The fibs, "stories" or little white lies - whatever you want to call them - that she had to tell bothered Gwen Weisenburger.

Though the deception was done in the good cause of a surprise for her mother, Leone Strandemo of Steele, Weisenburger still felt guilty.

The surprise Weisenburger planned was a big one: She commissioned a unique custom quilt for her mother's birthday - who turned 80 on Oct. 9 - from Bismarck quilter Cori Quist. The family wanted the quilt's blocks to bring back memories of some aspect of Strandemo's life.

To keep her mother from finding out about the surprise, she had to "lie, lie, lie," Weisenburger said from her home in Omaha, Neb. She felt guilty enough that she started signing her notes to Quist, "Gwen-occhio."

But when the family presented the quilt to Strandemo at a birthday gathering in Omaha, it was worth it.

Strandemo said she was completely taken by surprise; she hadn't had the slightest inkling of all the behind-the-scenes activity.

After the family decided to commission the quilt, Weisenburger's niece starting making calls to find a local quilter. Quist was recommended by several people, including Deb Ness, owner of the Quilt Haus in Bismarck, where Quist places quilts on consignment.

Though they hadn't met in person - they did most of the planning over the phone - Quist said she felt close to Weisenburger immediately. When Weisenburger came to North Dakota after her mother-in-law in Glen Ullin had a fall, she took the opportunity to meet Quist face-to-face.

When they finally met in person in her quilting room, Quist was moved that Weisenburger took the opportunity to offer a prayer for her work on the project.

Quist's studio is what in other condos would be the family room, a long space with a large east-exposure window. It needs to be large to fit her Millennium quilting machine, a long-arm quilting head that slides along a 14-foot set of rollers that hold the rolled quilt top. Hand grips allow Quist to guide the quilting head, free-hand stitching on the fabric blocks.

Because Quist has been a sign language interpreter for many years, her hands swell too easily for hand-quilting, she said. Some quilting machines are computerized, using software to automatically stitch the pattern, but Quist likes the creative aspect of hand-guiding her machine quilter.

Her work space is organized around the quilting machine and a large cutting table, her sewing machine and racks of prewashed and folded fabrics sorted by color, a rack of thread spools, a library of quilt patterns and a work desk. Two other rooms hold Quist's inventory of more than 400 quilts in various stages of completion.

After 40 years of quilting, Quist still says she'll never live long enough to make all the quilts she'd like to. And she never makes the same quilt exactly twice.

Quist, who can stitch a quilt inside a day if she stays at it, worked for three months pulling together the unique blocks for Strandemo's quilt.

Weisenburger chose the themes for the quilt blocks she wanted Quist to include, based on her mother's childhood memories, her travels, her hobbies, her habits.

Quist scouted out the perfect fabrics for some of the blocks and found images for others that were appliqued or silkscreened from logos or photos. So the quilt contains silkscreened photos of Shadow, the family's black lab, the state quarters that Strandemo collected for her grandchildren, the Lucky Charms cereal that they got at grandma's house and a favorite seven-layer Jell-O dish.

Appliqued blocks included Quist's design of a purple gingham dress like one that Strandemo made for Weisenburger's Easter choir performance from childhood. An appliqued car commemorates the drives Strandemo has made from North Dakota to Weisenburger's home in Nebraska. Slanting quilting lines are the "sleet" that always seems to find Strandemo on I-29.

With her freehand quilting, Quist also added "steam" rising from coffee cups and the outlines of fall leaves for the autumn birthday girl.

Other fabric blocks illustrate Strandemo's love of bridge, bowling, jigsaw puzzles, reading, fishing and pheasant hunting. A block marks her 13 years working for BEK Communications in Steele. In another, Santa is holding a battery, an accessory that Strandemo never forgot to include when giving Christmas toys.

To create a block to illustrate Strandemo's love of knitting, Quist went to CE Designs in Bismarck and asked to photograph a basket of yarns. Quist even got permission to silkscreen Prairie Knights' copyrighted logo.

Quist trimmed her blocks with black corners to suggest a photo album. The background fabric also forms a grid of pathways - Memory Lane, perhaps - connecting the blocks together. The blocks are set against an autumnal buff and cream background - "my colors," Strandemo said.

Though this project, Quist said that she feels she has found a sister in Weisenburger.

"Cori and I have laughed so much, talked so much," Weisenburger said. "We're like old friends. We'll always be friends."

When it came time to reveal the surprise, Weisenburger spread the quilt over her own bed, decorated with big brown and gold bows, lined up the grandkids and brought her mother in. She then read a letter she'd written to her mother about the quilt, which included an apology for all the fibbing.

(Reach reporter Karen Herzog at 250-8267 or karen.herzog@;bismarcktribune.com.)