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A lot has changed in the more than 50 years Hattie Nunley has been crafting handmade quilts and other crafts, but she says the tradition of gifting quilts to loved ones is one thing that hasn’t.

“My mom always made quilts and she hand quilted them and then as I got older I started helping her,” Nunley said. “She had a frame that hung from the ceiling and we would quilt on it and then when we got through we would roll it back up.”

Now 73 years old, Nunley sells her quilts and other handi-crafts at both Foothills Crafts in Manchester and her own home quilt studio in Pelham.

“My quilts are usually one of a kind,” she said. “Some of them, I go buy a pattern, but now others, I do them just about every which way I want to do them.”

Nunley said that after decades of hand quilting, she had to adapt following the removal of a joint in her hand.

“I do them all on a machine now,” she said. “I don’t do any hand but I can sell them cheaper by doing them on the machine than I can by hand.”

Nunley said it would take her about a week to hand quilt a throw, but with sewing machines she can do that in about one day.

After decades in the quilting game, Nunley said she still enjoys everything about crafting the one-of-a-kind items.

“I have always been around it,” Nunley said. “I would go to craft shows and that really got me enthused for making more and then I got into Foothills Crafts more than 15 years ago.”

While sometimes she utilizes a pattern, Nunley said she always likes to add her own unique touch to her quilts so they are a little different.

“Sometimes I will get on the computer and maybe see something and you know and I will say I can do that,” she said.

Nunley’s quilts range in size from baby to king, and she also does embroidery work and other various sewing projects, including custom orders.

“Sometimes somebody will bring me something and maybe that their grandmother made the top or something and they will want me to quilt it or maybe they will have one that they have made the squares and they want me to put it together and make a quilt.”

Nunley said for some of her baby quits, she will incorporate panels that feature a children’s storybook, such as Mother Goose.

“They can use it as a baby quilt, they can use it in the crib and then as they get bigger they can lay it down and read it,” she said. “They use it longer.”