This barn quilt is the creation of Carol and Larry Bailey. Carol, a veteran quilter, designed this variation of the combined evening star and pinwheel patterns. The quilt has a navy blue background with the star painted in burgundy and the center pinwheel in white. The quilt is attached to the old milkhouse, a cement block structure on the couple’s acreage at 3081 170th Street.

Tags: carol, free quilting patterns, keepsake quilting, quilting, quilting frames, burgundy

Now she’s tickled at the niche she’s found doing artistic finish-quilting work from her large farm shed with a high-tech, long-arm quilting machine. Simkins, 59, purchased the $8,000 Handi Quilter machine in February from Joyce Watson of Big Sky Quilts in Great Falls, who has trained more than 35 U. Simkins said she likes setting her own hours so she can run farm errands and spend time with her husband, Mark, who works irregular hours with UPS. Most home quilters finish 150 to 200 quilts a year on their machine, working about 20 hours a week. Big Sky Quilts owner Joyce Watson, right, sold René Simkins a long arm quilting machine and tutored her to do finish quilting in her Fort Shaw home.

Charles (top left), Mary Walker of Kirkwood, Phyllis Jackson of University City, Pam Winslow of Belleville, Sally Foley of Cowgill, Jane Harrington of St. What started as a reunion for co-workers of a fabric store 10 years ago has threaded its way around the world, onto laps and into hearts of projects as friends have pieced together Charity Sharity. Sharing the hobby, each knew a charity, church or other place that could use fabric across the area, from Belleville to St. Splater attends Kirkwood United Methodist Church with Bess Wilfong, founder of Angels’ Arms, which in five years has grown to five foster homes for children, many of them siblings. Marty Walsh has shared sewing hints - and fabric - with Splater since they were neighbors in Kirkwood.

Brewer uses symbolism and hand-textured fibers to create story quilts that are motivated by issues focusing on the family, women, children and spirituality. By incorporating oral history and world cultures into her quilts, she says she is trying to “substantiate the use of symbols as children establish their personal memories of family experiences and dreams for the future. She is a member of the Fiber Arts Guild and Women of Vision, an emeritus board member of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh and a board member of the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts/Pittsburgh Filmmakers. With its obvious reference to the early colonial slave trade and reliance upon slave labor, it harkens not only to the history of African Americans but to the history of story quilts themselves. The stark figures Brewer uses to represent field workers are reminiscent of the figures once used by Harriet Powers (1837-1910), a black slave from rural Georgia who became a renowned folk artist for her quilts, which incorporated traditional applique techniques to record biblical and oral stories. Incorporating pages from the newspaper, the quilts use photo images and historical references from each decade to create powerful visual images of the impact of African-American history locally and nationally.