Sewing a Movement: Georgia Bonesteel and the American Quilt Revival

Long before YouTube tutorials and Instagram reels, Georgia Bonesteel was teaching America how to make quilts — one stitch at a time. Georgia helped spark a nationwide quilting revival through her PBS series Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel, introducing a technique that made quilting more accessible to everyday people. 

In this episode of the Kudzu Project, I sit down with a true pioneer of American craft — an artist, teacher, and storyteller whose work has inspired generations, and who has called Western North Carolina home for more than half a century. We talk about creativity, discipline, the evolution of quilting, and how a life rooted in tradition can still shape modern culture. This is more than just quilting — it's about legacy, creativity, and the enduring power of making something that lasts.

Welcome to Rhythm & Brews — held on the 3rd Thursday of each month from June-October, Rhythm & Brews transforms South Main Street in downtown Hendersonville into a community gathering place filled with music, food trucks, local beer, wine, and cider, and thousands of people enjoying a summer evening together. Learn more at https://www.hendersonvillenc.gov/events/rhythm-brews-concert-series.

The Kudzu Project is powered by the Lucey Agency, a full-service marketing firm based in Hendersonville, NC.

The Henderson County Chamber of Commerce is a proud presenting partner of the Apple Festival Races which will be held on Saturday, September 5, 2026. The event is presented by Hunter Subaru, with support from Lassonde Pappas, Cummins, and Mountain Credit Union. This event has something for runners of every level with an 8K, 5K, and Chick-fil-A Mini Moo Mile. To register, visit https://raceroster.com/events/2026/111853/apple-festival-races. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Georgia Bone Steel. Thank you for coming on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

You are like the Michael Jordan of quilting.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Oh, that's a new one.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Feel free to use it. So you have a Wikipedia article, which is, you know, in this day and age, that's prestigious to have your own Wikipedia article.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Well, I I have to mention that my grandson, I think, put that together. He's a particularly uh smart grandson.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Well, when you have a Wikipedia article, it means that you've really accomplished something. And yeah, I wanted to thank you for coming on the podcast. I was recommended to you by gosh, I forget her name.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Annie Coletta.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Yes. Annie. Yes. I I started to do a little, you know, I di I dig in a little bit when I when I want to have somebody on the on the show and I stalk you a little bit. Very fascinating background, very, very interesting journey to get to get where you are today in Flat Rock. You started out, you were born in Sioux City, Iowa.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yes, I was. I um my father uh was a county attorney there. In uh he was born and raised in Northwest Iowa, and that's where they started. And that's how I was born on a very hot day in July. Mother always uh claimed they were frying eggs on the street, uh and it was in the newspaper that day. So um we weren't there long. He lost an election, and she claimed it's because he was always on the golf course. So uh and then um mother uh and I ended up in Miami, Florida, where her parents lived. Okay, and Daddy was on a job search of some sort, and he finally found a job in Boston, Massachusetts, uh, with the Department of Justice. He graduated, he was a lawyer. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

So you bounced all over the place growing up.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Yes, I did. In fact, I was telling Amy yesterday I I just did a recount uh for my sister and I of our where we went over the years, where we moved. As a lawyer with a government, you end up trying a lot of cases. And he tried some very famous ones, and um but I ended up going to 12 schools, so we moved around a lot. Every time there was a new lawsuit, he would go somewhere. Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:21

I was born on a hot July day myself in the Midwest. I was born in in Wisconsin. How did that form who you were moving around a lot? Because I never really had you know best friends in any one spot.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

I I I can uh understand. I I feel the same way. I would tell my parents, now wait a minute, I just made these new friends and now we're moving. And my sister didn't bother her a bit. Jill just, ah, it's okay. But it did bother me. But uh in retrospect, I think it probably was a benefit for adapting. And to this day, and because of what I did professionally, I love to travel, I love meeting new people. And so maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

Yeah. It toughens you up a little bit, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 4:12

I think it does. Yes, it does. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 4:14

