The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
The Voice of the Community Since 1909, Serving Moorcroft and Pine Haven, Wyoming
Sandy Bonner hand stitched this beautiful grandmother's garden quilt as well as the purse and wallet at the side.
Crook County is home to many craftsmen and women in several mediums and of all ages. Mary Joselyn of the Moorcroft Senior Center is seeking them out to feature their art at the center for the public to enjoy for a month at a time.
Sandra Bonner of Pine Haven has been quilting and sewing for 65 years.
"My mother started me sewing. I just loved watching her sew and she was patient enough to teach me. She allowed me to create and be and do. It was fun and it still is," she says.
The lessons her mother taught her as well as her innate ability and love of the medium enabled Bonner to create a career following her passion.
"When I started, I did most of my clothes and then, I went into business doing alterations."
She made coats from cotton reversible throws that were sold in retail stores as well as store catalogues, she says.
Bonner got into quilting much later in life, but the beautiful, full-sized grandmother's garden quilt is a wonderful example of her still-vibrant love of her craft; the flowers' petals are individually stitched together by hand, which becomes the styled stitching that today would be the work of a long arm machine, and the edging is geometrically finished.
She also creates wallets, purses and table linens with the same pleasure. "I have enjoyed it all my life," the craft-smith smiles with contentment.
People are welcome to drop by the senior center on the south side of the MTC on South Belle Fourche Avenue in Moorcroft between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to look at this quilt and a couple other pieces throughout the month of April.
