2005 Honoree Bets Ramsey has had a life-long love of the arts and needle crafts. The summer after her graduation from high school, she and a friend set up a dressmaking business in her parents’ dining room. After earning her B.A. with honors in Art, Bets focused on her marriage and raising her four children.In…
By Helen Kelley, 1999 Honoree Helen Kelley made a series of “postcard quilts” showing places that she had visited. Helen’s label card that came with this quilt says, “Ireland- The streets of Dublin are lined with Georgian homes, each with its bright colored door and brass knocker. The basement kitchen area at the front of…
By Marguerite Ickis, c. 1930-1940. Honoree Marguerite Ickis made this quilt from pieces of costume fabric leftover from theatrical plays made possible by the WPA Federal Theatre Project, for whom she was a consultant. The Federal Theatre Project organized and produced theater events. It was an effort of the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt…
I’ve been writing every week about Honorees of The Quilters Hall of Fame, but this time I’m going to switch up and write about people who haven’t been inducted—yet. My inspiration, if you can call it that, was my sewing experience earlier today. Did your mother ever say, “Don’t sew on Sunday or the Devil…
I often think that, had I enjoyed a wider world view when I was young, I would have come to quilts much earlier than I did. As a 1950s child of the steel mill area of Chicago’s South Side, I knew no one who had quilts—it was chenille spreads for us . And I certainly…
It’s that time of year when a quilter’s fancy turns to thoughts of THE quilt show in Paducah. Even if you’re not going, you want to go someday, or you’ve been at least once, or you know someone who is going. It’s THE BIG SHOW. But not this year! Sadly, QuiltWeek is another Corona Casualty….
I was going to try to write something with an Easter/Passover theme, but even with 50+ Honorees, I couldn’t make the stretch. But, not to worry; I stumbled across something that led me to Florence Peto. I’ll tell you what I found after I introduce her. Florence Peto was an East Coast gal (New York…
I’ve been sewing masks this week, as many of you have, and it got me to thinking about my days of garment sewing (BQ—before quilting). I didn’t learn quilting from my mother or gran, but I did make a lot of clothes in high school and the early years of my marriage. And no, I’m…
