Story of Mariner's Compass Quilt
October 2006

Inspired by Judy Mathieson’s beautiful Mariner’s Compass Quilt, selected as one of the 100 Best Quilts of the Twentieth Century, Luella Doss and Moey Anderson adopted Ms. Mathieson’s basic design concept when conceiving this new quilt which will be used as a fundraiser to help build the new Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts. With Judy’s permission, Moey and Luella changed the design of the large compass and all the satellite compasses, the coloration, and the size of the quilt. The design was drawn by Moey who is a professional engineer.

The solid color fabrics used in the quilt reflect a rainbow scheme.  Donna Wilder, of Free Spirit Fabrics, NYC,  donated the full color spectrum of her company’s Color Connectors, a group of “solid” printed fabrics hand painted by German designer Heide Stoll Weber.  In addition, Luella Doss donated her lifetime collection of over 400 solid color, cotton fabrics to complement the Free Spirit Fabrics.   Gathering all the fabrics, pre-shrinking them,  creating a numbered swatched key, and taping each fabric and its number into every design facet was Luella’s contribution .  Moey, an accomplished appliqué and foundation piecing quilter, cut and sewed the center compass.  She cut kits of “flying geese” segments and the individual border compasses, and then distributed them with her illustrated instructions to volunteers (whose names will appear on the quilt).  The volunteers returned their completed units to Moey and she assembled the quilt, utilizing her fine precision piecing techniques and  engineering calculations.
 
The foundation papers were removed by a quilt group who volunteered to help.  The quilt was spread on the floor at Advent Lutheran Church, and squared up.  Douglas Edmunds,  a master  photographer, donated his skills to produce the quilt portrait.

 Museum donor contributions will be recognized by ascribing with fine script permanent  ink onto the quilt the donor’s  desired name on the patchwork on quilted segment assigned to match the donor gift.  All donors names will also appear  and be easily read on a special plaque which will hang in close proximity to the quilt.  The quilt will be on display in the museum when it is completed.

You are invited to have your name inscribed on this magnificent quilt.  Please select a donation category and present the museum with a check or a pledge.  Click here to learn more.

Volunteers who helped construct segments of the “flying geese wheel “ and the satellite mariner’s compasses are Marie Thornton, Pam Marquardt, Moey Anderson, Ethel White, Vera Fitzhugh, Dorothy Young, Dorothy Seider, Kathy Doman, Judy McCabe Krudwig, Wendy Jerkich, Diane Gabarneau, Mary Ferrell, Carol Boehlke, Peggy Schoessow, Karen Kroening, Dina Bell, Vicki Capadona, Kay Boehlke Schroeder,  Tink Linhart, Sue Lau, Barb Grandl, JoAnn Jacobi , Anne Books, Helen Goetz, Anita Smith, Gurdeep Kausz, Karen Roberts, Vicki Oehldrich, Lucille Pagel, Vicky Wolf, Sue Brennan, and Anita Smith.  Moey spent 9 days cutting kits for this quilt in addition to 350 hours of sewing.  She took off two weeks from work to accomplish this great quilt.  With everyone’s help, this quilt was constructed in 30 days!  A miracle!

 As soon as the quilt top was finished, we took it to Douglas Edmunds, a professional photographer in Cedarburg, who donated his expertise.  He said that he had just purchased a $40,000 camera that was “ made”  for photographing the detail of this large quilt. Doug magically transported the illuminated beauty of this quilt to paper.  We are very thankful for all the volunteers who are part of this quilt’s story!