Yeah. So you wound up in the Chicago area where you met your husband. You worked for Marshall Fields.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yes, yes. Um we went from DC to um Chicago. Daddy was the head of the uh office there. And during that time, um and right after I graduated, I worked at Fields also. And then I worked at Carson Peary Scott on the college board. That's when you would have an authority uh in the store who knew about what to wear when you went to college. And so that was a lot of fun. And then I went to Iowa State. I'd I always knew I would end up in clothing and textiles. I just kind of felt that. And um, that was maybe normal at the time. It's not so much anymore. There aren't many young ladies that go off to take home economics anymore. Right. So I did that for two years and then met Pete on a summer at a summer break. He had come home from uh Oklahoma and was living at home. So we fell in love and I ended up going to Northwestern, where I always wanted to go, but my my grades weren't high enough when I graduated from New Trier to go there. But I went to the library a lot at Iowa State and finally was able to uh transfer to Northwestern. So that's where I graduated from, and then we got married. He went into the Marine Corps. Semper Fidelis. Yes, yes, yes. And um, and then uh after we got married, we had our first son, and then we had our daughter, and then he uh was working for Shell Oil Company, and once again we started moving. So we went from there to Minneapolis, came back to Deerfield, Illinois, then went to Tulsa, and ended up in New Orleans, which was a great opportunity to spend a couple years there. The children were fascinated with Bourbon Street. We would drive them down Bourbon Street and they would peek in the windows of uh lounges, and um uh then our next move was to Houston. We did not want to go to Houston. So, in the meantime, my parents had retired to Tryon. And we would visit Tryon to uh take the grandchildren for a visit, and we fell in love with the area. Uh at the time I was cycling a lot, and um ended up cycling with a wonderful lady in in Trion, Mrs. Stevenson. She was the wife of the local minister, and I'll never forget her. She also held the record for climbing Mount Lacan. She was an amazing woman. And I rode my bicycle with her one day from Tryon to Chesney, and I'll never forget she never had to stand up and pedal. I was standing up and pedaling to get there. But so I'm she and my parents being there had an influence uh on us for this part of the country. And Pete was lucky enough to find a job with Axona, and Axona was a conglomerate. They owned six different companies, the major one being Inca. Okay. So uh we bought a home here in Hendersonville, and he would go to Inca every day to work. And yes, and and then an opportunity came up um for uh a hardware store that was for sale because our next move with them was going to be to Ohio, and we'd fallen in love with this part of the country. So uh we bought the hardware store, and uh and about that time my mother uh called one day, she said, you know, I saw this knitting show on public television, and she said, You've been doing all this quilting, uh especially in New Orleans. Why don't you you know contact public television and see if you could do a show on quilting? I said, good idea. And at the same time, our oldest son was looking for a college to go to and he was he wanted to visit uh Chapel Hill and NC State, and so we drove over there and I made contact with uh the people there uh and brought a load of quilts and made a proposition and they they said a great idea.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

So that that was in uh about 1975. Okay. Yeah, we hadn't been here long, and and actually there was another wonderful thing that happened in my professional career. The day we moved in on Estate Drive, a neighbor came down and said, Oh, and I cannot remember her name, uh, is moving next week and she's teaching a class at Blue Ridge Community College, and there's no one to finish teaching. Could you do it? I said, sure, I could do that. So immediately I was teaching at Blue Ridge. Wow. And that was an amazing opportunity. I I just love that. I um and so mother knew I was doing that, and she said, You've got that teaching background, why don't you? So the two things just kind of fell together all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_03 10:14

So your your hobby of quilting quickly accelerated and you became a host of a TV show and a and a Pete always he used to make fun of me.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

He said, Will you just put that quilting down? What are you doing with that silly thing? And he ended up eating those words, and I just loved it. Pretty soon we had people driving from Oxmore House from Southern Living, popping champagne bottles upstairs in our hardware store when I made another million dollars for that company. I didn't make it, but they sure did. So then all of a sudden, it wasn't just that silly craft you're doing. It it uh it rose in esteem. And um and and it was I was doing something on love. That was the amazing thing. I hope, I hope my children didn't suffer from that. They were all in college. They or no, they were in high school. I think they probably had the same thing, attitude Pete did. Well, mother's busy with her sewing and with her stitching. And um, but you know, I ended up having a a wonderful producer at PBS over there. Right. We're still friends, and uh, we traveled all over the world together. Now, did you have to commute there to well I ended up doing um 13 shows, they were 30-minute shows every two years. Okay. I did uh 12 of them, and so there was a two-year lapse in between, and it gave me time. Once I got on the what I guess you'd call the circuit of being a professional, I was invited places, and once you my first trip was I think somewhere in Tennessee, Nashville or wherever, I knew I had to fly. And once you do that, you make contacts not only with other people, but people that have been traveling to conventions and events, and they bring they have you get feedback from them. And that's where I got my ideas for the shows. That was the most fun of all, was creating 13 topics to talk about, and they had to relate to what was happening at the time and what was hot in the quilt and the sewing world. And then um then I started interviewing people and made um people that were having uh an impact on quilting during the period, and that was a lot of fun also. Yeah um then I did I did seven quilt cruises. I was the first person to have a quilt cruise.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

