Long-time quilter Barb Saulsbery of Adamsville has done it again.

Saulsbery entered a quilt under "Original Design" and won a blue ribbon and a rosette ribbon at the 2010 Crawford County Fair. The star quilt 6-pointed, using the "diamond log cabin" paper-pieced method of pattern uses turquoise, teal blues, and purples to create the design. Saulsbery used about 30 different shades of each color. Saulsbery says, “It was a lot of fun design, and the quilting part of it was fun, too.”

Saulsbery says, “I believe [quilting is] a gift, and I like sharing it. And I love it when the light bulb comes on, when they finally get it. It makes me feel good.” She started quilting with her neighbor, Jean Burleson, also of Adamsville. Burleson had been her 4-H leader. Saulsbery had made all of her kids’ clothes and saved the scraps. She used a used sheet for the backing. Barb’s oldest daughter, Laura, still has her quilt, and son Paul has the first quilt she ever made; he uses it as a cover for his truck seat.

Saulsbery’s mother never quilted, but after she died, Barb found a tin full of quilt blocks that she had made from Barb’s and her siblings’ clothes. Saulsbery also admired her Aunt Helen, from Jamestown, who had ten children and always had beautiful quilts all of the beds.

Saulsbery’s quilts first quilts were scrap quilts. She didn’t have the money to buy material, and material wasn’t available the way it is today.

Barb’s favorite aspect of quilting is piecing. Piecing is cutting out squares, rectangles, triangles, and sewing them all back together. “One of my dad’s favorite sayings was, ‘Why do you take that great big piece of material and cut it up into all these little pieces and shapes, and then sew it back together again?’ I told him, ‘That’s the creativity of it. That’s the fun of it.’” The shape and color of each piece changes the whole design.

Saulsbery likes to do challenge quilts once a year, to test herself with piecing and color.

She loves color selection, too. She has a whole shelf of piece tops that need to be quilted. She also has a full shelf of patterns and pieces for fabric.

Barb teaches quilting classes at the Adamsville Presbyterian Church. It’s a hobby to her. Saulsbery has been teaching quilting since 1983; there used to be a little fabric store in Jamestown across from Shawkey’s Market Place. It was called Liberty Fabrics. Jackie McClimans, the owner of the Liberty Fabrics, asked Saulsbery if she would teach a class. She used Eleanor Burns’ quiltin-a-day-pattern. There were ten women there. They didn’t get their quilt done in one day. “It was a lot of fun, and it just kind of grew from there,” Barb added.

She’s been teaching in Adamsville since 1993, off and on. If the weather is bad, they don’t meet, so it’s not always a year-round class. If school is called off, there’s no class, and during Jamestown Fair week, they might not meet.

Usually Saulsbery has six people in a class. “Six is a good group. I handle six well; I go to each one and show them different things. I think the biggest reason these women come is they need to see it; they can’t visualize it. I’m fortunate -- I really think it’s a God-given gift, that I can take a two-dimensional pattern and visualize it in 3-D.”

Another aspect of quilting is sharing each other’s burdens. “Sometimes we’re therapy to each other. When people lose loved ones or have health problems, they can quilt and talk and cry and pray together. You make friends. It’s an outlet. It’s been an outreach type of thing.”

Saulsbery adds, “I’ve never met a quilter I didn’t like. There’s a connection there.”

Some experienced quilters join Saulsbery’s group, as well as newbies. Veteran seamstress Virginia Shields of Atlantic told Saulsbery once, “Wow, quilting’s not at all like sewing.”

“I’ll never forget her saying that,” Saulsbery said, “because she’s a beautiful seamstress. But it’s still creative; it’s just different.”

Barb’s favorite quilting pattern is stars. She sewed and quilted “The broken star” to raffle for Shriners Hospital in 2008. Saulsbery’s husband, Jim was president of Crawford County Shrine. All the money will go to buy a “high-low” table for the kids. “[Kids will] just wheel up to it, then slide onto the table, and doctors can raise it. It’s a $6,000 table.”

Saulsbery herself doesn’t like the math part of quilting. There’s a lot of math. When she takes a square and cuts it in half, then puts the two pieces back together, Saulsbery has to remember to figure in seam allowances. The angles, the geometry of it, are the most challenging aspect of quilting.

Saulsbery’s younger daughter, Jamie, likes to take Barb’s quilts to school. She incorporates quilting into math lessons by asking students to find squares, diamonds, triangles, and rectangles. She shows students that two triangles facing each other at opposite angles form a square.

Saulsbery says people have to have patience to quilt. Saulsbery can go into her quilting room and lose herself. She quilts four out of seven days. Most of her quilts are both hand and machine quilted.

Barb hopes her quilting legacy will be that she inspires somebody, like her aunt inspired her, to appreciate and love quilts. She knows her kids do; they bicker over who has more quilts. She’s been called “The Quilt Lady,” and she thinks that’s a nice thing title. She hopes people appreciate that she loves quilting and sharing her quilting gift.

Saulsbery doesn’t think of herself as a teacher, but as a helper. She likes sharing her knowledge with fellow quilters.