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This photo was taken in
Nicaragua (summer 2005) on a mission trip with my
Lakeshore Church family. |
Hi! My name is Bonnie Evans and I hope you enjoy your visit to my site! My
"Nary a Cross Word" quilt that I
made for myself...began my present quilting passion, and...
"Joyful Noise," a ministry.
Quilts make the most
wonderful gifts, wrapping the recipient with the love of the giver every
time it's used.
Thanks again for stopping
by! Bonnie
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Bonnie's Quilting History
Many years ago, probably
in the early 1980's, I made my first quilts. I had been sewing for
many years, Mama having taught me early how to make little doll clothes.
I sewed many of my own clothes for years, including my wedding dress, as
well as baby outfits for my son, Michael, and shirts for my husband, but
it was long after that when I decided to make a quilt.
"Back then," one had to
make cardboard templates for quilt pieces, and I can remember long hours
on my knees, pencil-marking my pieces, then cutting each, one by one,
with my scissors. I made a quilt for my Daddy, a log-cabin in
shades of blue, which he must have loved because it stayed on his bed
for many years. After he died, Mama gave me his quilt, but, alas,
it was lost in our house fire in August of 2000. I also made an
Ohio Star bed quilt and window-hanging for Michael and a string quilt,
lap sized, for my Mama...all of which were probably done by the same
quilt-as-you-go method which I'd learned about in a women's magazine (I
still have those clippings!) I didn't hand-quilt back then, and
generally don't now. I was never enamored with the thought of that
many hand stitches in an item the size of a quilt!
My next attempt at
quilting came nearly 20 years later, after the introduction of such
wonderful helps as rotary cutters, cutting mats, and heavy duty rulers
and templates. I had also by then learned about "tying" quilts,
a quick method used primarily to anchor the battings of "utility"
quilts, those made simply to keep the family from freezing at night, and
often made with large fabric pieces, quick to make up. These
didn't have to be pretty, but necessarily had to be useful. It
eventually occurred to me that perhaps a quilt should be both, beautiful
and useful!
I made "The Cook
Siblings," the first attempt in my second round of quilting, on an old
second-hand sewing machine that sounded like a boiler factory.
Despite the machine, the quilt somehow got done, each of its 9 featured
squares with photos of my grandfather and his 8 siblings, and it was
given away at our Cook family reunion as a door prize. My
"Nary a
Cross Word" quilt that I made for myself then began my present quilting
passion, and with
"Joyful Noise," a ministry.
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Bonnie's Quilting Philosophy
My "philosophy" of
quilting is that, though "art" quilts, those made simply to be
beautiful and not to be touched, may be as necessary to the eye as a
lovely rose or a painting, there is also a need for quilts in the
everyday life, quilts that can be sat on for play time, eaten on top of
for picnics, and dragged about the house, car and sports stadiums
without fear of ruining them or of their coming apart. The classic
quilting seam is 1/4" (to allow for less bulk while hand quilting) but
this is simply not enough to allow for hard daily use. I make all
my quilts with 1/2" seams, and while I occasionally do a little machine
quilting (and even more rarely, a little by hand), nearly all my quilts
are "tied" with embroidery cotton or yarn. This allows much more
rugged use. Most all my quilts, too, are made of 100% cotton,
unless the recipient requests a color or pattern I can't find in cotton,
and I use polyester batting, which retains its wonderful fluffiness and
warmth even with heavy use and with repeated washings.
A
finished quilt
is always a surprise...even though you know the colors
and pattern of the fabrics you've chosen and the design of the quilt
block and the placement of them, you never really know what it's going
to look like until you're just about finished. I've made more than
one that I regretted my fabric choices as I began, but knew after
putting together a couple of squares that they were right after all.
I guess God has gifted me with an eye for color and pattern, and so far,
I've not made a quilt I didn't love when it was finished.
Quilts make the most
wonderful gifts, wrapping the recipient with the love of the giver every
time it's used.
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