As his mother's 80th birthday approached, Randy Anderson wondered how best to celebrate the uniqueness of her life. He found the answer on every bed and sofa in his Murray house: Quilts. Dozens of them. Some hand-stitched, some tied with yarn; all of them telling stories about births, graduations, weddings and reunions.

Since age 12, when she was first taught how to thread a needle and stitch old scraps of fabric together, Betty Lou Taylor Anderson had made more than 1,000 quilts for family, friends and neighbors.

Each one is a priceless piece of art, thought Randy as he counted up the quilts in his house. If everybody brought their quilts together, he decided, "We could hold a big art show on Mom's birthday."

So on April 10, that's what happened. Randy cleared out the old milk barn on his property and set up long rods to properly display his mother's artwork. His four siblings and Betty Lou's 10 grandchildren gathered all of their quilts — about 150 in all — and sent out invitations to a gallery show in their mom's honor.

"It's such a legacy she's left our family — making sure we're warm and comfortable all our lives," says Randy, who invited me to the open house to meet his mother over a Free Lunch of deli sandwiches, fruit salad and homemade chocolate-chip cookies. He pauses in front of one of his favorite quilts in the barn, a colorful patchwork made with thin strips of fabric.

"She made this one out of my dad's neckties so we'd have something warm to remember him by," says Randy. "In our house, no fabric scrap went to waste. Mom always used them in a quilt of some kind."

Born in Fremont, Wayne County, Betty Lou was taught to quilt by her mother, Myrtle Taylor, a talented and thrifty woman who raised nine children. Betty Lou's first quilt — a pastel star baby blanket with tidy stitches — was on display in Randy's barn, along with quilts of every theme imaginable.

There were quilts that told stories of fishing, soccer games, race cars and trains. Tractors, cowboys, robots and roses. "Once I got started," says Betty Lou, "I didn't want to stop. There's just something relaxing about it. When I start a quilt, I can't rest until I finish it."

Her children can attest to that. "If she'd wake up in the night and couldn't sleep, she'd go work on a quilt," says daughter Janine.

"Before school every morning, she'd have me thread 20 needles for her," recalls son Rhett, the youngest. He points to a quilt made from old flannel shirts. "See the pocket she sewed onto this one? On Christmas, she'd give you a quilt like this and say, 'Make sure you check the pocket.' Inside, you'd find $100."

Although her hands aren't as steady as they used to be, Betty Lou is still making quilts. Instead of stitching, she now ties them with yarn, "but they're still Rembrandts," says Randy.

"Entire houses have been designed around my mom's quilts," he says, pointing out a rust-colored wedding quilt that he and his wife used to decide their home's color scheme. "We've taken her quilts camping, we've taken them to the beach and on vacation. They truly are the fabric of our lives."

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