This quilt by artist and instructor Arleen Boyd of Greece was the Best of Show winner at the 1990 New York State Fair. “Duets” is a puzzle quilt which showcases the many quilt making skills for which Boyd is known - the use of color, design and perfect hand work. Photograph by Barbara Burke.

Quilter Arleen Boyd says she developed her talents with a needle and thread the old fashioned way - practice, practice, practice. "I've always sewed. My mother passed away when I was 12 years old and I started making my own clothes. I've been sewing ever since," Boyd says.

In 1980, she took her first quilting class at Greece Continuing Education. She saw a "quilt as you go" quilt project and thought that it looked like fun; she has been having fun with quilting ever since. Arleen has developed her quilting skills to the point where she now is teaching quilting to others. She teaches six or seven classes a year at area quilt shops, quilt shows and quilting seminars. "I always like to explore what is new in quilting techniques, I'm looking for new ideas, and that is what I like to teach, the new stuff," Boyd says.

For the last 20 years, Ellen Farnham has co-coordinated the North Chili Quilt Show held each fall at the United Methodist Church of North Chili. She is well acquainted with Arleen Boyd. "Arleen is a frequent teacher and workshop leader during our show. She has a quiet way of simplifying things that look complicated. She knows how to make things approachable. She is truly generous in her teaching and she is extremely helpful to those new to quilting," Farnham says. Arleen is also a frequent contributor to the North Chili Quilt Show and was the featured quilter at last year's show. Farnham says of her work, "Her stitch is so meticulous that very often visitors to the show really don't believe that her stitch is hand stitchery. It is so beautiful."

Developing a style
Looking at a quilt stitched by Arleen Boyd is like looking at a fine work of art. The more you look the more you see. She enjoys hand quilting and has developed the perfect quilting stitch, tiny, evenly spaced stitches that uniquely contribute to a finished work of art. Her favorite fabric color is blue, but you'll find a wide range of colors in her quilts, all of which she designs herself. She especially enjoys using striped fabrics in her work. "I use it to my advantage, there is so much you can do with stripes," she says. The claim is evident in her finished works, the stripes seem to give motion to her quilts and a sense of depth that comes from simple pattern repetition.

Boyd's advice for developing the perfect hand quilted stitch is "practice, practice, practice." Whether it is stitching, color choice or design," just keep doing it and take all the classes you can because there is always something new to learn," she says.

The sewing room
A visit to Boyd's Greece home is a visit to a quilter's paradise. Her home is decorated with quilts on chairs, walls, beds and quilt racks and anywhere else that there is space for color. The most spectacular array of color is in the quilt that adorns the bed in her guest room. Entitled "Duets," it is a puzzle quilt of dark reds and blues that contains 16 stars, two each of eight patterns. This quilt won Best of Show in the 1990 New York State Fair. The hand work on this quilt alone is worthy of best of show, and the combined elements of color and design of the stars make the total effect breathtaking.

The impact of Boyd's sewing room is first of all, color. All her fabrics are sorted into stacks defined by color, one stack per color, except for blue, of which there are three stacks. A design board on the wall is a quilt block experiment display. On the board the day of the visit for this article was a "Quilt With a View" block in preparation for a class she taught last month at The Quilting Parlor in Churchville, and a reverse appliqué block, a technique demonstrated in a book she recently purchased. "I love trying new techniques, and there is always something new in the quilting world, that's what makes it so much fun,' Boyd says.

There was also an origami block that applies the ancient paper folding technique of origami to fabric, an original eight inch block of fabric after folding results in a four inch block. Origami-like technique is also new in the quilt world. In her sample Boyd used a water color dyed fabric which, when used in beautiful colors and in pleasing combinations, contributes to the beauty of the finished block. Boyd has already begun teaching this technique in her classes.

She also has what she calls "think about it" piles. These are stacks of fabrics that are in the design process where she is placing fabrics together based on how the fabrics look next to one another. "I add and subtract to the piles depending on how I feel about how it looks, you just know when it is right because you feel it," she says. Boyd doesn't use the usual tools to combine colors such as the color wheel. She makes her selections based on how she feels about them and that is what she advises her students to do. "I start with a fabric I love and go from there with putting a quilt block together," she says. How Boyd sees color is as an individual interpretation. She held up a blue/green/teal swatch of fabric and said, "What color is this? Some say blue, some green, so it's how you see it." A valuable lesson on color theory from one who understands.

When asked about a small stack of quilt blocks made from all different colors and sizes of pieces of fabric, Boyd explains that those are blocks made from her scrap fabric. She sews the pieces together in blocks and gives them to the sewers of Hope Lutheran Church in Greece. They assemble the blocks into quilts that are donated to their world wide refugee relief program.

A true competitor
Arleen Boyd is the first to admit that she loves to compete in quilt shows. She has a bulletin board full of ribbons in her sewing room that attest to her success. Besides the best in show award in the New York State Fair, she has won many other prestigious awards including a first and second place award for best hand work at the Tennessee Valley Authority Quilt Show in Nashville, and her quilts were twice selected to be displayed at the American Quilting Association Show in Padukah, Kentucky. "It's an honor just to be selected to have a quilt in the American Quilting Association show," she says.

Boyd usually doesn't travel with her quilts, she mails them off to shows and from there the quilts speak for themselves.

How to end the day
Although Arleen Boyd does her piecing and design work in her sewing room on a machine she received in 1941, a small black iron Singer, she does all her hand quilting in the corner of her bedroom where she has her quilting rack and her boom box. "I like to end each day by quilting. I listen to my CDs and work on my quilt. I sometimes hum along with the music. It is so relaxing and peaceful. It is the perfect way to end the day," she says. Just as there is a rhythm to the music, there is a rhythm to the needle that is evident in the perfectly spaced stitches, that carefully placed together result in a finished work that is a symphony for the eyes.