For the Love of Quilting by Thomas Atkins
Cheryl Jordan Quilting Like Crazy for Over 30 Years
For fans of fabric, thread and needles, be sure to mark your calendars for next weekend at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds. On Saturday, September 19th from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, September 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the Sierra Quilt Guild, Sierra Needle Artists, and the Mother Lode Weavers and Spinners will be sponsoring the 20th Annual Quilts and Threads Show, featuring over 300 exhibits of quilting, embroidery, weaving and spinning. This year’s nominated Featured Quilter for the show is Sonora resident Cheryl Jordan, a longtime quilt maker and member of the Sierra Quilt Guild.
“I was very pleased when I found out…it is quite an honor,” said Cheryl, who will have the whole front row in the John Muir building to display her quilts. “I really enjoy our quilt shows. I’ve been involved with them since I moved to the area in 1999.”
Yet Cheryl’s quilting history dates long before that.
“I got involved in quilting in 1976 through an adult Education class at Dublin High School in Dublin when I lived in Pleasanton,” said Cheryl. “I just wanted something new to do at that time. I learned to sew clothes when I was 11 years old and I knew how to knit and crochet and do other needle work, but I never made quilts until I took that class.”
This new hobby became her new passion…and she hasn’t stopped since.
“I’ve been quilting for 31 years,” said Cheryl, 63. “It kind of becomes an obsession. It’s something I love to do.”
Yet a lot has changed since Cheryl’s obsession began.
“Quilting was kind of just starting out back then…it wasn’t anything like it is today,” she said. “I’ve been in it long enough that I’ve seen the progression. Today we have quite a lot of exposure and there are about six quilt shops in our area…back then you’d be lucky to find one.”
Cheryl remembers fondly when the first shop opened near her home in Pleasanton.
“By the end of the 70s an actual quilt shop called ‘Going to Pieces’ opened a half-mile from my house, and I was thrilled about that,” said Cheryl. “I had never seen that much quilting fabric in one shop! By the early 80s it started to get more popular and several nationally known teachers started teaching at symposiums and workshops and more quilt shops opened up.”
By 1981 Cheryl began to do some teaching of her own and taught quilting classes at ‘Going to Pieces.’
“I taught for about 15 years,” she said. “But things were taught differently back then. I know a lot more than some of the newer quilters because they are learning the fast methods where you cut fabric pieces out with your rotary cutter and mat and really good rulers – which I use now too – but we didn’t have that in the beginning. We had to use straight scissors and patterns and draw around them and cut them out.”
Although now retired, Cheryl still enjoys teaching others the joys of quilting.
“I’ve done a little bit of teaching up here and some workshops for the Sierra Quilt Guild,” she said. “The past two summers a few members of the guild taught a youth quilt program. We had nearly a dozen girls ranging in age from nine to thirteen and we supplied basic supplies and packets of fabric, and during the six-week class we taught them a very simple quilt. They all want to come back and have an intermediate class next year.”
These classes are proof that the love for quilting is spreading to all ages.
“We have a wide range of quilters – professional women, homemakers, and retirees – it’s not just a little old lady thing anymore,” she laughed. “It’s definitely grown in popularity and currently the Sierra Quilt Guild has 212 members!”
While in Pleasanton Cheryl was a Charter member of Amador Valley Quilters, and she became a member of the Sierra Quilt Guild when she moved to the foothills.
“I’ve been a member for basically ten years,” she said. “It is a lot of fun. Generally we have around 100 plus members attend the normal monthly meetings, which are held on the second Monday at the Senior Center in Sonora. We have a few from Calaveras County and even a few members that come up from Modesto on a regular basis…but mostly they’re from Tuolumne County.”
These meetings include guest speakers, drawings, block of the month, door prizes, and a lending library where members can check out quilting books and return them the next month.
“Members do show and tell and bring things they worked on that month and share them with everybody,” said Cheryl.
Members of the Guild also share their quilts with those in need by taking part in the Community Quilts Project, whose purpose is to promote quilting, educate the community about quilting and return something to the community.
“We often donate quilts to groups like Interfaith, Red Cross and senior daycares,” said Cheryl.
Last year 18 quilts were donated to Interfaith Social Services and seven each to Beverly Convalescent Hospital, Mountain Women’s Resources and Tuolumne County Victim-Witness. Those who want to contribute to the Project meet each Tuesday afternoon from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Senior Center to create the quilts, which are made from materials donated by individuals and the Guild.
Aside from making quilts for charity, Cheryl loves to make quilts for her family members, her grandsons and friends. Basically, she just likes to make quilts.
“I just enjoy making my own quilts and hanging them on my walls,” she said. “When I was the speaker at last months meeting I took 24 of my quilts that showed my 31 years of quilting experiences. One lady I know walked up to me afterwards and said, ‘My God woman, you are crazy!’”
