Quilter pieces fabrics and memories into artwork and sources of healing

By STEPHANIE PORTER-NICHOLS
Staff

A ballroom gown and feed sacks carry equally exciting potential in Jackie Perry’s eyes. She looks beyond worn fabric remnants and envisions a future for the 1930s’ era gown and old cloth animal feed bags of artwork, healing and even comfortable snuggling.
A quilter since the mid-1980s, Perry’s Marion home tells of her passion for the art form. Brilliant quilted irises adorn her living room wall. An intricate hand-pieced quilt of one-inch hexagons hangs in the dining room, an image of a West Virginia home dear to Jackie and her husband, Michael. Beds are covered with one or more quilts. Even a peek in a bathroom shows a small quilt hanging there.
The walls and furniture reflect the truth of Perry’s statements. “I love color.”
And, “I quilt everyday, at least four hours.” She must.
The rewards of her work come in different forms. Her artistry and skill have earned her peer and professional accolades. In mid-March, Perry will head to Lancaster, Penn., for the American Quilter’s Society Quilt Show & Contest. Her quilt, Seeing Circles, will vie with 175 others for prizes and the attention of 20,000 visitors expected to attend the event.
It’s not the first time Perry’s been honored. A bulletin board in her sewing room mingles ribbons and family photos.
The thought of the individuals in those pictures snuggling under one of her quilts may be her greatest reward, though. She enjoys the knowledge that her five grandchildren like to cuddle under her quilts while they read or watch TV and sometimes even say, “Nana made this.”
Quilts also connect Perry to family she can no longer talk to but remembers. Stored away to protect its aging fabric, the 56-year-old Perry pulls from under her bed a quilt sewn by her grandmother. She fingers the fabrics and recalls a dress her grandmother wore. She rubs the polyester, flannel and cotton.
Her grandmother didn’t teach Perry to quilt, but they still share the bond. “I wish my grandmother was alive so she could see,” Perry said, acknowledging her quilts.
Perry does teach the craft. Every year she teaches at a West Virginia retreat and in other forums.
She and fellow quilters teach and inspire one another monthly on fourth Mondays at New Tradition Quilt Guild meetings at First United Methodist Church in Marion. They celebrate their passion for quilting by giving. Each year, the guild members make about three dozen quilts that are donated to the Department of Social Services to go to homes where they are needed.
Perry believes quilters are caring and sharing people. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a quilter I didn’t like.”
For her, “quilting is a great healer,” allowing expressions of sadness and joy to be sewn into their fabric. She can hold a quilt and remember when a grandparent died or a grandchild was born.
Perry admits the comfort of being covered in a quilt is one of the reasons she likes to hand piece one. Though she pieces many quilts with a high-tech sewing machine, she always has one in the works that is being hand sewn, a skill she teaches to forestall the death of the art. She’s grateful a granddaughter and grandson now quilt.
Stitching family ties and memories into a quilt is what led Perry to piece a Crazy Quilt that included remnants of a 1930s’ ball gown, a daughter’s prom dress, a son’s tie, an old uniform and more for a woman who just brought her box of clothing. With thread and skill, she united the memories into a quilt to last generations.
She’s collecting antique feed sacks now for a quilt, which will be hand done, she declares, true to the period.
Perry’s grateful for her husband’s support. He tore out a wall and renovated an upstairs area into a sewing room. He has taken up collecting and repairing older sewing machines. The shared love, she said, “makes antiquing fun.”
His skills will be helpful should Perry’s 1950s’ featherweight sewing machine ever breaks down. It’s the one she takes on the road so she can quilt and travel.
“It’s a passion,” she declared.

To view more of Jackie Perry's quilts, http://www.slide.com/r/Ezvfyq464z8RVu4JbBuN52HLX0AwHimX?previous_view=lt_embedded_url

On exhibit
Award-winning quilter Jackie Perry’s work can be seen in two shows on exhibit now in Marion.
She has a mini-show at the Lifetime Wellness Center, including a quilt that features a large cross and the scripture verse John 3:16.
Perry is a member of New Traditions Quilt Guild, which is displaying its Fruit & Fiber Collection at the Marion branch of the Smyth-Bland Regional Library.