Artist Profile: Wanda Richardson

Quilter's Handdmade Blankets Honor Son's Memory and Give Back

By Hannah Olson

When her twenty-two-year-old son died, Wanda Richardson looked for a way to honor his memory and restore her mind. That is when she took up quilting with her mom and sister. Together, they took local quilting classes as a meaningful way to spend time together. Since then, Richardson has made hundreds of quilts for family, friends, and neighbors.

Quilting is not just having a blanket, Richardson says. Quilting is a social event, a source of pride for the maker, and a great opportunity for gifting. Richardson has made every kind of quilt from baby blankets and lap quilts to king-sized wedding quilts and decorative wall hangings. Some of her more memorable gift quilts have been the retirement quilts she has made for close friends and retiring teachers.

Richardson, now retired, used to teach middle school science and literature. She now teaches her granddaughters and grandson the exciting craft of quilting. It is good to have something new to learn as we age, Richardson says. Quilting has become a way for Richardson to stay young and give back to her community.

A big way that Richardson gives back to her community is through her membership with the Etowah Valley Quilt Guild, a chapter of the Georgia Quilt Council located in Cartersville, GA. Involvement with her Guild means that Richardson gets to learn more about her craft through Guild-sponsored seminars and classes as well as participate in community outreach opportunities. Richardson and her fellow Guild members donate items for womens shelters, blankets for children who are victims of house fires, conquer quilts for children with cancer, and infant supplies for prenatal units.

When she is not gathering donations for those in need or sewing around the quilt circle with her friends from the Etowah Valley Quilt Guild, Richardson enjoys time at home in the log cabin she and her husband built. Hanging on either side of the door in the entrance to her cabin are beautifully embroidered, decorative quilts, warmly welcoming the season and the friends who gather beneath them.

For more information about the Etowah Valley Quilt Guild, visit EtowahValleyQuiltGuild.com.