Diamond Chain Quilts

Barbara H. Cline started creating quilts in her teens. Since then, she has had more than 30 years of experience teaching quiltmaking classes at a local sewing shop and creating beautiful quilts and patterns. Barbara worked at The Clothes Line fabric shop (now called Patchwork Plus) from fifth grade until she married and had children. She became a stay-at-home mother who pieced quilt tops to sell when she had time. When her youngest child entered kindergarten, she started working parttime at The Clothes Line again. Barbara currently teaches classes at Patchwork Plus and loves to design and piece wallhangings and quilts from her home in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Her quilts have been shown and have won ribbons in various quilt shows and contests. Barbara comes from a close-knit Mennonite family of quilters; her grandmother Vera Heatwole taught her daughters, granddaughters, great-granddaughters, great-greatgranddaughters, and daughters-in-law to quilt. Every year the women gather for a sewing retreat, where they quilt, sew, and follow other creative pursuits. The family members and their quilts were featured in the Virginia Quilt Museum’s exhibition Five Generations of Mennonite Quilts.