02-25-2024 Harford Mag - Flipbook - Page 64
Dick Travis and his wife, Cheryl, at their home with the quilts they created. PHOTO BYLLOYD FOX
A detail of a
summer quilt
made by Jeanne
Kehl in 2008 using
a stack and whack
pattern.
think is a glaring error, others will seldom notice.”
Dougherty has her own rule of thumb: “If you can’t see
the mistake from a galloping horse, it’s good.”
Quilting a memory
Sometimes quilts can make you cry. When her cousin’s
daughter died, at 23, Jeanne Kehl crafted one from the
garments the young woman had worn over the years: baby
clothes, sleepers, velvet dresses and the like.
“It took four years to make that [king-sized] memorial
quilt; it was a chronicle of the girl’s life,” said Kehl, 69, of
Jarrettsville. Tears were shed during the gifting.
Other quilts, she has finished for crafters who passed away
before completing them. While stitching those textiles, Kehl
said, “I almost feel as if the [deceased] is there beside me,
and that I’m keeping their memory alive. To me, quilts have
a lot of love in them.”
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| Spring 2024 | harfordmagazine.com
In 25 years, she has turned out about 400 quilts, one of
which was named grand champion of the Harford County
Farm Fair in 2010.
Though she buys most of her fabrics, “you can make a quilt
out of anything,” Kehl said. Scraps of an old wedding dress
produced one quilt; another, she made from the equestrian
ribbons that her niece had won at horse shows.
Kehl also rescues tattered old quilts and restores them. One
that she found was 80 years old and made of cloth diapers.
Undeterred, she shopped around and found a diaper match.
“You’re always searching for the perfect material to fit the
pattern that you imagine in your head,” she said. Her fabric
“finds” include those that picture everything from goldfish
to fairies to dragonflies.
The largest quilt Kehl has made would cover a wall; the
smallest was just 10-by-20 inches, a “portrait” quilt made
from a scenic snapshot she took on a cruise in Alaska.
