Quilting History of Dorothy Alice Barnhill Cleaver

There once was a little girl named Dorothy, sitting under a quilting frame threading her third needle, while her mother Dorothy Marguerite (Culver) Barnhill and grandmother Nora Marriah (Stratton) Barnhill used those needles as hired hands to quilt a lattice grid the width of a ruler, charging by the yard of thread used. Unknown to her she was being taught a family tradition that would she would pass onto her children and grandchildren. Dorothy's first introduction of the art came from her greatgrandmother Chloe Marriah (Jones) Stratton. Chloe loved sewing crazy quilts made from a bag of oddly shaped scraps of fabric sewn together by hand. At 10 years Dorothy began her first quilt the 'Bow Tie Quilt'. With instruction from her grandma Nora she hand stitched each block finishing when she was a teenager. She made her next quilt at 20 years old an 'Animal Applique', while working nights as a Santa Fe railroad PBX Operator. Once Dorothy had the techniques of quilting her creativity took hold. Here is a look at her quilt log.