About 1970, while reading extensively on quilt history for her master’s degree in craft, Bets Ramsey asked family, friends, and fellow artists in Chattanooga to contribute blocks for a Friendship quilt. While she taught fiber arts at the Hunter Museum, it hosted Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof’s The Pieced Quilt in 1974. Holstein declined to speak during the exhibition and Ramsey spoke in his place. She also organized the Southern Quilt Symposium for the museum, the first public seminar devoted to quilts, which became an annual event through 1991. Years later, Ramsey told Holstein that his decision not to speak launched her lifelong career in quilts.