UNION SPRINGS - What began as a post-retirement hobby has since become an award-winning passion.

Jane Tracy has always loved needlework since she was a young girl, but after her retirement in 1988, she began quilting and has been hooked since.

“My grandmother taught me needlework when I was a young girl,” she said during a special program ‘A Bed Turning' held at the Frontenac Museum in Union Springs Sunday afternoon. “It wasn't until after I retired that I began quilting.”

Tracy, who is the current historian for the Town of Onondaga and past president of the Towpath Quilting Guild, has won several awards for her quilts at the New York State Fair.

She currently shares her quilting program, which includes the history of quilting, with many organizations around the area.

Layered upon a bed, Tracy shared the story of each quilt and how it came to be in her personal collection.

“Quilts should be seen lying on a bed,” she said, “rather than held up to be shown.”

Quilting, according to Tracy, has been in her family for many generations with three of the quilts that she shared during the program having been completed by her great-grandmother, and great-great aunts.

“I found them in our old family farmhouse,” she said. “I don't know which one of them made them but many of my aunts and great grandmother quilted.”

These particular quilts date back to the late 1800s.

Also in her collection is a quilt that she named “A walk with mom” which features the many wildflowers that her own mother would teach her while they walked together through the woods as a child.

Another quilt was titled “Bob's Garden” in which she took sketches of flowers from her husband's garden for the blocks.

“Quilts tell a story,” she said. “My very first quilt was made in 1976 for my firstborn grandson. But that one, I like to say doesn't count because I didn't know what I was doing. But he still has it.”

Tracy advised guests to label their quilts so that future generations will know their stories.