Bio of Mary Alice Sinton

Mary Alice Sinton moved to Houston, TX in 2002 after living 20+ years in a small community in northern Oklahoma. She holds a B.F.A. in Graphics from Stephens College in Columbia, MO. Mary Alice worked as a Graphic Artist for architectural firms in Honolulu and later pursued designing quilts full time once returning to the mainland.
As a young bride in 1977, Mary Alice and her husband John moved to Honolulu where he pursued his Ph. D. in Geophysics at the University of Hawaii. Mary Alice sought out and located a Hawaiian Appliqué Quilt Teacher – the late Deborah Kakalia. She started lessons from Deborah Kakalia in the fall of 1977 and studied under Deborah during their five-year stay in Hawaii.
While visiting her mother-in-law, Dr. Eleanor Sinton, in Denver, CO. the Xmas of 1980, Mary Alice designed and cut out her first king size Hawaiian Quilt entitled “COLUMBINE”. Dr. Eleanor Sinton appliquéd and quilted “COLUMBINE” and presented it to her Hawaiian born grandson, Peter, the Xmas of 1983. The “COLUMBINE” received blue ribbons at both the County and State Fairs of Oklahoma in 1985 & 1986. The American Quilter’s Society QUILT ART ’88 ENGAGEMENT CALENDAR featured “COLUMBINE”. The Amherst Museum of East Amherst, New York invited Mary Alice to hang “COLUMBINE” in their 1988 Spring Quilt Show.
Once returning to the mainland to live in 1982, Mary Alice was instrumental in bringing Mrs. Deborah Kakalia to the symposium in Denver’s Colorado Quilt ’82. Mary Alice assisted Mrs. Kakalia in teaching Hawaiian Appliqué Workshops. Mary Alice helped form the Pioneer Area Quilters Guild in the spring of 1983 and was their quilt show chairman the fall of 1985. Mary Alice joined the board of the Oklahoma Quilters State Organization the fall of 1989 and became President of OQSO January 1992.
In the spring of 1988, Mary Alice completed another team quilt with Eleanor Sinton entitled “BASKETS OF LOVE & JOY”. This quilt was designed by Mary Alice for the American Quilter’s Society Show ’88 and was juried to hang in the Team category. Mary Alice designed and completed an entry to the Visions of the World contest entitled “ALOHA PUMEHANA, MY WARMEST LOVE’. It was one of the 41 finalists exhibited in June 1988 at Quilt Expo Europa in Salzburg, Austria. It was featured in QUILTERS NEWSLETTER MAGAZINE July/August 1988 and later published in a book. Both these quilts were shown at the Silver Dollar City Quilt Show 1988. Mary Alice completed in August 1988 an entry entitled “SWEET REMEMBERING…KAMA’AINA KEIKI” and became the Oklahoma winner in the Museum of American Folk Art’s “Memories of Childhood” contest. In April 1989, she was awarded the “Golden Thimble” award by the “Daily Oklahoman” newspaper of OK City, prior to the opening of the “Memories of Childhood” show in New York City April 25-30, 1989. This quilt was also featured in the April 4th, 1989 “Family Circle” magazine and the Museum of American Folk Art book. In February 1991 “MALA PUA ALOHA, GARDEN OF ALOHA” became one of the 24 winners in the Museum of American Folk Art’s “America’s Flower Garden” contest and opened at their Museum in New York City on June 20th thru Sept. 15th, 1991. It will remain in their permanent collection and was featured in “Glorious American Quilts”- June 1996. In the fall of 1993, Mary Alice was invited by THE WHITE HOUSE to create the Oklahoma panel for the permanent Blue Room Christmas Tree Skirt. It was shown on Good Morning America and The Home Show the first week of December 1993.
Mary Alice has attended various professional workshops and completed two courses in 1987 & 1988 on “How to be a Quilt Judge” and How to be a Quilt Teacher” taught by Mrs. Pat Morris, N. Q. A. Judge. Mary Alice lectures and teaches classes on Hawaiian Quilting to quilt guilds and has judged shows in the surrounding states. She teaches both Hawaiian and basic quilting in her local area. In the summer of 1990 Mary Alice began studying Japanese Embroidery through her local EGA chapter under the tutelage of the late Mary-Dick Digges. She traveled twice to Japan and studied at the Kurenai-Kai school in Togane City in the spring of 1995 & 2001. She was certified to teach Japanese Embroidery the fall of 1999 and Japanese Bead Embroidery spring of 2004 through JEC in Atlanta, which she studied simultaneously. She taught children at the JEC this unique silk embroidery technique from 1995-2006. During her visit to Japan in 2001, Mary Alice exhibited her Pansies in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka during the 2001 World Exhibition of Japanese Embroidery sponsored by Kurenai-Kai. She exhibited her bead embroidery at Callaway School of Needle Arts show in Jan. 2005 and won Judge’s Choice award. She joined the teaching staff at Callaway in 2007 instructing bead embroidery. She was awarded Best of Show on “Kusudama” surface embroidery at South Central EGA Seminar 2007. In spring 2008 she was awarded 1st, 2nd & 3rd place in Professional level in Japanese Embroidery category at National Academy of Needlearts Exemplary Show, Kansas City, MO.