Quilting--My favorite hobby!

In the little spare time that I have, I enjoy quilting, or just looking at quilting magazines and dreaming of future projects. My grandmother passed on a great quilting heritage...we estimate she made 150-200 quilts in her lifetime.

Three women who greatly influenced my life as well as my love of quilting were my Grandma Scott, my mother, and my Aunt Rachel. Sadly, all three are now quilting in Heaven. I miss them all terribly, but I wrap up in the quilts they all made for me and feel very blessed and comforted.

This is a picture of my Grandma Scott with a couple of her quilts.

This is a picture of my mother who also quilted, though I don't have a picture of her with any of her quilts.

Here is my Aunt Rachel with the first quilt she ever made...in 1932. Aunt Rachel was a second mother to me...one of the most remarkable women I've ever known.

My first quilt was an applique animal quilt for my son, Sean. I made quilts for his two daughters, Ella, and Sylvia.

When the Mississippi Quilting Association documented quilts in 1997, nine of my grandmother's were included. Two of these were chosen for possible inclusion in the book, but only one made it into the book, Mississippi Quilts published in 2001. The one that made it in the book was a Basket Quilt made in the 1930's for my mother.

I made a Tree of Life block which was chosen for inclusion in the Ole Miss Sesquicentennial Quilt. My block is in the lower right hand corner.

I also made a block for the charity quilt to be raffled off by our Piecemakers Quilt Guild in Oxford. My block is the 3rd one down on the left. Judy Hudson organized the making of this quilt and did a fantastic job.

This quilt is one my son picked out when he was four for my mother to make for him. It's called Whirligig. She fussed, but she pieced it, and I quilted it.

When Sean was six he drew pictures on blocks. My mother put it together, and I quilted it. He even put in a few stitches. Some of it is Sesame street, and some of the blocks are his own creations of things special to him.

My mother made four very similar Flower Garden quilts for her 4 children which my grandmother quilted for her. She made these while we were living in Augusta, Georgia. I believe this is the only one of the four still in the family.

This Rolling Stone top was one I pieced in the 1980's (not yet quilted) planning to give it to my son. He doesn't like it (because of the baby blue in it), but he does want my Flower Garden above. He'll wait for it though!

A few years ago my Aunt Corrinne told me about a quilt top she had. Her close friend, Frances Cumberland, had embroidered a top and sandwiched the quilt. She found she had cancer and never finished it. Her family was going to throw it away! Aunt Corrinne was looking for someone to hand quilt it. I could not let that beautiful piece of work go unfinished. I quilted her friend's top for her in 1999.

In late 1999 I got into the Y2K or Millennium Quilt craze. I used the Double Irish Chain pattern to put my blocks together with muslin. The four corner blocks were blank. I embroidered the name, "Millenium Links" in one corner, "Y2K" in another, my information in one, and a dedication to my mother, grandmother, and aunt in the other. My nephew, Doug Pharr, and his grandmother were killed in a car accident just as I was finishing the top. I put a black block in each corner of the border to represent this tragedy in the year 2000.

One of my "oldest" friends, Donita Stamper Cole , cross-stitched a wall hanging for me for my 50th birthday that reminded me so much of my grandmother. It hangs on my wall , surrounded by pictures of my mother, grandmother, aunt, and myself. In return I allowed her to choose a pattern and fabrics and I made her a quilt from the "Johnny Round the Corner" variation we found at quilterscache This is the finished quilt displayed at a show our local guild had. The cross-stich picture she did for me is sitting in front of it.

Also, hanging in that show was a State Flowers quilt . My mother embroidered the blocks and put the top together with the navy blocks. I quilted it in 1999 as a wedding gift for my son and his bride.

Another "old" friend, Ann Woodruff Waller , had her art students at Booneville paint inside Devil heads according to a specific artist or art period or style. (Their mascot is the Blue Devil.) We worked together to figure out how to make this into a quilt. The "Devil Quilt" now hangs in the school library.

These are just a few of my favorite memories and projects. Of course, I have many, many "UFO's" that might some day make it here.