BRINGING QUILTING INTO THE FUTURE

Terry employs a variety of patterns when making her quilts.

What girl or woman at one time or another has not had the urge to try her hand at making a quilt and then, because it seemed too difficult, just let the idea go?

Whether you are a confirmed "quilter" with a chest full of beautiful quilts and eager for one more attractive pattern or on the verge of making your first quilt, you will find that the art of quilt making is not as it has been in the past.

Mary Ann Terry of Leemon has taken the ancient art of quilting and brought it into 1994. Computerized quilts? Is it possible? It certainly is and the quilts are beautiful.

For the past three years Terry has worked out of a converted work room in her house to produce beautiful, machine-sewn quilts. The quality which sets machine-sewn quilts apart from traditional quilts is the finishing step of machine sewing a beautiful pattern to which the batting and hand-stitched top are attached.

"The ladies bring the quilt tops to me completed," explained Terry. "Then they choose a pattern and I quilt the blanket and finish the edges. When the ladies pick up their quilt it is ready to spread on the bed or in the baby's cradle."

Quilting has changed over the years in America. During the 17th and 18th centuries, most quilts were made from salvage fabrics. A woman of means could augment her bits of woolen material and linen homespun pulled from the rag bag with exotic toile, brocades, damasks and printed cottons imported from Europe or India.

After 1770, the vast majority of the quilts made were fashioned from cotton. With the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 and the subsequent Industrial Revolution, the housewife was provided with inexpensive textiles. After the mid-19th century, dry goods stores carried extensive inventories of fabrics in a rainbow array of colors. Now material could be purchased especially for the purpose of quilting.

Now at the end of the 20th century, quilting has kept up with technology. Originally, quilts were made for warmth and beauty. Today, Terry follows the traditional style of quilt making, but offers her customers the convenience of speed. With machine quilting, she is able to quilt the tops in two or three afternoons rather than two or three months or years.

"Machine-sewn quilts are ideal because they wash up in the machine beautifully, they're cheaper and they hold together better," said Terry.

In her quilting room, she shows several finished quilts. One is an applique pattern of roses on a white background. Another is made of pieces of remnant material stitched together in a festive pattern and all made of a dress, skirt, curtains or pants worn out by a member of the family. Still there is another quilt machine-sewn on a beautiful piece of fabric with no "top work" stitched on it but a beautiful bedspread all the same once it is quilted on Terry's machine.

Quilting has always had colorful and delightful names for its patterns. Perhaps you have an heirloom quilt with a double wedding ring pattern. There are Dutch rose quilts and turkey tracks, double Irish and wild good chase quilt patterns.

Machine quilts offer a number of other quaint patterns, including raindrops, or a wrought iron or cotton candy design.

"Different quilts work better with different patterns," said Terry. "I do many of the baby quilts with the heart or double-heart design."

In Terry's shop, many quilts and machine-stitched blankets are displayed. Also shown are children's cloth books, crib sets and other stitched goods which were made in the shop.

The shop is not the picture of the old quilting circles. There is no large quilt frame circled by eight gray-haired ladies with thimbles on their fingers leaning into the quilt as they painstakingly stitch the applique on the batting.

What you will find are state-of-the-art, computerized sewing machines, at least seven that do everything from monogram to handle heavy industrial sewing.

"I do have my tricks of the trade," Terry says, showing some of the gadgets she uses. Terry shows how she positions a calculator at each of her work stations and strings yards of Velcro through her shop to aid in a variety of tasks.

These aren't novel items, to most, but are particularly so in a quilting shop, where most expect to find quilts done with little more than needles, thimbles and thread and used for a young woman's dowry.

But whether quilt is hand-stitched or machine-stitched, made of fine cotton chintz or bleached grain bags, anyone who has snuggled under such a bed cover knows that the real beauty of a quilt comes from the happiness, security and warmth that its loving maker has stitched into her creation.