Jean Fisher with some of her needlework that will be featured at this month’s Westmoreland County Museum Art and Wine show. Source: Westmoreland News
Written by Jan Ohrmundt
Jean Fisher has been connecting threads for nearly three quarters of a century, since the age of 12 when her dad taught her, a sister and a few friends how to crochet.
Her skills grew to include sewing, embroidering and quilting. Last year she won a blue ribbon at the Chesterfield County Fair for one of her masterfully crocheted quilts. Examples of her work – embroidered and pieced quilts, theme bears, pocket books, pillows, and more – will be the featured art at this month’s Westmoreland County Museum Art and Wine show, starting Aug 21.
Fisher will be present at the opening reception that starts at 5 p.m. at the museum, and a few quilts will also be on display next door at the Inn at Montross, which will be open for refreshments.
How did a father who was a steel mill worker in Baltimore in the 1940s, come to teach his daughters to crochet? Fisher explained that although he worked in a steel mill, on Saturdays her dad helped a friend who owned a yarn shop. He was able to bring home cones of yarn, and with a family of 14 children, he couldn’t see wasting that resource, “so he taught himself to crochet just so he could teach us,” Fisher recalled with a smile.