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.
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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.
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See your nearest
I\EW HOLLAIND
Dealer for Dependable
Equipment and
Dependable Service:
PENNSYLVANIA
Annville, PA
BHM Farm
Equipment, Inc.
RDI, Rte. 934
717-867-2211
Beavertown, PA
B&R Farm
Equipment, Inc.
RD 1, Box 217 A
717-658-7024
Cartlsla, PA
R&W Equipment Co.
35 East Willow Street
717-243-2686
Dsvldsburg, PA
George N. Gross, Inc.
R.D. 2, Dover. PA
717-292-1673
Elizabethtown, PA
Messick Farm
Equipment, Inc.
Rt. 283 - Rbeem's Exit
717-367-1319
Gettysburg, PA
Ymgling Implements,
Inc.
3291 Taneytown Rd.
717-359-4848
Greancastle, PA
Meyers
Implement's Inc.
400 N. Antrim Way
P.O. Box 97
717-597-2176
Halifax, PA
Sweigard Bros.
R.O. 3, Box 13
717-896-3414
Hamburg, PA
Shartlesville
Farm Service
R.D 1. Box 1392
215-488-1025
Honey Brook, PA
Dependable Motor Co.
East Main Street
215-273-3131
215-273-3737
Honey Qrove, PA
Norman D. Clark
& Son, Inc.
Honey Qrove, PA
717-734-3682
Hughesvllle, PA
Farnsworth Farm
Supplies, Inc.
103 Cemetery Street
717-584-2106
New Holland, PA
A.B.C. Groff, Inc.
110 South Railroad
717-354-4191
Oley, PA
CJ. Wonsidler Bros.
R.D. 2
215-987-6257
Pitman, PA
Schreffler Equipment
Pitman, PA
717-648-1120
Quakertown, PA
C.J. Wonsidler Bros.
R.D. 1
215-536-1935
Rlngtown, PA
Ringtown Farm
Equipment
Ringtown, PA
717-889-3184
Tamaqua, PA
Charles S Snyder,
RD. 3
717-386-5945
West Grove, PA
S.Q. Lewis & Son,
R D. 2, Box 66
215-869-2214
MARYLAND
Churchvllla, MD
Walter G. Coale, Inc
2849-53
Churchville Rd.
301-838-6470
Frederick, MD
Ceresville
Ford New Holland, Inc.
Rt. 26 East
301-662-4197
Outside MD,
800-331-9122
Hagerstown, MD
Antietam Ford Tractor
301-791-1200
NEW JERSEY
Bridgeton, N.J.
Leslie G. Fogg, Inc.
Canton & Stow Creek
Landing Rd.
609-451-2727
609-935-5145
Washington, NJ
Smith Tractor 4
Equip., Inc.
15 Hillcrest Ave.
201-689-7900
Woodstown, NJ
Owen Supply Co.
Broad Street 4
East Avenue
609-769-0308