From the streets of 1950s segregated Chicago to the quiet country roads of Den­ton County, Barbara McCraw has experienced the highest highs and lowest lows in her personal life, which she said helps fuel the emotion and energy so prevalent in her artwork.

DRC/Al Key

Barbara McCraw, who is retired from the University of North Texas, now spends much of her time making art quilts. Shown behind her is Oya II, which hangs in the den of her Denton home. Proceeds from a raffle for one of her quilts will go toward the Denton County Afri¬can American Museum.

McCraw, 56, has been designing and creating elaborate, decorative quilts since the mid-1990s.

She recently spent six months creating an African-themed quilt to be raffled at the Arts, Antiques & Autos Extravaganza next month in Denton.

“When I look at it [the quilt], I think ‘legacy,’” she said. “I feel like I want to do something positive, and this gave me that chance.”

Her work, Three Wishes Quilt, depicts three women dressed in African garb and large headdresses, each representing one of three wishes: humanity, peace and tolerance.

“It is so typical of Barbara’s work,” said friend and member of the Denton Quilt Guild, Teresa Sherling. “She has a very unique style — truly original.”

Proceeds from the raffle of the quilt will go toward the Denton County African American Museum, which will be housed in the Quakertown House now undergoing restoration.

Georgia Caraway, executive director of Denton County museums, said she was delighted when McCraw agreed to create the quilt.

“She’s just an inspiration to me,” Caraway said. “She’s probably one of the most lovely people I have ever met in my life.”

McCraw said she is honored and very proud to be a part of the project.

“I was really, really impressed with the county’s Quakertown museum,” McCraw said. “No matter what happened in the past, this is a city that is trying to make it right.”

The black neighborhood of Quakertown flourished until the 1920s, when the city forced residents from their homes to make way for Civic Center Park.

McCraw, who has won numerous awards for her work, said she gets most of her inspiration from the memory of her mother.

Courtesy photo

Three Wishes, a quilt made by Barbara McCraw, shows three women who represent humanity, peace and tolerance. The quilt will be raffled off on Sept. 8.

“My mother was strong, and she was very spontaneous and she made things work with practically nothing to work with,” she said. “She just accepted everybody.”

McCraw’s love of quilting stems from her childhood when, as a teenager, she had to sew her own school clothes. It helped hone her skills when she began quilting later in life, she said.

After graduating from high school, McCraw earned degree in medical technology from Triton College. Then she moved with her husband, Ernie McCraw, to Texas where she worked for the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Today, McCraw has retired from the University of North Texas and spends most of her time quilting projects for charities.

During the past decade or so, she has donated quilts to Cumberland Presbyterian Children’s Home, Good Samaritan Village and AIDS Services of North Texas, she said.

Quilt raffle tickets are available for purchase for $1 at the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum and the Bayless-Selby House Museum. The drawing will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, in the Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum.

MONTY MILLER JR. can be reached at 940-566-6875. His e-mail address is mwmiller@dentonrc.com .

Raffle tickets for Barbara McCraw’s Three Wishes quilt are available for $1 at the Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum, 110 W. Hickory St., and the Bayless-Selby House Museum, 317 W. Mulberry St.

To see more of Barbara McCraw’s work, visit www.quiltasart.com .

Barbara McCraw wrote this to accompany her quilt, describing her inspiration:

While many hours are passed in the making of a quilt, many thoughts and prayers go into it as well. The title, Three Wishes, refers to the wishes I made while working on this piece.

The first is “humanity.” The dictionary describes this as “the quality of humanness, kindness” and “benevolence.”

The second is “peace,” not only in the world, but also in our community and in our homes.

The last wish is for “tolerance,” which in a way is the story of modern-day Quakertown Park and restoration of the Denton County African American Museum.

I feel that art communicates and shines through the barriers of race, religion, politics and anything else that seeks to divide us, and I hope my quilt will speak to you in the same way.