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Debra Wagner began quilting in the 1970's to teach piecing classes in her family’s fabric and sewing machine store. A clothing and textile design major, she had learned the craft in college. Debra had also been creating award-winning machine embroidery for over 10 years. She later took a machine quilting class from Harriet Hargrave and went on from there. Debra no longer pursues quilting as a career, but continues to enjoy making quilts as a hobby.
She says, "I'm a traditionalist in design, if not in technique. My main interest is developing machine methods for traditional quilt making. My favorite quilts have challenging piecing or applique with lots of quilting and trapunto.”
"Floral Urns" was inspired by several nineteenth century appliqué quilts. The set and basic motifs were influenced by an 1860 quilt by Mrs. C. Bartlett. The coloration and tone were inspired by matching quilts attributed to Mary Brown, 1845 and 1852. Debra was drawn to their “general sense of riot and exuberance.” The quilting designs were based on the Bartlett quilt. The appliqué patterns were drawn from Hungarian and Bavarian folk art. This album-style quilt includes 13 appliquéd square blocks and eight appliquéd rectangular blocks, set with alternating plain fabric blocks quilted in matching motifs. Both the appliqué and quilting are trapuntoed. The words “Go Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May” appear in the trapuntoed quilting design.