The lost art of hand quilting: A broken line is Stacey Putnam’s tell-tale mark

By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus

As Stacey Putnam shows off the vibrant colors in a quilt that her grandmother made decades ago, she flips the quilt over to display the small, dashed lines that make up the stitching on the back.

These are the tell-tale marks of a quilt that was hand stitched.

“When you hand-quilt, you leave behind a broken line,” Putnam said, explaining the process of stitching through the layers of a quilt — the top quilt, usually made up of patchwork squares or an applique design; the batting, or the insulated filling; and the backing.

“It’s like a sandwich, and when your thread is stitched through the layers, it leaves behind a dashed line with gaps in between,” Putnam said. “When you quilt with the (sewing) machine, it leaves a solid line on the top and the back. It just looks different.”

The quilt made from recycled flour sacks may not feature elaborate and seamless stitchwork, or even complicated geometric shapes in the patchwork squares, but it is one of Putnam’s most prized quilts.

It was left to Putnam after her grandmother, Ruby Austin Qualls, passed away in May of 1994. It’s also the quilt that inspired Putnam to take up the craft about six years later.

“When she died — she had a lot of quilts — each of the grandchildren was given a quilt,” Putnam said. “When I got the quilt, it was a very simple pattern because she did string quilts with very simple, mismatched cloth, but it just meant a lot to me. It reminded me of my grandmother. She was very hardworking, and it reminded me of her way of life.”

Talking about her late grandmother conjures up memories of visiting her grandparents’ farm in Savannah, Tennessee, each summer when Putnam was a child.

“We’d get up in the morning; she’d make biscuits by hand, and I remember it being very hot,” Putnam said. “My dad’s family made do. I remember no air conditioning, and my grandma always wore house dresses and had her hair in a bun. They hung clothes on the line.

“It was just a very different way of life. Very simple. Very quiet. My grandparents were very quiet.”

Putnam, now 51 and living in Florence, was stationed at the Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, Louisianna, when she got the news of her grandmother’s passing.

Though she was inspired to take up quilting as a way to preserve some of those memories with her grandmother, she had to put that hobby on hold for a short while.

“I started quilting years later, because I was still active duty and I was going to school,” Putnam said. “It was just a very busy time.”

Putnam graduated from nursing school in 2000, and she purchased her fist sewing machine, which still sits in her kitchen today. Next, Putnam enlisted help from her aunt — her dad’s sister, Jo Anne Lutrell — to teach her to quilt.

“She taught me to use a needle and thimble,” Putnam said. “I like hand-quilting. I just prefer that look, and it’s rewarding. I’ve done both — machine quilting and hand — but I personally find the hand-quilting is more enjoyable. It is more time consuming, but I wanted to learn to hand-quilt.

“So, it goes back to my dad’s family,” she added. “My mom thinks I’m nuts. She called me the other day and asked, ‘What are you doing?’ I was cutting 3,390 strips of material and sewing them back together. She just laughs.”

Though her mother doesn’t quite get the pastime, when Putnam moved to the Shoals, she found a group that does.

She and her husband, Brian, moved to the Shoals 17 years ago when Putnam started working in critical care at Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital — now North Alabama Medical Center. After the move from Louisianna, Putnam said she found out about a quilt show, and that’s when she discovered the Batting Brigade Quilt Guild.

She attended the quilt show, held at Edgemont United Methodist Church where the guild meets every month. After meeting several of the members, Putnam decided to join the club.

“They used to have these quilting bees and fabric exchanges, and those were treats,” Putnam said. “We meet every month at the church, and we have meals. They’re just a really good group of people. We share a common interest. We learn from each other. We have show and tell every month and, you know, the people you are friends with really appreciate your work.”

Though Putnam has been quilting for more than 20 years, she said she still learns something new from the group each month.

They’ve taught me so much,” she said. “Sometimes it’s something you don’t want to hear. I was having trouble getting my borders on, and one of the members said, ‘Well, get your seam ripper and take them off. So, I was like, ‘OK, I guess that’s what it takes.’”

When asked about some of the techniques she’s been taught by the club, Putnam said one of the favorites she has adopted is applique, which involves needling pieces of fabric to a larger background to form pictures or patterns.

“I learned from Margaret,” Putnam said. “Margaret Miller was a member of the guild, and she sort of became a mentor. Margaret taught me so much about applique, and she did the most beautiful needle turn, where you turn the edges under. You don’t want a raw edge because the threads will start to fray.”

Among several finished quilt tops Putnam has at home that still need to be layered with batting and backing is a pineapple applique quilt that Putnam’s youngest son, Alex, has claimed as a favorite.

As Putnam’s unfinished projects begin to outnumber the completed quilts in her home, she admits she may have to start turning to her sewing machine to catch up. Still, she’s set aside a few favorite top quilts she is determined to hand-quilt as she has time.

As for the quilts that are finished, Putnam smiles when she sees her husband wrapped up in one of her creations on a cold day, or whenever she sees her sons drape a cozy favorite across their lap as they snack and play video games.

Putnam even hopes the quilts that took several painstaking hours to hand stitch get day-to-day use in her house, or in the homes of others she’s gifted them to.

“It’s hard to say what you feel when you hold a quilt,” she said. “When I put my grandmother’s quilt in my lap, I just look at her stitches and think about the hands that made it. This is something that she touched, and she made. I just have an admiration for that.”