” . Soon enough she was working away. She says the nicest thing she has embroidered so far is an uprooted Oak Tree in “The Land Then and Now” tapestry.

Jane has gotten many compliments regarding a safe depicted in “Don’t Mine Our Water”. She says embroidering the safe was a fun experience because of the challenge of the heavy shading.

Jane enjoys nature very much and is enamoured with the local Yuba River. She loves working in her garden and practices aikido. 

Jennifer Rain Crosby 

Some details of the construction  of Oak Tree School, tapestry

 

Additional information regarding the project.
http://igg.me/at/ridgetapestry/x