| | Published July 31st, 2024
| Local music teacher loving her third career
| | | By Diane Claytor |  | | Julia McLeod, local Music Together teacher and award-winning quilt maker, with some of the many beautiful quilts she has made. Photo provided |
For thousands of families throughout Lamorinda -- and beyond -- the soft-spoken woman with the delightful English accent is known simply as Miss Julia, their beloved Music Together teacher. "Miss" Julia McLeod dances, prances, sings, and plays her ukulele and violin, sharing her love of music in every one of her very popular classes.
McLeod began teaching Music Together classes 22 years ago. With a musical background -- she sang in choruses and played the violin as a child growing up in England -- and a fondness for little kids, it was the perfect job while her own children were in school. "I thought I would do this for a little while and then get back into something else," McLeod says. "It's a lovely job so I've just carried on."
Referring to Music Together as her "second career," she currently teaches two days a week in Lafayette; she also teaches music at a Lafayette preschool and works in the Lafayette School District's music program.
With a degree in textile design for the apparel industry, McLeod started her first career as a textile designer in the woolen and worsted mills of Yorkshire and Scotland. While attending a large menswear show in Paris, she was advised that the textile industry in New York was "full of Brits," she recalls. She and her British husband, an IT professional, were ready for adventure, so they packed up and relocated to New York, where McLeod continued working as a designer for a menswear company.
After several other moves, and with two young children, it was decided the family needed to put down roots. Walnut Creek is where they chose to settle.
Once her girls grew up and left home, McLeod found her third career - quilt making - admitting that it's more than a job, "it has become an obsession."
McLeod grew up sewing, making many of her own clothes. She discovered quilt making while traveling through small Amish towns in Pennsylvania and started making her own. "Some of the first quilts I made were for my own kids," she states.
As she became more interested in quilt making, McLeod discovered there were several quilt guilds in the area and there was a circuit of speakers and teachers. "I thought I could do that, too," she says. To do so, she realized, she would need to build an inventory of quilts. "So I kept on making them, learning new things with each one I made.
"It's funny how things come full circle," McLeod continues. "Before having kids, I was all about fabric and textiles and I loved it. All these years later, I'm back into fabric and textiles and I still love it."
Trying to live as green as possible, McLeod specializes in making quilts from recycled fabrics, focusing on silk. "Textile waste is a huge issue," she reports. "And I think it's really neat to cut up old clothes, curtains or tablecloths, old neckties. I just find old fabrics super interesting."
With the large influence of Asian and Indian communities, it's easy for McLeod to find beautiful silks, kimonos, and saris in local thrift shops. She says, "There's nothing I like more than incorporating old and neglected materials into new quilts." She teaches classes on how to make quilts from recycled fabrics "rather than cotton you buy by the yard at a fabric store."
McLeod notes that she has about 20 quilts in closets at home. She also has some on beds and hanging on her walls. "There is a limit," she admits laughingly. "My husband doesn't want to see them in every room."
A well-respected lecturer and teacher, McLeod is invited to various quilt guilds around the country, sharing her knowledge with humor and showcasing her beautiful, colorful, intricate quilts. "When I go to a guild to lecture, the audience wants to see what I'm talking about. I travel with about 12 quilts and huge suitcases," she notes with a twinkle in her eye. "I am trying to learn to make smaller quilts."
She also makes quilts on commission, describing one she made from old neckties that belonged to three generations of men. "It's a wonderful way to celebrate someone's life," she states.
Needless to say, it takes a considerable amount of time to make a quilt - "often 30 to 40 hours," she reports. McLeod creates her own designs, but uses traditional blocks, often using centuries old combinations of shapes.
McLeod recently completed her first book, "Patchwork Luxe. Quilts from Neckties, Kimonos and Saris," scheduled to be released in September.
Noting that the average quilter is typically a retired, older female, McLeod smiles and says that's another reason she loves this industry. "I won't age out and won't experience sexism. Women are so underestimated," she concludes. "They are a wealth of wisdom and experience and really know how to get things done!" |
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA