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A father's flannel shirts.
A wedding dress.
Photos from a baby's first year of life.

Alma Sue's Quilts uses mementos of special people and special occasions to create one-of-a-kind memory quilts. They can celebrate a personal triumph or preserve the memory of a departed loved one. We specialize in making these quilts, which become cherished keepsakes.
These photos show portions of a memory quilt that focused on the first year of a baby's life -- a year worth remembering!

This memory quilt is a composite of pieces of fabric from a young baseball player's Little League T-shirts, incorporated into a larger piece of patterned fabric. The T-shirts appear to float in a sea of baseballs.
Alma Sue's Quilts specializes in memory quilts and T-shirt quilts. We take great care in producing these unique pieces.

Another fine, recent example was a memory quilt made from mola, which is a colorful native fabric of the Kuna people of Panama.
The quilt's owner says, "They did a great job!"
The owner's relative worked in the Panama Canal Zone. She brought back pieces of brilliant mola made by the Kuna people. After they went unused for many years, he decided to have a quilt made. He sketched what he wanted and brought the mola pieces to Alma Sue's. Ella designed the layout and Alma Sue's "stitching ladies" did the quilting.

The photo above left is a t-shirt quilt made from a world traveler's collection of tee shirts. The words of a poem written by the owner while traveling are printed around the edge of the quilt in a border.

Depicted below are several pillows made for several grandsons from Grandmother's memorable outfits.



    Another customer was one of four children who wanted to remember her late father. She brought her father's flannel shirts to Alma Sue's Quilts and we transformed them into four throws -- one for each of the three children and one for the widow.
     Another customer was a woman whose children missed their late grandfather. They asked, "What are you going to do with all those shirts that Grandpa had?"
The answer was: Make a quilt! At Alma Sue's Quilts, we did.
     On the left is a tee shirt quilt made for a graduation gift. On the right is a stuffed animal made from a Grandmother's favorite outfits.

This fine quilt shown here is whole cloth. It contains thousands of yards of thread. It was purchased in France and brought to

Alma Sue's Quilts for finishing by a customer.

Whole cloth quilts harken back to the days, some 200 years ago, when quilting was still in its infancy in America. The finest quilts came from Europe, where some of the most accomplished

practicers of the craft would spend many hours quilting a single, large piece of cloth to give it a textured, "relief" appearance.

That sort of exquisite needlework is evident in the whole cloth quilt that arrived recently at Alma Sue's Quilts. It is, in fact, one of a kind -- an heirloom which, like a tapestry, will last for hundreds of years. The finished piece is entered into a quilt show in North Carolina.

We are proud of our hand stitching. Call the shop at (941) 330-0993 for details of how you can take advantage of our Blue Ribbon-winning handiwork. The quilt shown here was awarded 1st place in the large applique division at the recent Friendship Knot Quilter's Guild show held in Sarasota March 11-12, 2011. This quilt also received the "Viewer's Choice" award.

     We now have two Longarm Quilting Machines that can help you create a quilt in a fraction of the time required to stitch one by hand.
   As the operator, you can free motion your own pattern, stippling or meandering. You can also use the pantograph with a pre-printed overall pattern. You keep your eye on the pattern and follow it with a laser beam dot projected on the quilt pattern. The longarm machine stitches this pattern into the quilt.
   Either longarm machine is available for use in the shop at a reasonable hourly rate. The staff will give one-on-one instruction on proper use.
   Call or stop by our shop to make a quilt longarm-style, or to ask questions or see a demonstration. Margie and Randy are pictured here, using the laser with a pantograph.