Artist is crazy over her quilts
Ann Louise Fetters isn't crazy. She just makes her quilts that way.
Ann Louise Fetters makes many kinds of crazy-quilt wall hangings
for friends and relatives.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
An Evans resident, Fetters uses the technique of making crazy quilts to create wall hangings that she gives to her family and friends as Christmas presents.
"In the old West, women would make quilts out of whatever pieces of fabric they could find," explained Fetters. "They made quilts from the tops of covered wagons, pieces of shirts or old pants. They would embellish them and embroider them. They were totally irregular and were made from leftover pieces of fabric."
Most of Fetters crazy-quilt wall hangings are in a Victorian style, using satin, velvet and other exotic fabrics.
"I'm creating a tapestry now that has baby Jesus as the centerpiece," said Fetters. "I like to use priests' vestments in my quilts because they are usually very ornate. I also embellish my embroidery with beads, laces, pearls and jewels."
Fetters says that most of her wall hangings are around 20 inches by 30 inches, but no two are ever the same. Since October, she has made 29 crazy quilts, which take from 15 to 30 hours each to complete.
"I have about 17 different people I'm making them for and depending on who they are determines the intricacy of the one they get," said Fetters. "My sister is a textile artist, so I put a little more effort into hers."
Fetters' quilts have other functions, like using them to drape over a couch or chair, but they aren't mainly functional. Her crazy quilts are art.
"I made my first crazy quilt in 1968 when my babies were babies," said Fetters, 57, a mother to three grown children and wife of Lawrence Fetters, a retired Army colonel. "I really liked it because I'm very eclectic. Making crazy quilts allows me to use lots of different things to make this one great thing."