Fabric and threads have always been an important part of my life. The hum of my mother’s sewing machine welcomed me home after school most days. One grandmother helped me make my first garment, a plaid shirt. My other grandmother had crochet, quilt pieces, or her Bible in her lap anytime she was not in the kitchen or the garden.

Embroidery was a favorite pastime as a child, and I continue to be enveloped in a feeling of peace and calm when I am holding a needle and thread. I don’t even mind mending!

Quilts were on every bed in our home and I naively assumed everyone had them. When I made my first quilt in 1984, I knew I had found my passion from all the other sewing and handwork projects I had been involved in. A book of cross-stitched quilt blocks was the kick-off point. My daughter and I began stitching blocks, which were so beautiful that they deserved a “real quilter” to assemble and quilt them. Once I began learning to quilt, I abandoned the cross-stitching to her. When the top was assembled, she helped me quilt it, though did not catch the quilting fever (just the quilt). It won blue ribbons in two shows.

First came very traditional, then more innovative pieced quilts, then a Baltimore Album-style quilt. I attended every class, workshop, and show that I could and was trying new techniques too fast to complete the projects. This led to a passion for miniatures—they can be completed!

I like to be productive. Quilting sometimes represents the quiet, peaceful, introspective person in me; at other times it is the lively joy of interacting with other quilters. Quilting allows me to enjoy all aspects of sewing—designing, creating, playing with colors and fabrics, and using the sewing skills learned over the years as well as experimenting with new techniques and products. Quilting lets me be artistic in a medium that lavishes time and energy on the work. If the item is to be a gift, I find myself meditating about and expressing thankfulness for that special person. Sometimes the designing is enough and I do not continue to feel the excitement during the making of a piece, so it goes on a shelf to be considered later—sometimes to complete, sometimes not, with no guilt attached.

My quilting has evolved to art for the walls as I constantly strive to create the beauty all around me in fabric and thread. Leaves and trees are a favorite subject and a constant reminder of God’s care and love.

My husband of 53 years and I live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, about 60 miles north of the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Gulf Coast in August 2005. We are the proud parents of two grown children, a daughter in Hattiesburg and a son and wife and six granddaughters in Texas.

Seeing the new growth of green leaves on the surviving majestic, wounded trees helps us to know that our scars are healing, too. Life is more than possessions. Creating beauty by interpreting nature in fabric and thread is a constant source of joy. We owe a debt of gratitude to the women who came before us who elevated the role of women to one of respect and appreciation, allowing us to lead creative, independent lives.

Presentation at Symposium:
“Care, Conservation, and Preservation of Quilts” Quilts: A Social & Cultural History of Rural Mississippi, symposium sponsored by Consortium for the History of Agricultural and Rural Mississippi (CHARM), Mississippi State University, March 2005.