by Tina McCloud
NORTHUMBERLAND—Hard to believe, but the little girl nicknamed “Chum Queen” grew up to design and piece museum-quality quilts. Each quilt in Logan O’Bier’s quilt collection, Chesapeake Bay Quilts, was inspired by a specific memory of her work and play at the foot of Main Street in Reedville.
“I really wanted to honor the fishermen, the heritage, my father,” said O’Bier.
About 20 quilts and several punch-needle artworks will be on display when the Reedville Fishermen’s Museum opens for the season April 2. Museum guests can meet O’Bier at a reception in the museum lobby from noon-2 p.m. April 4. Her quilts be exhibited in the museum lobby and in the Walker House on campus.
One quilt is titled “Crab Pot Buoys.” As a child she would hang her crab buoys up and paint them red. “Ice Cubes” hearkens back to “the boatloads of ice I had to shovel as a kid,” she said.
“Fish Net” is an unfinished piece, displayed on one of her father’s new fish nets. Some individual strips are pieced, but the pattern is a double diagonal so it takes two hours to sew each seam, she said.
O’Bier, 32, started quilting when she was 6 and selling at age 12. Her quilts and patterns have been featured in magazines since 2013.
While she was pursuing that traditional lady-like skill, she was also spending a lot of time on the water. She went crabbing in her great-grandmother’s skiff. “I pulled up every pot,” she said.
She also worked for her father, Stan, at his dock (the old steamboat wharf), sewed his fish nets, shed softcrabs and shoveled ice to keep the fishermen’s catch fresh. Another job was grinding bunkers for chum (bait). Hence the nickname “Chum Queen,” affectionately given to her by the fishermen who came to buy bait on the dock.
With many friends and cousins, “It was a place for me to cut up and have fun,'” she recalled. “I had a fairly magical life growing up.”
Now she creates quilts and punch-needle art mostly on commission.
She also restores Civil War-era and early 1900s quilts and creates reproduction quilts using original patterns. For these she uses vintage-looking fabric to resemble the traditional. She grew up learning to appreciate the old ways.
“I love antiques, preserving things that have lasted that long,” she said.
To view O’Bier’s work, visit www.CuratedAvalon.com.
The museum at 504 Main Street in Reedville 2ill be open from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays in April and May. The museum also will be open from 1-4 p.m. Sundays from May 24 through September 6.
Admission, which includes entrance to all museum exhibits, is $10 for adults, $5 for ages 65 and older and veterans, and free for ages 17 and younger and active duty military members.
Tina McCloud is a public relations volunteer at Reedville Fishermen’s Museum.
