About Nancy

Nancy Collard along with her husband Scott started Smoky Bear Lodge as a bed & breakfast nearly 15 years ago.  Their desire to have an upscale Lodge with a rustic look was just the incentive Nancy needed to get into quilting nearly 5 years ago.  Nancy's quilts now adorn all the beds in their Lodge.  Their business has grown and they've added one large cabin - The Grizzly Cabin - which sleeps up to 10 people and 2 smaller cabins - The Little Bear Cabins - which sleep up to 6 people each.

Having added the cabins to their business has given Nancy more beds to make quilts for - not that she was running out of things to do.  She is currently working on making 4 twin quilts for the bunk beds in The Grizzly Cabin.  Nancy enjoys all aspects of quilting from designing to piecing to machine quilting to binding and has done this on all her quilts.  She has also made numerous wall hangings, lap quilts, and table runners.  She is in the process of designing the tops for the queen beds in The Grizzly Cabin.

One of their Lodge guest - a quilt designer - encouraged Nancy to take some quilting classes so she followed that advice and took several quilting classes.  She is now learning how to operate a long-arm quilting machine.  Quilting queen sized quilts is a real challenge for Nancy on her Elna Heirloom sewing machine.  She hopes learning how to use the long-arm quilting machine will not only speed up her machine quilting process on the large quilts but also enhance it. 

Nancy has recently found time to attend some Quilt Retreats and enjoyed it so much that she decided to host Quilt Retreats at their Lodge and Cabins.  She really enjoys small intimate groups so has set up her retreats to accommodate 4-8 quilters.  Nancy is a member of 2 local guilds - Flathead Quilters' Guild in Kalispell and Teakettle Quilters' Guild in Columbia Falls.