Sharon Heidingsfelder was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1950 and currently lives in Little Rock. Sharon Heidingsfelder got her determination and grit from her mother and her construction ability from her father. In college she took home economics and interior design-she wanted to be the best interior designer in the world. Out of school, she quickly abandoned her major; she enrolled in the University of Tennessee and there was no question that it was crafts she wanted to study. It was Marian Heard, her teacher and the founder of Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, who sent her to Arkansas to work as a craft specialist for the state Cooperative Extension Service.
Heidingsfelder got into quilting because "I am cheap," she says, "Germans are frugal," and she wanted to decorate her house. She took a course with Nancy Crow at Arrowmont and was delighted to discover that she could design a quilt without having to do the actual quilting. Getting into the Quilt National with her first quilt was all the encouragement she needed. She has made 11 quilts in eight years. One of her challenges is to construct a quilt out of blocks that cannot be perceived as blocks. Every quilt has black and white stripes, which Heidingsfelder believes makes the other colors more vibrant. She enjoys geometric designs, but is beginning to work with curves. "Making a quilt is not the pleasant aspect," she says, "I love the result."
Alan DuBois, Curator of Decorative Arts
Arkansas: Year of American Craft 1993 exhibition catalogue