Knowing that I make quilts, Danny Hart asked me to look at this special quilt for his wife Kathy, who is the daughter of the late minister R D Ray. It was in very good condition and only needed a little repair and updating with new batting.
Checking out the quilt
This quilt was made of small 2” blocks of double-knit fabrics. As we all remember, double-knit fabrics were stretchy, both length and width. As I carefully looked over the quilt, I quickly realized every seam was straight, all the corners made exact 90-degree angles, and the entire quilt was squared up almost perfectly. And the amazing thing I discovered; it was all stitched by hand. Such perfect stitches and all evenly spaced! Through the years, the colors had remained bright and vibrant and showed no signs of fading.
Enjoying the work
Having been warned by other quilters, I was expecting troubles keeping the quilt straight as I stitched in on my longarm machine. And even worried that the needle might catch in some of the seams. There was no need to worry about that with this quilt. It loaded very easily on my machine, and the quilting stitches went smoothly. I felt very honored to be given the opportunity to work on this quilt. Danny was able to keep this special quilt for Kathy a secret until Christmas Day. I feel sure Kathy is comforted by the many memories this holds for her.
