Ella Lucas explains "Quilt as Desired"

Quilt patterns with elaborate instructions often conclude with the words "Quilt as desired," leaving even experienced quilters to fend for themselves. We have all invested untold amounts of money on beautiful stencils and templates only to find that these rarely fit the space we want to quilt.

Ella Lucas, accomplished quilter and past president of Pine Belt Quilters and Mississippi Quilt Association, presented our November program in which she described her creative and innovative approach to deciding on quilting designs. She introduced the standard quilting designs such as quarter-inch, by the patch, in-the-ditch, echo, feather, cross-hatch, diamonds, clamshell, and fans. She showed us how she often uses original organic shapes or objects to create new and interesting designs which can be arranged to fit the space. Ella is primarily a hand quilter but gave pointers that can be adapted for machine quilters.