MANSFIELD — Debra Ramsey has a passion for quilting with more than 40 years in the making.
It began in 1976 during a revival of home crafts for the Bicentennial. During that time, the Mansfield woman was busy raising a family and doing custom sewing as a home business. With all the leftover scraps of fabric it was only natural to begin making quilts for her family.
As her children matured and moved out on their own, she started attending quilt shows. The impression was dramatic. No longer did she see quits as blankets, but as art.
So, she decided to try to hone her skills and began entering juried and judged shows. The critiques were not always what she hoped to hear, but they did help improve her skills and evaluate her techniques.
Debra’s quilts had always included hand piecing, hand applique, hand quilting. In 2012, she also began incorporating custom machine quilting to help her express her artistic desires. She uses both commercial patterns and her own original designs. Her creativity comes through both in the settings and her choices of color.
“I see quilts as a pattern of our lives,” Ramsey said. “We are each made up of little pieces or experiences that happen. Our job is to make all those pieces fit into one overall pattern that comes together cohesively.”
Her favorite quilts are the ones that each time you look at it you see something new you missed the first time.
Her favorite quilt?
“The next one that is in my mind,“ she said.
Along with her own work of 4-5 quilts a year, Ramsey believes in giving back to the community and finds time to do 6 charity quilts a year. Each of the last two years she has made six lap-size charity quilts.
In addition, she has made three queen-size raffle quilts to donate in the last five years. The first one went to the Willard area Kiwanis. In 2012 this quilt raised $1,820. The money provided tetanus shots for the prevention of neonatal infant death for more 1,000 women of child-bearing age in third-world countries.
The other two quilts will be raffled by both Mansfield Millennium Quilt Guild and the Knox Co. Quilt Guild for 2017, to support programs and charities in Richland and Knox Counties.
One of her favorite things is to talk to people at the shows to share her work and tell the story of why the quilt was made or who it was made for. Ramsey believes every quilt has a story waiting to be shared.
She always signs her quilts and encourages other to do the same. She wants to be sure that people know it is important to be “proud of your work.”
Anyone interested can find pictures of many of Debra Ramsey’s quilts by following her on Pinterest (username Debra Ramsey).
QUILTS ARE HOME GROWN
The 2017 Quilt Show will take place at Malabar Middle School on Friday, July 14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $5
