Pontotoc sisters always have several quilting projects going
May 15—PONTOTOC — Sisters Sadie Kenney and Dora Day have been around quilting all their lives.
"I remember mother quilting and frames hanging from the ceiling when we were little," Day said.
"Mama could crochet, tat — all kinds of stuff," Kenney said. "I guess that's why we like it. We were around it every day."
While both sisters have been into quilting, sewing and handwork since they were children, it was about 10 years ago that they became interested in appliqué quilts.
"We went to Paducah, Kentucky, to a quilt show in 2012," Day said. "I took a picture of a quilt I liked and came home and found one like it in a quilt book I had. I had to make the pattern up myself, but I made it."
One of Kenney's daughters saw the quilt and liked it, so Kenney made one for her.
The sisters, who live in Pontotoc, always have a quilt — or several — going. Right now, Kenney is working on four different quilts — two for herself, one for a daughter, and one for a raffle for the Friends of the Pontotoc County Library.
Day is working on a fan quilt and a crazy patchwork quilt for herself, a throw for a neighbor and a little quilt for one of her nieces.
"It took me three months to make one quilt," Day said. "I made myself do two blocks a day."
"She's faster than I am," Kenney said. "It takes me six months to do one."
But, it can also take years.
"I started a quilt at our old house," Kenney said. "When we moved, I folded it up and put it in a box and forgot about it. I found it in a storage shed, washed it, and finished it, probably 45 years after I started it."
Each appliqué quilt starts with blocks or panels; most panels are 12- to 24-inch squares. Once the sisters find a pattern they like, they cut the shapes out of different material. Then they pin or baste the shapes onto each block.
"I'm always buying fabric everywhere I go," Kenney said.
"I've got enough material to supply the whole country," Day said.
Each quilt has between six blocks — for a baby quilt — and up 15 blocks for a full-size quilt.
The process the sisters use is called needle turn appliqué. They turn or fold the material for the cut-out pattern pieces under about 1/8 of an inch and then whip it with small stitches.
When they get all the panels for the quilt made, they sew them together, then attach a border to it.
"Then we take it to the quilter, Barbara Pampel in the Hurricane community," Kenney said. "She has a computerized longarm quilting machine, and she does such good work."
Many of the quilts the sisters make are for themselves or family members, but they've also made them to give away.
Each one made an appliqué quilt for the Pontotoc County Republican Women's Club for a raffle, and together they made a sesquicentennial quilt for the Pontotoc County Museum.
"I wish we could get an appliqué quilting guild going in Pontotoc," Kenney said.
The two women get their ideas for quilts from books and on Pinterest, and they often spend time together quilting.
"I love doing needlework," Kenney said. "That's all I do every day. That, and run a taxi service for my grandkids."
Day said she also makes time to work on her quilts every day.
"If you quit doing it, it seems like you're all thumbs when you go back to it," she said.