I bet those got crazy.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

It did get crazy, yes, yes, and I had some wonderful underwriters that I promoted, burning a sewing machines being number one. We had a quilt cruise where they donated, they brought on board, you know, 12 sewing machines. Pete and I could not even walk in our stateroom. We had boxes everywhere. We had to climb over to get to the beds. And um but but it all led to experiences of meeting people and learning new things.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

So to someone such as myself who knows nothing about quilting, can can you just give us a brief overview of of the history of quilting and how how does that apply to this region? Because I know quilting is is kind of a big deal in Appalachia.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Yes, yes, it is. Well, you've caught me at a good time. I'm I'm kind of on a little quilt high right now. I just came back from Charleston where we spent uh all day Saturday at the Cobblestone uh quilt guild where they put on a show every two years, and it's a big deal. Um uh there were you know over 200 quilts that were judged and hanging uh in a beautiful situation. There were vendors all around, and um many of those people I knew. And but as far as the history, um uh and it goes back to China, it goes back to uh England, and um it's it's all about putting three layers together. Even the Vikings, even anyone knows that for warmth and for comfort, you layer three layers.

SPEAKER_03 14:45

It's always three.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

It's always three. There's a top, it could be just a plain top, then there's a filler, and there's a backing. And it's those three layers that when they're connected, usually by hand, uh they create shadows on the surface of the quilt. So it's a 3D type. It it truly is. I mean, you can just you can have a decorative top and batting and backing, and if they're not connected, it's just patchwork. Yeah, it has no aura, it doesn't have the depth. The minute you connect them, you have shadows. And that has changed over the years. It used to be you were not a real quilter unless you hand stitched your pieces together and then you hand quilted them. That has really changed. Right. And when I uh started my shows, there was no question that I that that I would use a sewing machine because that's what I knew how to put patchwork together. Um, however, I did use learn on a treadle machine at Alfred I. DuPont School in Jacksonville, Florida. I'd learned on a treadle and have a lot of respect for that. But um in fact, I I have to tell you, I just saw yesterday that they someone has put an exercise bicycle to a treadle sewing machine. So you can wow you can cycle and sew at the same time. So workout and quilt simultaneously. I mean, we've come a long way, truly. So, but um I have been in this field long enough, as many of my peers have, to see the changes that have happened, and it is it's really amazing. And we saw that specifically at the show, because now there um are things that are called long arm quilting machines. It it's a three-layered device where you attach your backing, your batting, the filler on a different um rod, and then your decorative top. Or it could be just a plain printed top that's highly unique. And those three roll together, and you can quilt all of that in one day. And it's not necessarily done with a stylus where you move the needle, it's now connected to a computer.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

So you can picture the design and then do a specific quilting motif within a certain area of a quilt. And I was pleased to see at the event that in some cases there were two ribbons on the quilt, not only for the maker, but for the quilter. And so um that pleases me because there is an art in to loading it properly, the getting the tension right, um, the needles, the thread, all of it. It's it's um it's an all-encompassing situation.

SPEAKER_03 18:01

Do you think technology is gonna go too far though with quilting?

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Well, I wonder, and I asked someone the other day, do you think AI will will crop into our quilt field? I I have no idea. In design, maybe it will. No, I I I I don't think so. Um, I mean, we had a busload of people and there was a lot of chatter on the way home. In fact, you mentioned your love of scuba diving. One of the most awesome quilts in the show, and it was a lot as large as that door right there, was an octopus. And um as far as I know, it had to be an original design. So people have learned to be. I often think of quilting as um uh fiber architects because there are angles involved. I mean, and um uh I I think children should be involved in quilting because it's so much of it is mathematical, a lot of it.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

Yeah, it's very geometric.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Some of it is, yes.

