814-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 9, 1991 Quilt Quality More Important Than Quantity Eshelman has also made many braided rugs. BONNIE BRECHBILL Franklin Co. Correspondent FORT LOUDON (Franklin Co.) Edna Peck Eshelman has completed 23 quilts in her life time. That doesn’t sound like a lot, considering she’s 70 years old. But if you saw the quilts, you’d re alize that this is a case of quality taking precedence over quantity. Each of Eshelman’s quilts is a signed, dated and titled work of art. She keeps a record book with a photo and explanation of each quilt. Her most celebrated quilt to da(e is one tilled “Burgoyne’s Sur render.” Around the border, spell ed out in red and white blocks are “Fort Loudon,” “1911” (the year of her birth), “1981” (the year she made the quilt), “Edna Peck” and “Eshelman.” In 1987, the quilt was entered in a national contest sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution and held in Tacoma, Washington. It earned a fourth place ribbon. The DAR, of which Eshelman is a member, then sent it to Washington, D.C. to be display ed during the Continental Con gress. It was then sent back to Eshelman. A year later, the DAR asked for it again, and sent it to Philadelphia to hang in Independence Hall for a week. One of Eshelman’s favorite quilts is a sampler of various flow ers in which each hand-appliqued block is named. “The latticework was hard to quilt,” she said. She created her own patterns for a Month Quilt, made in 1984-85, in which each 15-inch block depicts a scene from a dif ferent month. She learned the art of quilling from her mother, who had made quilts- for each of her own nine children. “Quilting has always been my favorite hobby, from my early teens,” Eshelman wrote in her re cord book. “I can always learn from others and find my mistakes, then try to better myself.” “We can’t find any,” her friend, Ethel Rotz, said of the mistakes to which Eshelman referred. Eshelman recently donated a quilt to the St. Thomas Lutheran Church, where she and Rotz are members. The quilt was displayed at Chambcrsburg Mall. “We had an auction,” Rotz said, “and it brought over $300.” Eshelman knows where all her quilts are except that one. “They’re all in the family,” she said. She has one daughter, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She and her husband. Merle, farmed for 35 years near St. Tho mas. Eshelman said she didn’t do as much needlework during those years as she does now. Quilts arc not Eshelman’s only Eshelman’s most celebrated quilt Is “Burgoyne's Sur render,” which has been displayed in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. I* w* .r r« * it or Eshelman made all the patterns for this queen-sized quilt, “Sampler of Flowers.” artistic pursuit. Over the years, she has made at least 200 Crazy Patch velvet top pillows completely by hand. Many of them have been awarded first place ribbons at lo cal fairs. She also makes hooked rugs, sometimes using a printed pattern and sometimes drawing the pat tern herself. “I learned hooked rugging from remembering how my mother did it,” she said. She has sold a few rugs to neighbors, but “I can’t (make) enough for them and the family,” she said. One large hook ed rug in soft, muted colors took her two years, “on and off.” Her braided rugs lie perfectly flat “I took some lessons," she ex plained. “The woman who taught me said, ‘Your first one won’t be right but don’t give up.’” Eshelman once made an 8-by-10-foot braided rug of all new wool. “I’ll never do another one,” she said. “It was too hard on the arms. My sewing room was too small, and I had to take it to the basement after a certain point.” Besides the quilts, pillows and rugs, Eshelman also makes dolls and stuffed animals, paints de signs on old irons, and creates pic tures with sea shells. Her current project is piecing an Improved Nine Patch quilt entire ly by hand. “The curved work is hard to do on the machine,” she explained. A Log Cabin quilt lop, already pieced, awaits quilling. six-mi y * # * i m * * * ■■s MW