Holtz keeps the past alive through quilting

Coralee Holtz stitches a little history into many of her quilts.

Her most recent is a colorful queen-size quilt with a Drunkard’s Path design, which can be traced to the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement.

Holtz, who lives in Fremont, likes the design’s historical significance because it involves women’s endeavors -- something she believes young people should know about.

So she’s making the quilt and plans to give it to a granddaughter when she graduates in four years. A longtime quilter, Holtz has made quilts for battered women’s shelters and as part of an overseas mission project.

Each quilt has a story behind it. And there have been lots of quilts.

Holtz was 7 years old when she began sewing on her mom’s machine and has been quilting since she was a teen. She’s made more than 10 quilts in the last 3 1/2 years and all except one have been hand-quilted.

One recent afternoon, Holtz worked on her quilt, stretched across tables at the Fremont Senior Adult Center.

“My friend and I come every afternoon to play cards and sometimes we’re here the whole day and have lunch,” she said. “I bring my quilts to stretch them out to baste the layers together so I can go home and quilt them.”

Holtz likes the art, math and creativity involved in quilting.

“I like to play with the colors and sometimes I change the design when I get part way through it,” she said. “I’ve always got about six quilts ahead in my mind -- ready for the next time I’m ready to start.”

Holtz has made quilts for each of her children. She finished one for her youngest son about 2 1/2 years ago then she learned he was getting married. So then she started on a double ring quilt for him -- a work of art consisting of 3,300 pieces.

The story behind the double ring quilt extends back to the Civil War, Holtz said. A young couple had planned to wed when he was called off to fight. The soldier was severely injured and didn’t recuperate for a year.

He finally came home and they still wanted to marry.

But he couldn’t afford a wedding ring for his bride.

The young woman told her grandmother who went to a cupboard and pulled out a quilt she dearly loved. She gave it to the young couple as a wedding gift and said “We will call this a double wedding ring quilt so you will have wedding rings when you marry.”

The story behind the Drunkard’s Path design began during the Temperance League days. Back then, anyone -- man or woman -- could donate a dime and sign a corner on a cloth block for a quilt. The women would make the quilt and then sell it to finance their campaign, Holtz said.

Most Drunkard’s Path designs consist of four-inch blocks. In one corner of each block is a quarter of a pie shape. The alternating blocks create sort of wavy design -- perhaps like the path of someone who hasn’t been walking too straight after drinking too much.

Holtz’ design varies from the typical Drunkard’s Path.

“I decided I wanted mine different,” said Holtz, adding hers features an expanding diamond shape.

This isn’t the first time Holtz has changed a design or colors. She planned to use a constellation quilt pattern for a grandson who’d gone to space camp and got to meet an astronaut.

“I didn’t like the way the colors laid in so I changed the design and called it ‘Steve’s Star,’” she said.

Holtz also has made baby quilts for Project Linus, through which quilts and afghans are given to babies and small children who come into hospitals or battered women’s shelters.

“I’ve made a lot of quilt tops that I’ve given to my church (Bluffs Trinity Lutheran),” she said. “There’s a group of ladies who get together and tie the quilts and they go to the mission fields.”

Once Holtz completes the Drunkard’s Path quilt, she plans to start another -- for another granddaughter.

But this quilt will be the exact reverse. So one quilt will have colored corners, but be mostly white, while the other is made mostly of colored blocks with white corners.

The quilts will be mirror images of each other.

And Holtz likes the historical significance of that plan, too.

“It’s frugal, which is in keeping with the pioneer spirit,” she said.