I’ m known mostly for my applique quilts.” These days, with six adult children and 18 grandchildren, which includes the great grandchildren too, ball games and more keeps everyone busy. Her 19th grandchild is due in September. Yet, all her grandchildren have helped with creating quilts, usually a square for Kenna’ s larger projects.
“ I go on spurts where I enter the fair kind of prolifically, and then I did a lot with my children when they were young. We were big fair people when the children were young. I didn’ t quilt then, but I did sew. The fair motivates me,” she said.
“ I make baby quilts as the babies come. I love making baby quilts, and Christmas quilts.” She showed off a stack of small quilt journals that holds photos and all the details of each quilt she has ever made, including the dates and who they were made for.
“ I’ ve made a lot of patriotic quilts in the past, but not this year. I was otherwise involved with other projects. I craft with the grandchildren. I do lots of crafts where they often ask when they come, can we do
a craft today? So I craft with the grandchildren now. And I attend lots of ball games.”
An unusual fair memory is when she was in the hospital giving birth to a son.“ My mother brought me a Best of Show ribbon to put on his bassinet, September 1982.“ That’ s how I know the fair was in September, 40 years ago.”
Curry has many memories of being involved in the county fair, including entering a 4-H apron she made when she was a child in the program. Just as her mother encouraged her to enter items in the fair, she does that now with her grandchildren.
“ School children are the future of the fair, and you need to have them down there and they will see that they have talents,” she said. Curry’ s grandchildren also create and enter the county fair, everything from photos to crafts.“ It’ s showing the talents of the community.”
As fair entries dwindle, those who have wonderful memories of past fairs, share a collective concern.
“ If people aren’ t excited about it anymore, then they can’ t make other people excited about it,” she said. Her mother and many more agree.
“ I especially like to teach the kids about taking something that’ s old and giving it a new purpose, you know. Recycling. My granddaughter, age 7, was one of them who did a recycling project last year.” Curry had a large old embroidery hoop and gave it to her granddaughter to create a bird feeder. Black mesh screening went between the two pieces of the hoop and twine was added to hang it from a tree branch. That way the bird seed could sit in it and the rain could flow through it freely. Curry has many quilting stories, and a room dedicated to her hobby.
“ I find quilting therapeutic. I also find that for me it’ s an art form. I try to almost always put some hand work on there because I love doing hand work. For me it’ s a creative way of putting things out there. The colors, the patterns, the design. I often take patterns and fit them to what I want them to look more like. I take an idea and then I manipulate it.”
She surprised her mother with a special quilt on her 75th birthday many years ago. It was one of the most unusual quilts she made. Curry bought all the background fabric for every square, and then gave each of her mother’ s friends and relatives who quilt, a birthday cake pattern( no two alike) and the background fabric.“ It was up to them to create a block. After she collected all the blocks, she made her mother a quilt of cakes.
“ There’ s no two quilts the same ever.” She also has a simple rule to keep her quilt collection from getting too bulky.“ I’ m getting to where I really want just the personal family story. If I don’ t have a story for it, it doesn’ t need to stay with me.” She believes in giving her finished quilts a story that the potential owner would cherish, something that is personal to them.
Ron & Suzie Smart
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