Handmade quilt to be raffled at Bolivar Strawberry Festival
Russell Dean of Bolivar has created a strawberry-patterned quilt to be raffled at the Bolivar Strawberry Festival on Saturday, June 10. Proceeds will benefit the Tusky Valley Ruritan Club and its scholarship program.
If there is a pattern to be found in Russell Dean’s life, it is one of giving. The former Tusky Valley eighth-grade math teacher first gave his students mathematical skills to last a lifetime. More recently, the Bolivar resident created a strawberry-themed quilt to raffle at the Bolivar Strawberry Festival, with proceeds to benefit the Tusky Valley Ruritan Club and its scholarship program.
Dean said he learned the craft from his mother, with his father pitching in to help after his retirement. “My mother was a quilter and before that my grandmother, so I’ve been around quilting all my life,” Dean said.
Although he will turn 93 in July, Dean shows no sign of slowing down. If his attention is not on his garden, the latest jigsaw puzzle or quilting at home, people will find him at the Material Girl fabric store in Mineral City.
Dean has followed Wendy Levengood Lab, the store’s owner, from New Philadelphia, to Dover, to Bolivar and now Mineral City. “He would come in and order these huge bolts of backing for his quilts,” Lab said. “I think it’s awesome because not too many guys do this.”
The common denominator
It’s not difficult to see how math is involved in the art of quilting. What’s a little harder to discern is just how much math is involved.
“You start with squares, and you cut them into triangles,” Dean said. Then he pointed out the 3 1/2-inch squares he starts with. “I cut these triangles, and now there is a 2 1/4-inch square cut diagonally to form these triangles, and then this one is a 3-inch square, cut diagonally so it gives you these 2-inch squares.”
To test his powers of computation even further, Dean said he had no pattern to follow for this year’s quilt. “I didn’t have the dimensions — the size of the squares and triangles. I had to figure it all out. So I looked at a quilt my mother had made years ago and figured out the sizes of everything,” he said.
Dean said there are 1,344 triangles in just the strawberry pattern of the queen-size 90-by-108-inch quilt.
Adding it up
Dean said he has made at least 40 quilts since he began quilting on his own. “This one took about a month to make, but I was working day and night,” he said.
His quilts have made their way all across the country, landing on beds, tables and quilt hangers in Ohio, Virginia, California, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and beyond.
Asked if he has ever sold a quilt, he said, “Never. I give them all away.”
When asked why, he said, “It’s just the joy of doing it.”
Lab said it isn’t just his talent, but also his kindness that motivates Dean to provide support for the community by giving various organizations his quilts to raffle.
“His quilts are truly wonderful works, made with dedication and true love of the craft. And whenever he talks to anyone about his quilts, his face just lights up,” Lab said.
Dean’s mother passed away at age 85, so he made many trips to Galion and later Norwalk, Ohio, where his father lived. “One day he said, ‘You know quilting has been in this family for years. Somebody needs to take it over.’ He said, ‘I worry about it.’ I said, ‘Dad, quit worrying. I’ll take over the quilting.’”
Raffle tickets
Tickets are $1 each or six for $5. They will be available at the Tusky Valley Ruritan Club’s booth at the Strawberry Festival. They also can be purchased by preorder from any club member or by visiting or calling Material Girl at 330-859-5081. The winning ticket will be drawn on Saturday, June 10 at the Bolivar Strawberry Festival.