Nickerson, now a resident of Chadron, was born in McCook and raised in Cambridge. Like so many women, she learned to sew and embroider in 4-H and in home economics classes in school. She completed her first garment construction projects on the family's treadle sewing machine. Perhaps her talent is genetic; Kay's mother Barbara Wymore was an extraordinary embroiderer, Grandmother Mary Wymore was a quilter, and Grandmother Sylvia Moore was a crafter who would take just about any found object and transform it into a work of art. When her children were young, Kay was a member of a 3-woman group known as "Friends Forever" who hosted craft shows in their homes, selling their wares to earn money to purchase Christmas gifts for their families. Kay's specialty was hand-made dolls. She was an avid counted cross-stitcher in the 1980's, and interestingly, many of her cross-stitched pieces feature quilts. Kay has used her crafting skills to help with craft projects during her career as a paraeducator at the Lake Minatare School and the former Trunk Butte School.
2012 Featured Quilter
One Stitch at a Time
Like most quilters of her time, Mary Bottorff Smith of Spencer, Iowa probably made quilts with the hope that they would be not only functional and beautiful, but also cherished heirlooms to be handed down for many generations. In 1855 when the then-15 year-old constructed her bright pink applique bridal quilt, little did she know that her great, great granddaughter Kay Nickerson would not only treasure the priceless antique but carry on the hand quilting tradition as well. In an era dominated by machine quilting, Kay Nickerson, the 2012 Chadron Festival of Quilts Featured Quilter, keeps the art of hand quilting alive and well. "I just think it would be too frustrating to try to stuff all that fabric and batting under my machine," she laughs, so she completes most of her quilts herself by hand, one stitch at a time. "Hand quilting makes the quilt feel more like a piece of me," she feels.
In the late 1980's Kay completed one of her first quilting projects, a Holly Hobbie quilt for her then pre-teen daughter Darr. She traced pictures out of a coloring book onto fabric, embroidered each one, then pieced the top. Her Aunt Dorothy Premer hand quilted it, and Kay was hooked. The quilt survived the 1991 tornado that destroyed the family home in Minatare and bears the storm's stains to prove its staying power. Kay took several beginner quilting classes at Prairie Pines Quilt Shop, which at the time was in Scottsbluff, in the mid 1990's to learn quilting basics and has since honed her skills through steady practice.
Kay has completed about 50 quilts, so many that she wore a hole in her Grandma Wymore's gold thimble several years ago. She knew she needed to get another one, and was surprised when son Aaron, a contractor in Scottsbluff, brought her one unbidden from a friend's mother who was no longer sewing. "It was a perfect fit," she says. Though there are several different techniques for hand quilting, Kay describes her style as "rocking."
After marking the quilting motif on the quilt top with chalk, she works with a hoop from the top of the quilt, taking several small stitches at once by rocking the needle back and forth from the top of the fabric as opposed to taking one stitch at a time from the front to the back, then the back to the front and so on. It will take several months to complete a quilt top, and it's not unusual that she will be working on more than one quilt at a time to keep from tiring of one project. One look at Kay's calloused and dimpled finger pads confirms her commitment to needle and thread. Next to her hoop and thimble, Kay's favorite quilting notions are the acryllic templates she uses to make her favorite block, "flying geese," a design she often uses in her quilt borders.
Kay's favorite fabric line is Moda's Kansas Troubles, and her "stash" contains one closet full of the blues, greens, reds and browns of this earthy collection. However, her sewing room is full of cabinets of yardage and fat quarters from many collections. She doesn't restrict herself to "country" fabric and is willing to "stretch out" into brights and geometrics at times. Her current project is a Grinch green and red Christmas Holly quilt. Husband Doak Nickerson, the District Northwest Forester, gave her a coffee cup which says "She Who Dies With The Most Fabric Wins," and Kay interpreted the gift as his blessing to continue to grow her fabric cache. Organization is the name of the game in her sewing room; fabrics are sorted by color, collection and size. Not one to waste any fabric, she has individual tubs for leftover 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 and 2-inch fabric strips. She is about to venture into the world of wool applique quilting, a medium which suits her classic country, hand work taste to a tee. As a proud first-time grandma to one year old Grady, she's made a few baby quilts lately but has opted to machine-quilt them in anticipation of their many trips through the washing machine.
Kay has led several monthly quilt education programs for the Pine Ridge Quilters, the local quilt guild, but says that someday she would really enjoy mentoring young women and girls in hand quilting so that the technique doesn't become a lost art.
Kay uses her creations to decorate her home with a country flair, displaying many sampler-style quilts from racks, over banisters and over the backs of chairs and rockers. She rotates quilts in and out of use by season, and those not on display are stored flat under the bedspread of a guest bed so as to prevent damage from light or prolonged folding. A Buggy Barn Rooster quilt complements the chicken theme in her kitchen and dining room.
Like Great Grandma Mary, Kay has quilted for function and fun, for solace during life's hard times, and for joy during the happy times. So, too, Kay hopes that, generations from now, there will be descendants who treasure her creations, pulling them out from time to time to admire the handwork and wonder about their great, great Grandma Kay. For now, though, it's enough to just take needle and thread in hand, and quietly bring her quilts to life, one stitch at a time.
Kay uses her creations to decorate her home with a country flair, displaying many sampler-style quilts from racks, over banisters and over the backs of chairs and rockers. She rotates quilts in and out of use by season, and those not on display are stored flat under the bedspread of a guest bed so as to prevent damage from light or prolonged folding. A Buggy Barn Rooster quilt complements the chicken theme in her kitchen and dining room.
