Meet the Wooden Quilter
I’m an old man now, and it’s been a long time (more than 65 years) since I fell in love with woodworking in a seventh-grade shop class. But I remember, from the very first day I thought, “This is fun.” I took all the shop classes I could through my ninth-grade year, concentrating on woodworking and drafting. But when I got into high school, that was the end of woodworking class. In my Missouri high school, if you took the college prep program, you couldn’t take shop. So woodworking got mostly pushed aside until I was out of college.
In the intervening years, I did have one really nice learning opportunity. While in college, studying for ministry, I worked as a draftsman designer for an architectural/construction company that specialized in church buildings. The company was building a new campus for the Christian college where I was a student. My boss’ nephew was making all the teachers’ desks, dorm-room built-in cabinetry, etc. for the new buildings. The boss sent me to learn how Steve built cabinets, so I could design future church kitchens and preacher’s offices to fit Steve’s cabinet-making methods. I learned from a master, in just three weeks of working with him.
Eight years later, I moved to a church in Indiana. The preacher’s office needed cabinets and bookcases, so I borrowed a table saw and built what I needed, just as Steve had taught me. In 1976, I bought a house and a radial arm saw, and used the saw to double the kitchen cabinets in our new home. (I still have that saw, and use it every day.)
That was the real beginning of my woodworking. Since then, I have accumulated more tools, both large and small, until I had a fully equipped workshop by the time I “retired”. (At age 78, I now spend 25 to 30 hours a week in my shop, so am I retired or not?) Over the years, I read woodworking books, watched all the woodworking TV shows I could, and subscribed to multiple woodworking magazines.
About 55 years, and countless bookcases, wooden boxes, and turned vases after I was introduced to woodworking, I stumbled onto the most enjoyable—to me—and most unusual woodworking projects I have ever attempted: wooden quilts.
It was about ten years ago, and I was admiring the quilts my wife makes. We were both widowed several years before, had been married less than ten years, and life had kind of got in the way of her quilting. But when she got started again, I was in awe. Those wonderful designs, and the contrast of colors… They were something!
It was getting close to Valentine’s Day, and I was wondering what to make her for a Valentine’s gift. Looking at one of her quilts, I thought, “I can do this with wood!” So, I looked through some of her pattern books and picked a pattern I liked. It looked complicated, but maybe it wouldn’t be as hard as it looked. If you’re a quilter, or very acquainted with traditional quilt patterns, you likely know it: Card Trick.
I had made lots of wooden boxes over the years, even sold a few, so I decided to make a box, with the quilt pattern inlaid in the top. It took some doing, since I had never done inlay, but I managed. My wife told me later she had doubted I would be able to do it. But I did, and I was hooked. I think any quilter will understand what I mean. I’ve done other projects since, but mostly I do quilts in wood. That’s what I love. Now I make all kinds of things with wooden quilt patterns in them and sell them at arts and craft shows and quilt shows.
That’s what this blog is about—not just the selling, but the fun of making quilts in wood.