2021 Silver Thimble Award
Josephine de la Cruz Keasler

The Silver Thimble has been awarded in the Utah Quilt Guild since 1997. These winners have been chosen for their outstanding efforts to encourage, promote and preserve the art of quilt making in Utah. 

Josephine de la Cruz Keasler began sewing with her grandmother when she was just a small child. While attending church services with her husband, she noticed some ladies giggling excitedly in the back. Asking what was so interesting, they said they were excited to be going on a cruise for quilting. Josephine wanted to have fun also and joined them. She started by making 2 quilt bags. Then, those three ladies became her best friends and gave her a quilt as a birthday gift which introduced her to our wonderful world of quilting. After that she was hooked! She says her “first few quilts were examples of everything not to do when making a quilt.” Things have certainly gotten better since then! After living in Southern California since she was born, Josephine and her husband decided to move to Utah where she continues her involvement in all aspects of quilting. In Utah she has served as an officer of the state guild for many years. For our Guild she has served as the Beeline editor, Vice President, President elect, President and Past President. For various Quilt Fests, Josephine has been in charge of vendors and the quilt show, has made and donated opportunity quilts, and as the past president, ran “Sew Bewitching” Quilt Fest in 2019, actually making a small profit for the organization. She has also been instrumental in bringing in national teachers such as Ricky Tims, Alex Anderson, Sharon Schamber, Judy Niemeyer and Wendy Williams and others to the state for special classes as well. Recently Josephine has devoted her efforts to her love of teaching and she also continues to take classes from other instructors, thus enabling her to stay current in the “how to” department and, of course, to incorporate additional information when teaching others. Having made more than 172, over 50 of them Quiltworx quilts in just the past 15 years, she was honored to be an Artist in Residence for Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar. She exhibited 40 quilts at that time, including eight designs by Quiltworx. She is also a certified instructor for both Judy Niemeyer designs’ paper piecing and Laura Heine’s collage quilts. Josephine loves bling! Josephine has exceptional skills in all areas of quilting including design, piecing techniques, and border options. She has an excellent awareness of color theory including value and texture, and she thoroughly enjoys assisting her students in the color/fabric selection for their projects. As an example of her talent, expertise, and joy of teaching, in just the past year she has taught numerous classes, and has exhibited some of her quilts in shows resulting in numerous ribbons, including first place at HMQS for her Bali Wedding Star and the Teachers’ Ribbon for “No Greater Love” a quilt designed from a photograph she took of the Law Enforcement Memorial Day ceremony. That quilt is displayed in the POST Academy’s entry at the Salt Lake Community College Sandy Campus. In 2019 the UQSM Show in Sandy, Utah held an exhibit of her quilts.

Josephine says “Call me – I look forward to helping quilters at all levels to experience the joy of making a Beautiful quilt.”

Congratulations Josephine on your selection as the 2021 Silver Thimble Award winner.