A visit to Cheryl’s house might persuade one to agree…she is definitely crazy over quilts. These beautiful fabric creations cover most of the wall space and other quilts can be seen draped over couches and beds.
“I probably have about 50 of them in the house,” she said. “I rotate them around. Right now I have my fall theme going. I’ve been told that I am over the top but I know people that do even more than me.”
This is hard to believe after witnessing a bedroom that is solely devoted to her quilting.
“I call it my sewing studio,” she said. “I have my sewing machine in there and all of my fabric.”
Behind the desk and sewing machine hangs a massive ‘quilt in progress.’
“It’s nice having a wall with builder board that you can stick pins in so you can get an overall picture of what the quilt will look like when it is sewn together,” explained Cheryl. “That one will be in next year’s show.”
A built-in closet is bursting with yards and yards of colorful fabric, each with their own design and patterns…hoping one day to be a part of one of Cheryl’s quilts.
“I have a love for fabric,” sighed Cheryl. “I have quite an extensive fabric collection. I just like the fabric so I buy it. If I really like it then I’ll buy a couple yards. Someday I’ll do something with them.”
For inspiration Cheryl often turns to the bookshelf next to the closet, which is filled with hundreds of books dedicated to quilting and sewing and needlework.
“A lot of these are out of print,” she said. “I haven’t made stuff out of all of them, but I get different ideas from them. A good portion of my quilts start out from patterns from a book.”
Once she finds a pattern she likes, Cheryl adds her own flair to the quilt.
“I like to take patterns from books but I like to make them my own and change them around a little bit,” she said. “Even though I do more traditional quilts, I can make a quilt my own. For example, even though several of us bought this same kit for that quilt on the wall, it didn’t tell where to put the fabric…so they all look a little different because you can choose which colors and where you want a certain fabric to go. Ten people can buy that pattern and if they all buy different fabric then they will all look different.”
These quilting kits have become quite popular.
“Some of our local shops do what they call a block of the month where you go in once a month and get part of the pattern so by the end of the year you’ve done the whole top,” explained Cheryl. “I have done a couple of those. The one I did from Fancy Dry Goods was about 80 by 102 inches…it was really big. The one from Sew Country was about 57 inches square. I’ve done one queen sized one for my bed, but I prefer mostly wall hanging ones or lap quilts…but I like to call them nap quilts because you can cover your whole body and take a nap under them. I’ve also made baby quilts for family and friends.”
The bigger quilts are often finished in Cheryl’s garage where she has a longarm quilting machine that fascinates quilt lovers and non-quilters alike.
“Men are usually impressed by this,” said Cheryl, pointing to the 12-foot long table that houses the giant quilting machine that filled up one side of the garage. “This was originally built for industrial use to do comforters for beds. I got it in 1997 and have done quite a few quilts on it. It moves back and forth in any direction you want and there is a laser light that allows me to just follow the patterns.”
Although this massive machine is one of her home’s three sewing machines, Cheryl still prefers hand quilting.
“I just enjoy sitting in my recliner with a hoop and quilt in the evenings,” she smiled. “I like to sew the piecing part in the mornings and I like to do the handwork part in the evenings. There is no noise and it’s a very pleasurable thing for me. It’s a very relaxing thing for me to do.”
Yet there is no denying that hand quilting takes a lot more time and effort.
“I honestly don’t keep track of how long it takes, but the one I hand quilted this year is 80 inches square and I started in November and it was done by the end of May,” said Cheryl. “The show was my inspiration to get going on it…and it was hand appliqué so I think I spent off and on nine months working on it. There was a lot of handwork in that one. But there are different types of quilters – some like to do it by hand, like me, while others just want to get it done. Some send them all out to be quilted. I’ve always liked to do it myself, but this year I didn’t have time if I wanted to have all my new ones in the show. It takes three layers to make it a quilt. There is the top (pattern part), then the batting in the middle and the backing and the quilting holds them all together. So at the show you will see quilts that have been through this process.”
This year Cheryl will have 16 quilts on display at the two-day event, which will showcase between 250-300 quilts.
“Some are ones that I’ve made through the years that are favorites, but ten are brand new,” she said. “They are all different sizes and some of them were machine pieced and machine quilted and some were hand appliquéd and hand quilted. This means that the entire thing is done by hand except the blocks that were sewn together.”
Cheryl is looking forward to sharing her hard work and passion for quilting with those attending the show.
“Last year we had close to 1,300 people between the two days and we hope to get more this year,” she said. “This is a special event, and we have a member working on a display that will showcase what the guild has done over the last 20 years. We put on these shows to share our love of quilting and the quilts we’ve made with other people that love quilting. We encourage anyone in the community to come and see what we do.”
Admission to the show is $7. For more information, visit www.sierraquiltguild.com.
