For years, Jeremy Lamont talked about the quilt that won Grand Champion in the 1999 Montgomery County Fair.
Shortly after the 1999 fair, the quilt which features pictures of historic landmarks in the county, was donated to the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County.
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That was the last time Lamont, 40, and now a Willis resident, saw the quilt — until Friday afternoon.
“Oh wow,” Lamont said upon seeing the fabric artwork for the first time in nearly 25 years.
Lamont was 16 when he made the quilt with help from his mom, Kim Lamont, as a project for the Montgomery County Fair.
“She really wanted me to do needlecraft because she and my aunt did needlecraft. I wanted to do photography. We compromised. It took all the spare time that I had and at the time we had never seen anything like it,” he said.
The quilt is red, white and blue with a log-cabin pattern with 12 photos taken by Jeremy Lamont of historic sites in Montgomery County like the Crighton Theatre, old bank in Montgomery and historic churches.
The quilt won Grand Champion in the needlecraft division of the 1999 fair and drew $2,500 at auction.
Following the auction, the quilt was donated to the Heritage Museum of Montgomery County and received by then executive director Gertie Spencer and museum volunteers Margaret Ann McCullough, Angie Walker and Elva Wilson.
A photo of the ladies with Lamont remained with the quilt and only Spencer, 88, remains of the group that accepted the quilt.
Lamont also reunited with Spencer Friday afternoon at the museum. The quilt was stored for years in the museum’s vault.
Occasionally Lamont would come by the museum hoping it would be on display. As volunteers changed over the years, no one knew anything about it when he asked.
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Then recently museum volunteer Nancy Kolb was going through some boxes in the vault with other museum volunteers and discovered the quilt along with a plaque and photos of when it was donated.
“We were so excited when we found it, we knew this just had to go up (at the museum),” she said. The museum is currently hosting a series where they display special quilts and Lamont’s quilt is the third in the series.
Museum volunteers took things a step further and wondered if they could find the young many who donated the quilt. Tommy Sellars found Lamont on Facebook and a connection was made.
Looking at the pictures with the quilt, Lamont told the volunteers and museum staff, those pictures in 1999 were the last time he saw the quilt.
This quilt was one of two quilts Lamont worked on in his life.
After the death of Justice of the Peace Grady Spikes in September 1999, Lamont and his mom worked on a quilt for the Spikes family which he was close to. The quilt featured 12 photos of the Spikes family.
Lamont is now a musician and plays at venues around the Houston area.
The quilt will be on display this fall and will be a part of the museum’s veterans exhibit which opens in October.
The museum also will feature upcoming exhibits on museum Executive Director Suann Hereford’s Barbie collection and a collection of vintage cameras from local filmmaker Gary Parker.
Visit the Heritage Museum’s Facebook page for more.
