Kara Ramos
The Valdosta Daily Times
LAKE PARK —
As a young woman, Cindy Walker and her sister learned the art of hand-stitching quilts from their grandmother.
“My sister and I both learned from her and just enjoyed doing it,” she said.
Walker’s grandmother, Dorothy Gibson, learned the skill of quilting from her mother-in-law during the Great Depression.
“They would use flour sacks and clothing scraps for the quilt tops and they would use cotton they grew for the batting,” she said.
Twenty-five years later, Walker continues to carry on the family tradition of quilting, one that has drawn community attention and won her recognition.
Walker, her sister, Lori Hudson, and their grandmother spent years putting together a signature quilt for their family. The original idea was for every family member to draw their own picture on a square, which would later be sewn together.
Since the squares were never completed, Walker and Hudson decided to draw pictures that represented the family members, while their grandmother did the embroidery for the quilt. After six years, the quilt was completed and now hangs in Walker’s hallway.
As new members enter the family, Walker embroiders a heart on the side of the quilt with their name and date of birth.
In 2009, the sisters entered the family quilt in the American Quilting Society National Show in Knoxville, Tenn., receiving a ribbon for honorable mention. The show was the first one Walker had ever entered and she was surprised when she received the call saying they had been recognized.
“My mother says that it’s similar to watching paint dry, but we actually enjoy it,” she said.
Over the years, Walker has hand-stitched numerous quilts, coasters, pin cushions and magnets.
A few years ago, she started making cloth books by hand, giving them as baby shower gifts. The books were a hit and people began looking forward to receiving them at parties.
“It’s kind of become a tradition,” she said. “If I don’t bring a cloth book, I’m in trouble.”
The books take Walker a couple of hours to make and she continues sewing them for children.
While using sewing machines could speed up the quilt-making process, Walker would rather sew by hand.
“There’s a lot of people now who quilt by machines,” she said. “We (my sister and I) do all of the actual quilting (and borders) by hand. A lot of the piecing we do on machine just because it’s so much easier, it goes a lot faster that way (and) it’s sturdier. But when it (comes) to the actual quilting, we’re kind of purists about that. We like to use our hands.”
For Walker, making quilts holds a special meaning and at times can be thought provoking.
“I think quilts can tell a story and I seem to kind of gravitate toward quilts that have some meaning,” she said. “I enjoy doing that. I enjoy looking at the quilts and kind of thinking about what they mean.”
Originally from Tennessee, Walker and her husband, Roger, moved to Lake Park about 13 years ago. As military food sales manager for Farmland Foods, Roger was transferred to the area.
Retiring after 26 years of service in the Army Reserve, including deployments to Bosnia, Desert Storm and Afghanistan, Roger “is the real hero in our family,” Walker said. “He’s also a wonderful cook who contributes his time and talents to our church on a regular basis.”
Walker has worked in the legal field for 30 years, receiving paralegal certification from the National Association of the Legal Assistant in 1995 and judicial administration certification from Michigan State University in 2009.
For the past 13 years, she was worked for Lowndes County State Court Judge John Edwards Jr. as a judicial legal assistant.
Along with working as a legal assistant and quilting, Walker dedicates time to the Francis Lake Baptist Church in Lake Park by teaching Sunday School and singing in the choir.
“I just enjoy doing things for the youth,” she said. “High school and middle school kids, that’s my favorite age. They’re so interesting.”
When the Walkers moved to Lake Park, they spent time visiting area churches. At first, “this church kind of intimidated me because it’s so big,” she said.
One day during the summer, Walker decided to walk to the church to attend an evening service. Arriving early, she sat in a church pew to stay out of the heat and wait.
“Somebody came by and introduced themselves and said, ‘Oh, are you going to sing with us tonight?’ And I said, ‘No, I just came early,’” she said.
Walker was upset with herself for not accepting the invite to sing in the choir and decided that if she was asked again she would join them.
“It was like 37 seconds later, these two ladies walked up and introduced themselves and said, ‘Are you singing with us tonight?’ I said, ‘I guess I am,’” she said.
As she walked back to join the choir, she was provided a robe and handed a book and sheet music. After reading the song choice for the evening, written by the author Cindy Walker, she knew she was in the right place.
“I took that as God telling me that this is where he wanted me to be and we’ve been here ever since,” she said.
With the motto, ‘Caring and Sharing,’ Walker feels the church is true to its word.
“It is a caring and sharing church,” she said. “People are just very loving and take care of each other. It’s a really nice church (with) good people.”
Walker’s church friends, Nancy and Danny Griffin, are two “really special people” to her.
After Danny’s mother, Nina Griffin, passed away last year, the Griffins gave Walker quilt squares that his mother had made 50 years ago.
While Nina had never put the squares together to make a quilt, Walker decided to surprise the Griffins by completing the project.
After about six months, the Griffin quilt was finished and Walker was anxious to present the gift to them.
“I enjoyed being able to do that for them,” she said. “I loved finishing the Griffin quilt. I was so excited when I knew I was getting almost done.”
Finishing the quilt filled Walker with joy because the Griffins were unaware she had been working on it and she knew how happy they would be to receive Nina’s squares sewn together after many years had passed.
“It’s great timing because (the Griffins) just found out they’re going to have their first grandchild, so they’ll have somebody to pass it down to,” she said.
While her work and church life keep her busy, Walker continues to spend her free time quilting. Currently, she is working on embroidering Christmas squares which she is hopeful will become a quilt in the future.
Walker does not plan to ever make a profit off of her quilting, but rather enjoys the art of hand-stitching and giving people homemade gifts.
“I love watching people get them (because) people always appreciate them,” she said. “It’s relaxing to me. I enjoy knowing that I’m continuing a skill that not a lot of people have nowadays and knowing that my grandmother taught me that and I’m continuing the tradition.”
