The January meeting was canceled because of snow. Jean Reger, who was scheduled to give a trunk show and a demonstration of the "Brown Bird" techniques, will present her program in September 2005.

Feature: Jeanne Loy

Jeanne Loy's note to me began, "The word MULL means to COGITATE. That is what I have been doing since you called. My thoughts this morning are to pretend we are sitting here chatting, and I have the floor, and will tell you some of my experiences." And in a delightful way Jeanne proceeded to tell me about herself.

Her earliest experience with sewing may be the best story of her quilting career. At thirteen she was alone at home and wanted to make a dress. She took RIT in aqua and wine colors, dyed feed sacks and made a dress. Her mother, needless to say, was ashamed to be seen with her in the dress, but Jeanne was very proud of it. Also in high school she showed signs of mechanical skill. An assignment was to take apart and put together a machine: she thus took apart her mother's Singer sewing machine. After the horrified response, she successfully cleaned, oiled and put it back together. In the military, USMC, she made her own swim suits when she was on the swim team—of which she claims not to have any pictures, much to our loss.

"Fashion Show" for the Gig Harbor, Washington, Cancer Auction

Jeanne did not begin quilting until she retired - she is now 82 years of age. In 1987 she went into a quilt shop and thought, "A bed doesn't care if it fits and so I started in." She has continued demonstrating very eclectic tastes: crazy quilts, applique, modern fish blocks, and replicas of antique quilts. "I have been willing to try lots of things," she said.

In 1990 she purchased for $36 twelve Fan blocks from an antique dealer. The blocks were funnel-shaped, but were torn and would not lie flat. In repairing them, she took segments from other antique wool blocks and used muslin backing, and new fabric for the centers and borders that "blended with the old mellow fabrics".

Condition of the original Fan blocks

With imported rayon embroidery thread, she created new designs in border corners and around each fan. She saved as much of the original feather stitching as possible. The result is a "lovely old piece that is up-to-date in the traditional crazy quilt manner." It has been exhibited and in 1992 received first prize in the National Quilting Association’s Show in Bowling Green, Ohio.

"My Oh My" the colorful result of Jeanne's work with the antique wool Fan blocks.

"Finally" because it took her five years to complete. Hand quilted from corner to corner, the Whig Rose coloring is similar to one pictured in a Mennonite book.

She has developed her own method of crazy quilt stitching and teaches a class called "Easy Way to Go Crazy." Instead of the usual stitch and turn for the crazy quilt, Jeanne creates a master block - she calls it "planned random" - of ten to twelve pieces with colors and textures that she prefers. Copying the master block on three layers - carbon with marking side up on the bottom and two pieces of freezer paper with waxed sides together on top - she gets reverse images on the freezer paper. Cutting the different shapes from the bottom freezer paper and keeping the top for another block or master, she irons the shapes on her fabrics. She adds the usual quarter inch seam line and then places the pieces on the master block pattern and sews them together. By turning the blocks different ways, she gets a random effect in the whole quilt. She saves fabric and finds it easier than the more traditional way of crazy quilting.

Jeanne gives credit to great local teachers and "others who travel to our corner of the country - Seattle, Washington", for her skill in quilting. She also attended the NQA Judges Course in San Rafael, CA "to learn what was and was not acceptable."

She was introduced to BAS by her friend, Evonne Jones who was a member at the time. In 1996 she applied for a quilt to be exhibited in a Washington, D.C. show and talked to Mary Lou McDonald about traveling to the East. Mary Lou, not knowing the Loys but in her warm, hospitable way, invited them to stay in her home. Since that time, they keep in contact and exchange quilting stories.

Lello -- Jeanne's favorite quilt

From her grandmother taking in sewing and working on a treadle machine and as the child sleeping under a tattered log cabin quilt, to Jeanne Loy the master quilter, she has kept to her goal: "not to do things rapidly, but to make quilts that will be appreciated later." And from her comfortable quilting room that looks out over the water in Suquamish, Washington, at age 82, Jeanne continues to quilt.

Janet Esch