Tom Russell

My style of quilting is still developing. I’ve only been quilting for 4 years, and there is still so much to this craft to explore.

The only thing I’m certain of is that I love to embellish my quilts. Once the quilting is completed the process of elaborating on them is just beginning for me.

I usually spend almost as much time embellishing my quilts I do in making the quilt the top. The more I learn I can do, the longer it seems to take me to finish them.

Why did Tom start quilting?  I was approaching 40 and trying to figure out what I was going to leave as my legacy.

I have done a lot of things creatively, like cooking, gardening, etc., but none of them was what I wanted my family to remember me for. I was searching for that something. On a visit home (Morrilton, AR) I stopped by to visit my junior high/high school art teacher. His name is Jim Gatling, and he and I have been friends for years. He started teaching when I was in the 7th grade and somehow in spite of my teenage years our friendship has lasted.

On that visit he told me that he had a tape of a program featuring him and the quilts created by the students in his classes over the last 30 years. I was one of those students and remembered him making me do a quilt block. I thought it was kind of fun to do, but nothing special. That was the last experience I had with quilts, other than appreciating them, until now.

Though my relationship with Jim I knew he made students create quilts all these years, but didn’t think anything beyond that. Jim is a very accomplished quilter, and I always enjoyed seeing his work, but only looked at it as something he did not something I would do.

As I watched the tape I realized that Jim had intentionally or unknowingly chronicled a part of history in my small town through these quilts. I realized as I watched the tape that through Jim’s efforts he had captured a period of time in all these kids lives-mine included.

None of us would ever be that age again, or look at life the same way we did back then. I also realized that some of those kids may have never picked up a needle and thread again after that project. It was an eye opening experience.

When the tape was through I realized I had found the thing I had been searching for. The thing that I wanted to be remembered for...I would create quilts as my legacy.

I decided when I got back home I would learn to quilt. I realized that if I was going to really do this I needed to make the time to learn how to do it right. So I went to a continuing education class in my area to sign up for a quilting class. When it came time to register for class they said I couldn’t take the class. I was shocked. I wanted to learn to quilt. They told me I first needed to learn how to use a sewing machine first. Well, one grudgingly made vest later I was ready to take my first quilting class.

Learn more about Tom Russell & HGTV's Restore America block-of-month quilt project