Helen Kelley
(1927-2008)
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Inducted into The Quilters Hall of Fame in 2008 in Marion, Indiana.
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Born April 28, 1927, in Englewood, New Jersey, of English and German heritage, Helen Kelley was
familiar with a sewing machine from youth, and developed a love for theater while in high school. She
taught herself to quilt as an about-to-be bride in 1946.
In 1972 a story about a family quilt she had made from quilt blocks garnered from friends around the
world for her daughter's wedding was featured in the Minneapolis Tribune, the city she had made her
home since 1962. The news coverage opened unexpected opportunities to teach quilting in the
Minneapolis area. Consequently, Kelley became a founding member of the Minnesota Quilt Guild in
1978 and its organizing president 1980-82. An international teaching career was born soon thereafter.
Criss-crossing America, Europe and New Zealand, Kelley spread her love of quilting and her love of the
relationships they engendered wherever she went. Her total number of quilts would eventually top
150, thirteen of them commissioned, and each one carefully and thoroughly researched. A columnist
since 1983 with Quilters Newsletter, the oldest continuously published magazine dedicated to
quiltmaking and quilt history, she would eventually also write 7 books. Her book, Every Quilt Tells a
Story, is a compilation of her column "Loose Threads" and was such a success that a second book,
Joy of Quilting, was released in June 2008.
Among the many honors that Kelley received throughout her career in quilting and service to her
community were: 1995 - Artist of Distinction, Fiber/Metal Arts of Minnesota; 1998 - Minnesota Quilter
of the Year; 1999 – "Renaissance" was selected by a prestigious national committee of quiltmakers and
quilt historians as one of the 100 best quilts of the 20th century, a project organized by the
International Quilt Association ("Renaissance" is now in the collection of the Minnesota Historical
Society); and in 2000 Kelley was selected to receive the Minnesota Textile Center's Spun Gold Award.
Kelley continued to lecture, teach, and exhibit her work right up to her sudden death September 1,
2008. A 30-year retrospective of her work was on exhibit in Marion, Indiana, during her induction into
The Quilters Hall of Fame as its 38th Honoree, July 17-19, 2008, and selected pieces will hang at the
hall of fame itself through December 15, 2008.
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