All notions

of quilting as a craft for grandmothers who like peaceful

pursuits are dismissed the minute you enter the evening

quilting class taught by Nancy Jones at Fayette First

United Methodist Church.

First, you hear the noise

and laughter as you approach the Sunday school room where

it's held. Inside, is a commotion of conversation and

activity as the class members compare fabric patterns,

cutting tools and rulers. At the center of the hubbub is

Jones, a soft-spoken woman with striking white hair,

casually dressed in jeans and a striped shirt,

methodically ordering the tools of her trade.

Eight women and two men

gather around her as she demonstrates how to cut the

fabric strips for a basic log cabin -design quilt. Jones

takes her time, smoothing out the cotton fabric in

preparation for cutting, slides her ruler into place and

wheels her circular slicer in one quick-deft move.

"Find the

one-and-a-half inch line; do it like this," she

says, slicing another strip.

"The centers are two

inches," she reminds her class, as she whips through

a piece of solid fabric.

Now comes the fun part,

assembling the strips. With a basket chock-full of

colorful cotton streamers. Jones says, "Just reach

in there and get some out." Two women eye her

skeptically, already trying to figure out if their random

selections would be half as good as Jones'.

Rob Palin, one of the two

men in the class sums up the gist of Jones' instructions

to Chris Wilson, the other male attempting to start his

project, "Just slice it all up and start

grabbing."

"Uh oh, Nancy, it's a

hoofy tooky,"calls out a distressed student who is

still slicing almost straight strips. "Hoofy tooky.

Is that a quilting term?" asks another fledgling

quilter.

The small glitch in the

cutting process is quickly taken care of by Jones, who

returns to her compact black sewing machine to stitch

some more strips to the center square.

"Are you paying

attention?" she asks the class, refocusing their

attention back to the task at hand. "Now you finger

press is," she says, carefully pushing down the

seams around the just- sewn square.

The class observes, takes

notes, and looks anxious. As the design starts to take

shape, the class is obviously impressed and ready to

starting sewing on their own.

"How many square will

it take to make a queen size quilt?" queries Wilson.

"Well, a double size takes 126 squares, so a queen

might be about 162," Jones estimates.

"Maybe I'll make a

potholder," Wilson jokes. The composition of the

quilting group is a random sampling of the First United

Methodist's congregation and a few drop-ins from other

Fayetteville churches. A number of the class spent nearly

a year together in a disciple Bible study together, Jones

noted.

Palin said he decided to

take the class because he loved quilts and figured his

new skill would serve him well when his job takes him

away from home for extended periods of time.

"I have to have

something to do when I'm TDY," he said.

Wilson just wanted to learn

something new. For Dianna Saltzgiver, the class will give

her the extra help she needs to complete a reversible

cow-themed table runner she is making for her mother who

lives in Pike County.

While quilting is a new

hobby for most of the class, for Jones, it is a lifelong

passion.

"I've always wanted to

quilt," Jones said. "It's also very spiritual.

You are creating something, and also connecting with the

past," she mused.

Jones has created and sewn

between 15 and 20 quilts and countless pillows and wall

hangings. The early American home she shares with her

husband, Bill, is accented with her handiwork and lucky

children and grandchildren have all been recipients of

one of her handmade gifts. Her favorite piece is a

full-size quilt she stitched completed by hand, a project

which took about two years.

Jones is always working on

a quilting project.

"I have all these

quilts in my head , I won't live long enough to do them

all,"she says.

Jones has created quilts

for special projects as well as memorial quilts like the

one she did for her son-in-law and now is part of a

larger memorial in Washington.

"I like the

traditional designs," she noted, and finds the

latest quilting techniques so easy, concise and accurate.

Jones travels her husband often travel to places like

Williamsburg, VA and the Amish Country in Pennsylvania

where she finds inspiration for new quilting patterns and

Bill gets ideas for classic furniture designs, which he

builds in his basement shop.

As the class breaks up,

Jones carefully folds up her fabric and assigns

homework- sewing together four log cabin squares.

"Can I have directions

to your house?" half the class pipes up.