SPEAKER_03 19:08

Yeah. You know, blankets are very utilitarian, but there's something very emotional about a quilt, isn't there? It it conveys more than just the family.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Well, and in many cases, people make quilts with, at least it used to be, with fabric from making garments for the children when they grow up. They became it became a very sentimental thing. Oh, that was uh so-and-so's wedding dress, and and uh that's changing over the years. Um, but I've always said as long as they keep making fabric, we will keep making quilts. And the fabric industry, and I see that a lot now, um, even though I'm somewhat retired, um, my children want me to be fully retired, but I I can't let go completely, so I'm working one day a week. And um, working at a quilt shop keeps me in touch with the new fabrics that are coming out, and it's uh it's a lot of fun to cut fabric for people and um makes me think of the next quilt I would like to make. Uh and uh charities have become very involved with quilt making. We have a quilts of valor uh group here, and my next quilt will be a quilts of valor quilt group. Nice. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

Yeah, we do we do work with the Veterans Healing Farm, and I know that they had a quilt making class there recently.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yes, yes. So well have you been to one of those ceremonies yet?

SPEAKER_03 20:41

I have not.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Very emotional, it really is. And uh um in fact, I just learned yesterday in talking to my friends on the bus that sometimes uh gentlemen think, oh, that's a great idea, veterans, but they really can't talk about it. But I learned that they will do a private quilts of valor. In other words, if they don't want to be with a group of seven or eight gentlemen, they they will go to your home. Yeah. And um, and and that's uh that's a good thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

Do you feel like quilts gave you a feeling of stability when you were moving around a lot, that there was something comforting about quilting?

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Well, you know, when we moved here, we've been here 52 years. Um, so I wasn't moving around a lot then, but um I I I think quilts can, yes. Um, my sewing did. I mean, the fact that I kept involved in making clothes for the children or whatever. I I love to do home decorating. I did some really silly home decorating things. I look back on pictures and I think, ah, silly curtains I did. I was always sewing. So I think that ended, uh, added a lot of stability. When we got to New Orleans, that is where my career really started because um I did some television work there for uh uh WDSU, a television station there, and they had a contract with uh Sears and Roebuck to do a series called Sewing is Fun. And I ended up auditioning for a spot and I ended up getting um the job because I was a seamstress, and I was the behind the scenes seamstress for the star on the show. So when she said she made the garment, I really had made it the night before. Um, but she ended up being a great friend. Her name was Terry Fletrich. Um, she has since passed away, and um but I made some great friends there. And through that connection, at the time, her son in law was president of Cowtus Mira Necktie Company, and Simplicity had just come out with. With a necktie pattern for to make a necktie for your husband. Cool. So I was making polyester neckties for Pete, and I think he actually wore them to work. I can't believe he did. And so when you make a necktie, there's always a triangle left over because it's made on the bias. And so I thought, well, I can't throw those away. So then I was making little patchwork purses and garments and vests and things out of the leftovers. And when the TV show, the sewing is fun, people found out, they said, Well, why don't you come down and do a little spot? And so I did. And then when I found about, I found out about Terry's son-in-law, I said, Well, what do they do with all those leftover triangles? I want those. So they took me to the factory, and I got a watch, I got to watch the ties cut out. And they gave me boxes of leftover, and it was silk. It was beautiful fabric. And then I started making little handbags for the French Quarter. And um that really got me excited. They will I had hand embroidery on them. And I had a little shop. Uh well, it only lasted about a week. When Pete found out where it was, he said, I don't think that's a good idea. It was right next door to Pat O'Brien's. Yeah, and it was um sometimes I had to walk over people to get in the shop. It wasn't a good idea. Um, but anyway, I I did continue to make um handbags for boutiques in the French Quarter. Yeah. And so when I came to town, I, you know, that was kind of one of the things I taught, and that um that was an important thing for me at that period in my life.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

Yeah. Do you think that today's society, men, women have have moved away from these textile arts?

SPEAKER_01 25:04

This is a very good question. Um this is something that those at my in my age area, it's something we all worry about. Um, because it's mostly senior people that treasure and continue this and buy the fabric. Now, we do have younger people, and we really encourage that because that's what is going to carry it on. Uh, if you're a gentleman in this field, you rise to the top right away. Are too many? Oh, there are a few, and I can I can name them all. Um Ricky Timms. I mean, I can name there are only about four or five I can name. But um uh it is an industry or a craft, an art field that um that we hope will not fade away, but I fear that it is. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

I know a lot of there's a lot of young folks that are, I know in the photography world they're rediscovering film. A lot of kids are listening to vinyl records these days. Just because it's it's nostalgic and vintage and and nobody else is really doing it. Do you think that it it's gonna have that sort of effect that people will rediscover it because it is so old school?

