About Betty Alderman and Betty Alderman Designs

Betty's designs culminate from a background beginning with a Fine Arts education at Syracuse University, ownership of a yarn shop where she also designed needlepoint canvases, to the buying and selling of antique quilts while living in central Ohio. Her inspiration is derived from her past knowledge and her continued enthusiasm in research and new pattern design for her quilt pattern business, Betty Alderman Designs. The patterns represented on this Web site are some of the results of her passion of quilting and appliqué. One of Betty's first quilts was a full-size, red, white, and blue, Sherman's March quilt for her son, Jim, made in the mid-1970s. Through the 1970s Betty continued quilting and painting needlepoint canvases. During the mid-1980s Fred, Betty's husband, took a job in Phoenix, AZ. Feeling homesick for her home in New York State, Betty began folk painting, using memories of her hometown to create her paintings where quilts invariably appeared. She also began working at The Quilted Apple, a well-known Phoenix-area quilt shop. The Quilted Apple allowed Betty the opportunity to stretch her creative talents in quilt making and pattern design. Betty taught quilting at The Quilted Apple and assisted with, and created, designs to be sold in the shop. Betty continued to sharpen her quilting skills all the while developing a deep fondness for particular patterns and quilt types. Of those were the Baltimore Album Quilts of the last century and the Sunbonnet quilts of the 20th century--both of which incorporate the use of appliqué. Appliqué became Betty's specialty. Around 1990, Betty and Fred moved to the city of Mansfield in the rolling hills of central Ohio. It is in Ohio that Betty became experienced in buying and selling antique quilts. From 1990 to 1995 Betty and Fred developed their antique business, supplying booths at antique malls with quilts bought at farm auctions throughout central Ohio. It was during this time in Ohio that Betty constructed three Baltimore Album Quilts--one for each of her three children. In 1992, Betty created her first commercial pattern. That pattern was the Sunbonnet Calendar Girls, a quilt depicting 12 lively Sunbonnets, each representing a month of the year. Betty and Fred found themselves back in Phoenix for a few years, however, during July of 1998, they relocated back to their hometown of Palmyra, New York. Betty and Fred are now enjoying the exquisite seasonal changes that New York state has to offer. Betty takes every opportunity to attend local auctions in search of those special antique quilts she is so enamored with. And, while Betty occasionally teaches classes, most of her time is spent expanding her business by designing new patterns, introducing approximately 10 new patterns each year.

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