One thing is for sure: this is no down-home granny, quilting in her rocker on the front porch. And despite having a name fit for the most Southern of belles, she’s not from around here. In fact, legendary quilter and teacher Georgia Bonesteel — a driving force behind the quilting revival that began in the 1970s — is a globetrotting Midwestern transplant, a multimedia mogul, and a tireless producer of TV programs (over the years, she’s made 12 series), books (13 and counting) and, naturally, quilts.
As one might expect, the house that she and her husband, Pete, call “Quilt Built,” features her brightly colored creations on every bed and on quite a few of the walls, including a dining room where the walls themselves are puffy quilts of blue-and-white toile (“I saw it once in Paris, and I knew I just had to do it,” she says.). And the entire compound, spread out over an acre-and-a-half at the end of a peaceful white-graveled drive on the marshy shore of Highland Lake, reveals a quilter’s unique angle of creativity: it’s an intricate, multi-level patchwork of decks, outbuildings, flower beds, and terraces, with every corner presenting some new, charming detail: here a sky-blue gate opening on a forest path, there a white stone labyrinth down among the ivy, here a hand-painted “barn quilt” on the side of the garage, there a droll mini-garden of succulents planted in an old pair of shoes.
Carolina Home + Garden: You’ve done so much with this property. How long have you lived here?
Georgia Bonesteel: About 12 years. Before that we lived about a mile down the road. We’ve been in Flat Rock for 42 years altogether.
And how did you get started quilting?
Oh, dear. Well, that happened before we moved to town here. We were living in New Orleans, and I stared a business in the French Quarter, making a line of little evening bags out of necktie fabric. I discovered that what made the fabric come to life was when you put batting in it and quilted it, because it made a shadow on the surface. So I moved up here with those skills, and started teaching quilting at Blue Ridge Community College. My mother was the one who suggested that I might perhaps teach on public television.
Where did she get that idea?
She said she saw a knitting show. And she said, “Well, you can quilt, why don’t you do that?” So then I had a television show. I ended up doing 12 series, 13 shows in each series. … It took two years to get each one ready, so it actually encompassed more than 20 years. Two of the series we shot here, in my home studio — you can still see the little notches we used for hanging cameras from the ceiling. It was great: I could just roll out of bed and go to work. I did insist that there be a makeup woman, though!
Are you still on TV these days?
They’re still showing my past series on www.createtv.com, but I’m no longer making them at present — and I doubt I will, because the media has changed so much. But I am writing a new book, and I’m smart enough to know that if you want to sell a book, it helps to have a TV show.
What’s the new book?
It’ll be called Quilt Built, and there will be some quilts and patterns in there, but it’s more about other things: gardening, and where we live, and decorating.
So you do a lot of gardening, too?
Oh, yes. This year I’m in the Henderson County Master Gardener program. For our project we’ve been redoing the grounds at the Flat Rock Playhouse, designing and planting and weeding. And weeding, and weeding.
Any other passions?
My great outdoor passion is tennis. I’m just a solid “B” player, but I love it and I play twice a week.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m trying to travel less. I used to travel twice a month to teach workshops all over the country. But now, you know, Pete is retired [from running the family’s other business, Bonesteel Hardware and Quilt Corner], and I don’t like to leave him that much. I think now that I’m stepping out of this role in the quilting world, there’s a space for someone younger to step in, and I hope someone will. There aren’t very many younger people in the quilting world; you don’t see many ladies in their 30s and 40s — those people are too busy raising their families. Quilting is time consuming, it takes a lot of patience, even if you do it all on a sewing machine as I do — and that’s just not how people live these days.
Is it hard for you to slow down?
It’s very hard, because my favorite thing to do is teach. I recently taught my last annual retreat, in Montreat — I’ve been teaching that same retreat with a group of ladies for 27 years.
The same group?
Yes, mostly the same. That’s the thing about quilters: they persevere. They stick with it.
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
Well, let’s see. For the past year — a year in October — I’ve been keeping chickens. I have four: Miss Priss, Miss Dumball, Miss Puffball, and Sister Priss. My students all heard about it, of course, and on the last retreat they kept giving me these little stuffed chickens. Every time I left the room, when I came back there’d be a chicken on my sewing machine. I finally had to say, “Please! No more chickens!”
That’s so sweet. Are you going to miss that group?
Well, no — because we already have plans to get together next year. But I won’t be the teacher!
Visit www.georgiabonesteel.com, to learn more about Georgia Bonesteel.