SPEAKER_01 26:22

We're we're gonna work on it. Let me let me just say this. Um, we have people come in the store and they'll say, Oh, I'm making a quilt for my grandson who's going off to college, and I want to say in the back of my mind, well, good luck, because I've made quilts for my college people, college grandchildren, they never show up on the beds, you know. They they want something more decor, and they go to um that's bed bath and beyond or somewhere else. And and um so it yeah, it it's something we worry about. It is.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

Yeah. Who are the innovators in the quilting space right now? Who who are the the folks that are emerging that you go, wow, they're they're maybe doing something that you didn't know was possible or they're right.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

Well, um there is there's someone taking care of that. Uh Alex Alexander and Ricky Timms have um uh a show. It's on the network. It's on you, you you have to become a member of it, and it's very reasonable. It's sponsored by Fabric Industry, Bernina of America. And they feature the the icons. Uh, it's an hour show. They feature the the icons, the people that the movers and shakers. And um it's hard for me to name all those people now because I'll be honest, I haven't kept up like I like I have, like I should. I'm uh I'm a member, very proud member of the Quilters Hall of Fame, and they do a good job of inducting people that have had an impact on our industry. And a lot of those are my friends and people that I've supported, people that uh I interviewed, and uh I have my personal mentors, uh Jenny Byers, one of them, uh Katie Pasquini, uh Jeffrey Gutchen, uh all Jeffrey's no longer here. He had his name on a fabric. I printed two lines of fabric and um went to Rock Hill and saw the the strike off, and uh the plants are no longer there in Rock Hill anymore. You know, fabrics printed elsewhere. Uh and so all of that has changed. Um we depend on the big shows in Paducah and Houston uh to lead the way and tell us who's having the impact. And those teachers are there. You sign up for classes, and um uh CAFE, um one of the uh we have a special designer of fabric, uh his name's Caife, and he uh he has explosive fabrics. I always thought it it really should be wallpaper, but um and he there are certain people that follow fabric lines, just as you when you go into um a department store, you'll go to a certain designer and they'll have certain designs that all kind of coordinate. The same thing happens in the quilt world when you go into a fabric store, there'll be um free spirit, um there'll be I just had a new line of fabric come out, and I'm very excited about that. It was done by Hoffman. I should have brought you some of it. It's uh we call it uh Henderson County Heritage Fabric. Very cool. Yes, and it has uh the Vagabond Players, it has Carl Sandberg, it has the Goat Barnes, it has apples, wow, and it's it's uh boutique fabric that's done in Indonesia. Wow. Yes, and uh now where will that be be handed? It's all it's exclusive exclusive at Beginnings uh quilt shop.

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

You can only buy it there.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

So uh I've taken a little wall hanging down to travel and tourism, and um next week I'm gonna take one to uh Connemara and also the playhouse.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

The Henderson County uh museum would probably be very interested in that as well.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

Oh yes, that would be good. Now where is oh the museum in the historic courthouse? Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. I haven't I had a display there for a while, but really then then they kicked me out because they were doing they were doing some renovation. So um, and that's um that's kind of a dream of mine, and uh we'll talk more about that uh later. Where did you learn to quilt? Uh I'm self-taught. Really. Um connecting those three layers was it was in New Orleans when I did those little bags. I was doing embroidery stitches, but I was going through three layers. That's where I really and then when I came here to town, uh I just said I was a quilter. I just um I I was really just self-taught. I knew I had to connect those three layers. I graduated in home economics, but we didn't do quilting there. So I'm I'm really self-taught when it comes to quilting. And you know, if you can if you can hand stitch, you can quilt. You can connect those three layers. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:40

I'm in Vision Henderson County and we we toured the Johnson farm and they had a bunch of looms in there. Have you have you seen that operation?

SPEAKER_01 31:47

The looms, yes, yes, that's weaving. Yeah. Yes, that's weaving. Do you have any interest in that type of stuff? How we said when I retired, I was gonna learn weaving and car mechanics. Well, now cars are all digital, so forget that. Um, no, I I whenever I taught at John Campbell, the weaving room was right next door, and I was fascinated with it. Uh, and I've done a little hand loom, but no, I've never really um it at John at um Johnson Farm, somewhere in their storage department, they have at least a dozen quilts that I donated to them. And it's kind of an interesting story. They were collected by me from in the tryon area. Someone called, and a family had died. They didn't know what to do with the quilt, so I collected them. And at the time, Johnson Farm was uh doing more in the way of developing their what they have out there, and it's a great place for for children, for school children. And uh so I donated them, but we discovered they were full of bugs. And so I called a Smithsonian, and at the time, it must have been in the spring, they said, Can you find some freezers that you can put them in? So I called the school system and they let me put those quilts in the freezer for the summer. Kill all the bugs. Killed all the bugs. Wow. And then I donated them. So they're at Johnson Farn somewhere. And I uh uh they do have someone up there, upstairs beds I've been out there.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

