Virginia Johnson
Ferryville, Wisconsin
 

Virginia Johnson, who calls herself "a terrible businesswoman and a great artist," began quilting because "I needed quilts for my four children." And now she is one of over 22 million people in the United States who have taken up quilting.

 "Quilts are very sensuous," Virginia says, and she has learned that men like to give quilts to women. The stuff from which she has made quilts reflects the human and passionate elements of quilting.

Early quilts were often made of pieces from old suits and coats, designed differently if they were for men or for women. In 1999 a male lawyer called and asked her to make a quilt from his tie collection. A short time later she received by mail a 20-pound box of ties. So, naturally, she named the quilt "Twenty Pounds of Ties."

Another commission, by a woman, was for a quilt made from her great grandmother’s clothes. "I like to make quilts that speak to the memories and special experiences of the people who commission them," she says.

Raised in Chicago, Virginia Hall always wanted to make quilts, "I don't know why." She took art classes in high school and, after graduating in 1955, worked as a secretary for an interior decorator.  In 1977 she entered a Good Housekeeping quilting contest. And, although she did not win, the seriousness with which she prepared her entry seemed to solidify her determination to become a quilt artist.

 She also took some classes at the Chicago Art Institute in Chicago and, in 1980, she bought the Olde Tyme Quilt Shoppe in Chicago. Her purchase, she says, really included only the name and a few pieces of equipment, but it was the commitment to quilting in which she really invested. During that time, she taught Basic Quilting almost every six weeks for three years.

Virginia also calls herself a quilt artist.  "It makes me nervous to be called an artist - it's a presumption, and you have to live up to the presumption."

Virginia and her late husband John Johnson moved their family to their Ferryville farm in 1984, where she raised her children, re-established her shop, did quilting, and occasionally taught quilting classes and gave workshops.  Looking around her spacious workshop, which is hung and draped with completed quilts, drawings and sketches for future quilts, and other memorabilia, she reflected recently on her good fortune. "Women who walk in here often tell me they would give their eye teeth to have this space."

The Olde Tyme Quilt Shoppe, located outside Ferryville, Wisconsin, at 62682 Rush Creek Road, might well be lost to the public except for "the best thing I ever did," Virginia says.  In 1994 she took advantage of the Tourist Oriented Directional Signs program sponsored by the Department of Transportation, and developed the sign that is found on Highway 35 and Rush Creek Road. It attracts curious tourists as well as serious quilters and helps her spread enthusiasm for the quilting art.  And quilters can visit the website at: www.ferryville.com/OldeTymeQuiltShoppe

Virginia, who is listed in Quilter's Companion, has shown her work at the American Quilters Society. She has given classes and workshops, including mother/daughter classes in quilting and fabric painting, at her Olde Tyme Quilt Shoppe studio and in Chicago and Rock Island, Illinois and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.  She also participates in the Northeast Iowa Quilters' Guild round robins, where quilters collaboratively design and make quilts. One such collaborative piece, hanging in her studio, is aptly named "Round Robin."

 One quilt, "Wow, a Snowy Owl," came about when she encountered a snowy owl as she was driving to pick up one of her children from school.  She named another quilt "Sleep in Pieces.”  It was made for a big quilt show 1982. The quilt was a dream, so she made the quilt.

Interview by Sharon Murphy
Photographs by Sharon Murphy and Jerry Quebe