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By SKYLAR WOLFE

Special to The Democrat

NATCHEZ — Becky Morris started quilting in 1999 when she lived in Portland, Oregon.

Morris called it an up-and-coming craft at the time.

Since then, Morris has spent the past 20 years learning and developing her style.

“In the 1990s, the whole time I was living in Portland, I was thinking, I want to learn how to make quilts,” Morris said. “I developed my different techniques and patterns. This information was not very popular on the internet at the time, so you had to go to a class or learn through a book.”

Morris had just returned to her Duster Drive home from grocery shopping when The Dart landed there on Wednesday afternoon.

Morris explained the difference between a blanket and a quilt. Blankets, she said, contain just a top and bottom layer. Quilts have a top layer, a fabric called batting in the middle and then the bottom layer all sewn together.

Morris said she gets inspiration for her patterns from people.

“It is so much easier for me to make a quilt for someone I know,” Morris said. “It gives me a direction to take the design.”

Morris said she makes most of her quilts for friends and family members. 

“I have made two [quilts] for auction,” Morris said. “The rest have gone to family and a few to friends.”

Morris said whenever she attempts a new style or design she makes “little quilts” to get an idea of what the finished product will look like.

Some quilts take Morris a few months to complete while others can take a year to finish.

“I have made 45 quilts,” Morris said. “I keep track of everything by books and I have pictures as well from when I started and complete them.”

Morris is originally from Houston, Texas, but moved to Natchez in 2002 with her husband, Jeff Morris.

Becky Morris said they visited Vicksburg on a vacation when they lived in Portland.

“A friend who worked for the park service knew about Natchez and recommended we stop there,” Becky Morris said. “We wanted to move back to the South. We stopped by, put an offer on a house and here we are.”