So folks in quilting and folks in we there's there's a big difference between the the genres. Yes. What's what's next for you? And you you you don't seem to be slowing down at all.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Um well um, you know, working once a uh, you know, I'm I'm active in our quilt guild. And in May, our Western North Carolina Quilters Guild is having another show. They do a show every other year. And I'll be there volunteering and maybe doing some demonstrating and um promoting the guild. And uh when you go to the show, there's lots to do there. They they collect baskets where they're you could they raffle off baskets and they're all like there'll be a garden basket and uh uh a fruit basket and all sorts of things. And yeah, there's a lot going on. And you I mean, people come to the show that are art people, and not necessarily to be a quilter, but just to gaze at what can be done really is is pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_03 34:25

Yeah. What do you tell young young men and young women who are interested in this? How do how can they get involved? How can they learn how to quilt?

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Well, I think taking a class, uh, going to the library and getting books, uh, joining a guild, and I think uh develop a group of people. I think there's there's something to be said in the one upmanship of when one person learns something and then another one says, Well, I can do that. And then, you know, one person's stitching can be better than another person's stitching. And so it's um it's it's a gentle competition, so to speak.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

How do people follow along on your adventures? You have a website.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Um I did have a website. We're kind of closing that down. So um I think um my quilting field now is more in in giving back in the guild and sharing people that come into Beginnings Quilt Shop. I'm always anxious to talk about what I've done and that sort of thing. My uh my energies now go more to gardening. I became a master gardener a few years ago, and I certainly don't know everything, but uh I I love to work at the park, at the Flat Rock Park, and also at the playhouse. I'm very proud of what we do there. Uh, they don't have to hire anyone to come. We do all of that, and we do tours once a month at the playhouse, and you can come and learn a lot about gardening, and you you're certainly welcome to come join us too and volunteer. So, but I've been able to take what my quilting field, um, for instance, I've done wall hangings that respond to um the theaters that they're doing, and um and like designing the fabric that has um the vagabond on the fabric. I mean, so it's funny how you can find a way that your craft can overlap into other fields that you're doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:26

Yes. How long does it take you to make a quilt, start to finish?

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Oh my. I always say it depends on how much you eat and sleep in one day. But I mean, I mean uh a month or so you can get a quilt done. But it depends if you, you know, when you hire out, we call that quilting by check. When you hire a long armor to do your quilting, um, yes. Um so but I I think uh I like to encourage the originality in quilt making. A lot of what I see at shows today are uh kits and pre someone else has made the pattern, and then you make the quilt. And they're being judged. Um but I like to think that as a teacher we instill creativity and original designs.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

Yeah, yeah. Did you find any connection between quilting and gardening that that made that transition easy for you or was it completely different?

SPEAKER_01 37:25

No, I well, I've just always liked flowers and I think just keeping an open mind and learning more is is probably what I've enjoyed. And I live on an acre and a half property, and it needs care. And so um, even though I get some help doing it now, um being a master gardener tells me, you know, when to plant, what to plant, what to kill, what not to kill, and and dealing with that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03 37:57

A garden is kind of like a quilt for your yard, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Well, it true, it is. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

Well, Georgia, I really appreciate you coming on the podcast today.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

Is there anything else that you want to talk about on air?

SPEAKER_01 38:11

No, I I can't think so. I think you've kind of covered the waterfront, and I can congratulate you for doing this sort of thing.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

Well, thank you, ma'am. And and thank you for coming on and telling your story. It's fascinating, and you've you've become quite the celebrity here in Henderson County.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 38:27

Yep, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

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SPEAKER_00 39:18

Everyone has a story. And at the Cudzu Project, we want to hear yours. Go to Cudzooproject.com and fill out our story submission form. You can write your story for us to read on the podcast, request to be interviewed, or even nominate someone else whose story deserves to be told. The Cudzu Project is all about capturing the voices and spirit of our community, and your story could be the next one we share. Visit Cudzoo Project.com and tell your story today.