2004 Featured Quilter

Our Friend, Monica "Mike" Kroeger

Mike grew up on a farm near Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.  The oldest of 18 children, she milked cows, pitched hay and helped care for her younger siblings.  She took her first sewing classes in high school and make her own graduation dress.  She started quilting after many years of sewing clothes for her eight children.  She made everything from blue jeans to formals.

Mike's first quilting class was a sampler quilt, making a block a week.  She went to class and had her block done the next day.  Needless to say, she was hooked and has been making quilts ever since.

I met Mike in the mid 1980's soon after she started quilting.  We had a small group that met on a weekly basis and then in 1995 we both signed up for the Quilt Factory.  She is never without a quilt in progress.  I taught her to hand quilt and she taught me needle-turn applique.

Four years ago Mike was diagnosed with MS.  Since then she has been making wedding quilts for her grandchildren who range in age from 4 to 24, just in case she won't be sewing in 10 or 20 years.

We've been to Paducah, Kentucky, twice...to Shipshiwana once, and traveled to countless quilt shows from Oshkosh to Chicago, Green Bay to Sun Prairie.  And we're still having fun.

I hope you enjoy Mike's quilts as much as she has enjoyed making them.

Helen Goetz