Berrien County quilters Kay Craw and Kathleen Nelson, both of Berrien Springs, and Mary Zielke, of Eau Claire gathered recently at the Berrien Springs Public Library to discuss their recently completed “Conway” quilts, which will be exhibited at the upcoming quilt show sponsored by the Berrien Towne and Country Quilt Guild.

The show will be at the Mendel Center at Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor on Saturday, June 26 and Sunday, June 27. In addition to a large display of quilts, there will be lectures by Beth Farrier: “Pieces of a Quilter’s Life” and “When Finishing is Highly Overrated.”

Two years ago, Craw showed some books from her quilting collection to her friendship quilting group, which included Nelson and Zielke and a number of other friends. After reading about it in one of the books, the group decided to do a Conway quilt. The Conway quilt (named after the town in Arkansas where it was popularized, although it may have originated in Baltimore) is a variation on the Album quilt (a presentation quilt for which each quilter prepares, and signs a block. When all the blocks are completed and sewn together they are presented to the honoree.)

For the Conway quilt, the maker sews a 12-by-12-inch block with an appliqued floral theme each month for a year. At the end of the year the blocks are assembled with a larger central block, which incorporates one flower element from each smaller block. The 12 flowers also repeat in the garland border. All elements of the quilt are three-dimensional. The quilter uses techniques such as ruching, stuffed circles, gathered petals, folded rose buds, basket weaving and trapunto.

The three woman arrived at their quilting hobby by different routes. Craw’s mother sewed and quilted, but Kay did not start quilting until after her mother’s death.
“We did lots of things together but not quilting, and I have regrets about that,” Craw said. She points out that at the quilting show on June 27 there will be demonstrations and a “sit and stitch” – an ideal time for a mother and daughter to try quilting together.

Craw drove a school bus and between runs she would drop in on a quilting group at the Methodist church in Berrien Springs. She laughed as she explained, “There was a hierarchy and you had to work your way up through the cutting and piecing tables. I never made it to the quilting table – my stitches weren’t small enough. They liked that I could get down on the floor to put the quilts on the quilting frame, though.”  She has been a member of the Berrien Towne and Country Quilt Guild since 1980.  Although she served as president of the group in 1990, she admits she was too shy to show her work until she had been a member for two years.

Although Zielke doesn’t remember how she learned to sew she does recall that she got her first machine, a black Singer treadle model, when she was 10. Her mother “couldn’t sew a straight line,” and although her grandmother did sew, she lived at a distance and Zielke doesn’t think it likely she learned from her. She does remember that she “always sewed” starting with doll clothes and moving on from there.

Unlike Zielke, Nelson hated sewing.

“I made a jumper in home ec class and couldn’t get it to fit,” she said.

At some point she started driving a friend of her mother’s to a quilting group. The group started her on rag quilts which were easy and quilting “just grew on me.”  Now she’s an accomplished quilter with her own Conway – make that “Berrien Springs” – quilt ready to be displayed at the guild show.

People attending the quilt show will have an opportunity to see sentimental, humorous, traditional and abstract quilts of all sizes and vote for their favorite.  There will be three quilts raffled off. Tickets are $1 or $5 for 6. The final drawing will be Sunday afternoon.