The Barnegat Light Quilts

Nancy Williams and Elise Bossi Lemcke

2000 – Barnegat Light

And so it began…with a phone call from Nancy Williams to Elise Lemcke (her

sister-in-law), ‘Let’s make a quilt to donate to the Memorial Day Auction.’

Dave and Nancy had been wintering in Florida and they stopped in Roswell so

the two could design, sew and quilt the very first one. Nancy and Elise were

attending classes at the American Quilt Society Quilt Show in Paducah that

year so the quilt traveled with them, and was worked on along the way.

This year set the operating plan – a visit to Georgia in the early part of the year

to develop the design, shop for fabric and divide the work. Then the quilt

would travel back and forth by USPS, UPS and FedEx ending up in Barnegat

Light just in time for the auction on Memorial Day. Little could the two ever

imagine that the quilts would become such

a tradition.

2001 – Summer at the Beach

They fell in love with the fabrics before

there was a design. Paper piecing was utilized as a new technique for

the two of them. Nancy flew down to Roswell to drive up with Elise that

spring. Dave’s and Elise’s mother was moving from the family home in

Philadelphia after 48 years, so it was an emotional time for everyone. The

quilt was bright and fun to work on – the perfect escape from all the

sorting and packing that was going on around them. It spent a very long

time in the car from Roswell to Philadelphia – Nancy was driving and

Elise stitching and they missed the split in Knoxville and ended up in

Kentucky, adding almost two hours to a 13 hour drive.

2002 – A Tribute to Our Heroes

The day after September 11, 2001, Elise told Nancy, ‘I know what we are

doing for the 2002 quilt.’ And so the tribute to those that serve and protect

was born. It was a very American quilt. Elise did the background this time

and Nancy did the pictures of the lighthouse and firehouse. The flag was

made using string piecing which is a type of foundation piecing, where

scraps of fabric are randomly sewn onto a backing material before being

sewn into the quilt. Nancy started to develop her design skills, incorporating

unusual fabrics and items onto the pictures in the quilt.

2003 – Storm-at-Sea

A friend was getting married and Nancy

wanted to make a Storm-at-Sea quilt as a

wedding present. What a perfect theme

for the next quilt! But they could not use

just a standard pattern or coloration – the size was altered and the

coloration went from darks to lights. Elise made a small chart with tiny

scraps of fabric so Nancy would know what to use and where – the chart

drove her crazy! In the end the quilt was made and looked fabulous, the

wedding present was made and was a huge hit and Elise’s husband got his

first ever quilt from Elise for his office (the blocks made to test the pattern

were finished off for him.)

2004 – Starry Night in Barnegat Light

It started as a joke over wine in the summer of 2003 – ‘what will

your next quilt be?’ someone asked innocently. Many names and

themes were suggested that night but Starry Night by Vincent

Van Gogh appealed to them and they went with it. Nancy had

learned a new technique – ‘snippets’ using hundreds of teeny tiny

pieces of fabric to create a picture. The sky is truly a work of art.

Elise did the lighthouse and pen and ink drawings of the

buildings of Barnegat Light, but the sky stood out.

2005 – Four Seasons

Nancy had an idea for a

seasonal quilt – four smaller panels rather than one large quilt. Elise

drew it up for her and she developed, sewed and quilted all of the

panels. They each depicted a part of Barnegat Light life at different

moments of the year. Nancy’s artistic touch was coming out strong

as she developed each panel with various techniques.

2006 – I Left My Heart in

Barnegat Light

Nancy became ill early in the year and Elise wanted to do something since

she was not there to help. Hearts are favorite shape for Elise and she

incorporated them throughout the quilt, both pieced and appliquéd. They

symbolize love, hope, friendship and happiness. The quilt was dedicated to

Nancy as she was Elise’s sister-in-law, friend and partner in many quilting

adventures.

2007 – And Now the Time Has Come to Say Goodbye…

And now it comes to an end… the final quilt in this series. It is not the quilt

that was planned. Over the weekend of Thanksgiving 2006, Nancy and

Elise worked over the drawing Elise had made for the 2007 quilt. They

bought the fabric and went home to start their parts. That quilt has been

set aside for now.

Life has a way of interfering and a new quilt was born - a very personal

quilt. With no one to share or bounce ideas off of, it has been a hard quilt to make.

It is dedicated to Nancy for showing how to be incredibly strong in the face of one of life’s greatest challenges.

It is also dedicated to her partner Dave Bossi and Nancy’s sister, Elaine for their unwavering strength and

support through such a difficult time.

My husband Ed spent his summers on LBI growing up clamming in Barnegat Bay until the early seventies when his parents bought a home in Barnegat Light which became his very favorite place in the whole wide world.
        I made this quilt as a gift for him. It highlights the things he loved most about Barnegat Light.
        It started with the lighthouse and grew from there. The home he spent a large part of his adult years in, like so much of Barnegat Light has gone though many changes over the years and is very diffrent from the house pictured in the quilt.
        Every time we came down, no matter the season we would walk to the museum to see what was in bloom this week in the gardens that had not been there the week before.
        He loved looking at the Coast Guard house and telling stories of his childhood and describing in great detail all the changes he had seen on LBI, especially Barnegat Light in the past fifty years. It is pictured before its recent renovation.
        We would walk to Kelly's in the evening to get a dish of chocolate ice cream at Dairy Queen to share as we watched the fishing boats come in and planned our future together and summers here in Barnegat Light.
        On Sundays he took great joy watching the bi-plane fly over the house doing loop-de-loops. He often expressed the wish to be able to fly in it one day. That was to be this year's birthday gift to him.
        We loved to bike ride to Viking Village and he would spend hours photographing the fishermen and boats and then go home and paint from these photos. On one of those visits a fisherman was mending his nets and I asked for a piece of the old net, which is used on the fishing boat in the quilt.
        One afternoon we were lucky enough to be spending the day on the beach when we had the great fortune of watching three dolphin swim by.
        We rented a double kayak on a beautiful summer day, the equivalent of which can't seem to be found anywhere else and while out we spotted a black lab running on the beach, it soon zoned in on us, swam out, climbed over Ed's back where it proceeded to sit in the kayak and refused to get out. We had to row it back to shore.
        He loved to take me to dinner at Kubels where we would watch the most beautiful sunsets while eating. He spent many Friday and Saturday nights there as a young man.
        Many, many hours were spent walking on the beach hand in hand falling in love, all the while being so grateful to have the time to spend together in paradise.
        It is stitched on the back with a little note thanking him for making so many of my dreams come true.
        Ed passed away this winter making our time there all the more precious and his quilt so much more meaningfull.☼