Leo Kelly, Jr., Henderson, NC, is a 2008 retired Educational Administrator (Dean) of Vance-Granville Community College who worked in Continuing Education for 37 years. The Division of Continuing Education, through his leadership, offered many courses for adults from basic education to continuing education (life-long learning).
In 1995, he offered a quilting class and decided to take the class in order to meet the required number of students. In addition, he had an interest in quilts based on his exposure to quilting by his mother (Lucy) and his paternal grandmother (Annie). Their quilting was by “my golly by gee.”
In the class, he cut pieces for blocks that instructor Peggy Stocks taught each night. He would lay the pieces on felt and roll them up for later. A big snowstorm in the winter of 1995 closed the college for 16 days. He had eaten all that he could eat and watched all the movies that he could watch so he decided to try his hand at putting some of stored blocks together. He had never seriously sewed before. His wife tried teaching him on the sewing machine which was not for him. Leo decided to do it by hand the way the instructor taught. He loved seeing all the little intricate pieces come together to make a square, and that’s how he got hooked on quilting.
Leo Kelly, Jr.
In 1995, he offered a quilting class and decided to take the class in order to meet the required number of students. In addition, he had an interest in quilts based on his exposure to quilting by his mother (Lucy) and his paternal grandmother (Annie). Their quilting was by “my golly by gee.”
In the class, he cut pieces for blocks that instructor Peggy Stocks taught each night. He would lay the pieces on felt and roll them up for later. A big snowstorm in the winter of 1995 closed the college for 16 days. He had eaten all that he could eat and watched all the movies that he could watch so he decided to try his hand at putting some of stored blocks together. He had never seriously sewed before. His wife tried teaching him on the sewing machine which was not for him. Leo decided to do it by hand the way the instructor taught. He loved seeing all the little intricate pieces come together to make a square, and that’s how he got hooked on quilting.