McRAE — Susan Ashcraft did not learn to quilt until she retired four years ago.
“Now I am obsessed with it,” she said, laughing.
“When I retired I started going to The Shepherd’s Center of Beebe, which is a senior citizens center. They offered quilting classes. I said, ‘I am not going to do that. … That’s what my mother did. … I’m a professional woman,’ but I took a class and was hooked,” said Ashcraft, 71.
“After I retired, I didn’t know what to do. I have worked since I was 14 and to not work? What would I do?” she said.
“When I first started, I quilted like it was my job. … I’d quilt from 9 to noon, take a break for lunch, and quilt again from 1 to 3,” she said, laughing. “I’d quilt six hours a day. I love it.”
Ashcraft quilts at home, as well as at the Shepherd’s Center with members of the Frayed Knots Quilt Club.
A member of the Frederick Van Patten Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, in Searcy, Ashcraft has used her craft to make quilts for veterans.
“During the past three years, I have made 25 lap quilts for veterans who leave the [Veterans Affairs] medical facilities in wheelchairs. They give out about 100 quilts a year,” she said.
“Several DAR chapters do this as well. My DAR chapter has donated material to me to help with this project,” Ashcraft said.
Irene Gray, regent of the Frederick Van Patten DAR chapter, said, “As vice regent of the Frederick Van Patten Chapter DAR for the past three years, it [was] my honor to take the beautiful patriotic lap quilts made by our member, Susan Ashcraft, and deliver them to the VA hospitals in our area. This has been such a labor of love on Susan’s part, and I know that each veteran who received one could feel the love she sewed into them. We are so grateful that she chose to do this for our veterans.”
Ashcraft said she has also made four quilts of valor for veterans.
“I make them when asked,” she said. “I submitted one to the national Quilts of Valor organization for distribution, but the others were for people I knew. One went to a World War II veteran living in a nursing home in Searcy.
“My family has a rich history in the military. My husband was in the Army for 17 years. My son was in the Army during the invasion of Haiti. I wanted to do something for the veterans.”
She said she hopes to make more quilts of valor, as well as lap quilts, this year.
Ashcraft recently made a quilt of valor for a brother of Cathleen Shultz, chaplain for the Frederick Van Patten DAR chapter. Shultz’s brother, Robert Charles Goodard of Inverness, Florida, served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, was exposed to dangerous chemicals and has been diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He is now a retired civilian Air Force plane mechanic.
“My plans are to mail the quilt to a local DAR chapter for presentation [to him],” Shultz said. “I had planned to present it to him in June during my planned trip, but the quilt was not completed at that time.”
Ashcraft said she has made quilts for other people, too.
“I’ve made them for my church pastor, assistant pastor, music director and others,” she said.
“I don’t normally sell my quilts. I just give them to others. I want it to be a joy for those who receive one. I love giving,” she said.
“God has been good to me. That’s the reason I do this,” Ashcraft said.
“I pray over my quilts when I make them. Praying over quilts or cloths is mentioned in the Bible. Paul took cloths and laid them on the sick,” she said.
“I made a quilt for my sister, praying over it as I made it,” Ashcraft said. “She put it on her shoulders when she took her chemo treatments.”
Ashcraft, who is originally from Texas, had a professional career in accounting. She also taught school when her children were in a private school.
“I retired after 15 years from Ridout Lumber,” she said. “I worked in the corporate office in Searcy. I also taught school in Louisiana. My husband (the late James Thomas Ashcraft) was in the military, so we traveled around a lot.”
Ashcraft was born in Poteet, Texas, which is near San Antonio.
“It’s known as the Strawberry Capital of the World,” she said, smiling. “It has a water tower that has a huge strawberry on top of it.
“We actually lived out in the country. I was born at home. My grandmother helped birth me. I am the middle child of nine children.”
Ashcraft graduated from Pleasanton (Texas) High School and from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a degree in business.
My kids went to a private school, and I helped out there,” she said. “They asked me to teach algebra, and I said ‘yes.’ Math always came easy to me. I taught for 11 years.
“After my husband died, we moved to Arkansas. He was born in Oppelo in Conway County, so there was some family here. That was 26 years ago.”
Ashcraft joined the DAR in 1991 when she was still living in Louisiana. Once in Arkansas, she transferred her membership to the General William Lewis chapter in Morrilton, then to the chapter in Searcy.
Ashcraft has two adult children — Michelle, 50, who lives in Beebe, and Norman, 47, who lives in Florida.
Ashcraft attends Open Arms Assembly of God in Beebe. She is on the board of directors at the Shepherd’s Center, where she was chairwoman for three years; she is now treasurer.
She teaches genealogy at the Shepherd’s Center on Wednesdays and also takes art classes.
“I work on more than one thing at a time,” Ashcraft said, laughing.
“I’ve been doing genealogy since 1985. I’ve traced my father’s side back to Charlemagne,” she said.
“My DAR patriot is Thomas Gilbreath/Galbraith, who lived in Virginia but fought in Massachusetts in the Revolutionary War,” she said. “I helped my sister in Texas prove our lineage to him.
“She has since proven another patriot, Moses Spencer, He is my ‘claim to fame.’”
Ashcraft said these Spencer ancestors came from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and are part of Princess Diana’s family.
“I can laugh and say I am one of Princess Di’s relatives,” Ashcraft said.