16 Dallas Medical Journal December 2018
Dr. Burk’s “woman cave” includes a myriad of meticulously organized
fabric squares against the back wall.
Dr. Burk’s tesselation quilt won a
ribbon at the Dallas Quilt Show.
or “should be committed” quilter. Quilt
making is quite involved, but it doesn’t
have to be price prohibitive. For starters,
an expensive sewing machine is not
required.
“You can spend $1,000 on one, but the
Singer Slant-o-matic that I learned on in
the ’60s works well,” she says. “I found
the exact model at an estate sale for $125.
As long as it has a straight stitch, goes
back and forth, and has narrow feed dogs
that pull the fabric through, you’re set. I
have one with all the fancy stitches, but I
only use the straight stitch.”
She makes wall quilts (4 by 6 feet) and
queen-size bedspreads (8 by 10 feet).
With the high price of quality fabric, she’s
always on the look-out for a sale.
“When I started buying good quality
cottons 18 years ago, the price was about
$6 per yard,” she recalls. “Good quality
cotton now is $12 or more a yard, so if
you use about 10 yards for a bed quilt,
you could pay $120 for fabric alone. But
invest in good quality fabric that won’t
fade after you’ve worked all those hours
on it.”
And about all that fabric, Dr. Burk
would be remiss if she did not address
the “stash” — the collections of fabric
that quilters hoard, compulsively
arranged by the colors of the rainbow.
It’s what is hidden from spouses in the
closet or in drawers, perhaps one day
to be purposed; perhaps simply to be
preserved. She rhetorically asks, “Who
asks a coin collector if they are going to
spend the money or a stamp collector if
they are going to mail a letter?”
One of Dr. Burk’s quilts won an
honorable mention at the Dallas Quilt
Show, and her children have won multiple
awards at the State Fair of Texas in the
Junior Division. Her daughter’s paperpieced
quilt took Best of Show in 2013.
“The kids’ creations are displayed in
the office and I see them every day, and
think of the kids,” Dr. Burk says. “I have
fond memories of forcing them to be
creative, but they learned that hard work
pays off.”
Dr. Burk mainly makes pieced quilts,
preferring those over applique quilts,
paper piecing and English paper piecing.
In pieced quilts, two cut pieces are
pinned, sewn by machine, sequentially
sewn to more pieces to make a larger
block, and then the blocks are sewn
together. In paper piecing, small pieces of
fabric are sewn to paper to get accurate
edges and patterns.
“I have several of these in the works,
but they take more time and brain
power, and some days I just don’t want
to think that hard. This is supposed to be
relaxing?!!”
Although Dr. Burk’s husband is not a
quilter, he is supportive of her habit that
has taken over parts of their house.
“My husband is a smart man,” she says.
“He leaves me alone in my ‘woman cave’
studio.”
She gives kudos to the patient
husbands whose wives drag them to
quilt shows all over the state and who
appreciate the woman caves or “she
sheds.” And she’s certain she is not the
only quilter who, under her breath,
added a postscript to her wedding vows
that promised “and driving me to quilt
shows.” DMJ
— Tracy Casto