Scarcely any walls were left uncovered during the Village Quilters Guild’s 2014 Quilt Show Awards this past weekend at Chota Recreation Center, a biannual event that supports outreach programs in the community.
“It helps up pay for programs and to bring nationally known teachers in to teach us,” guild president Rose Hunt said. “We also have a big outreach program for community service. This year, we’ve donated over 200 quilts to Hospice, dialysis center in Sweetwater and Lenoir City, Fort Loudoun children that are in the hospital with serious diseases. We do Meals on Wheels every year at Thanksgiving time that the Meals on Wheels recipients get a quilt with their meal. Children in Head Start programs in Loudon and Monroe County during the Christmas season, they all get a quilt. Our outreach program is huge.”
In addition to the 200 quilts donated locally, the guild, which now boasts 330 active members and is in its 18th year, has given 287 quilts to wounded veterans as part of the Quilts of Valor program.
Outreach has been a part of the guild from the start, founding president Carole Spahn said.
Between outreach and learning, the guild spends what Hunt said is more than a year planning the show, which was made up of vendors and numerous quilts on display. The quilts were judged in numerous categories.
Guild member Harriet Lewis said she pulls inspiration from the quilts that were on display. With 15 years of quilting experience, she still strives to improve her craft.
“When I come to these shows they really inspire me to do better work because a lot of these people haven’t been quilting as long as I have, but they are exquisite quilters, and they have won prizes,” she said.
The show also allows those attending to see that quilting is a versatile art form that goes far beyond what most think of when they approach the medium, Lewis said.
“I think there is a tendency to think quilting is the old fashioned traditional type of blocks put together,” Lewis said. “It really has evolved, I would say in the last 10 years or so, into an art form. ... They’re not the traditional quilts you would put on a bed. They’re designed and made to be hung on a wall and looked at like a piece of art.”
That’s not to say the traditional style of quilting is going away. That remains the most popular type of quilting, and the majority of quilts on display at the show fell into that group.
Show co-chairwoman and 2015 vice president Helen
Copeland Willis said style comes down to the preference
of the quilter.
“Some of our quilters are very interested in the history of quilts, and they are more traditional quilters, and then we have members who are artists, and they are on the cutting edge of art quilts,” she said. “There’s a new movement in quilts, modern quilting, and we have a group starting that and in the show. We have some that are considered modern quilts.”
Many of the modern quilters come from Knoxville and some members travel from as far away as Chattanooga to take classes with the guild to learn some of the newer styles.
But for members like Lewis, the traditional style of quilting is still a draw.
“I think it’s just sitting at the end of the day and sewing,” she said. “It’s a calming release at the end of my busy day. I’m usually running around doing things. I belong to a number of clubs and organizations here. I especially like to do applique, which is hand work, rather than sitting at my sewing machine, although I do machine quilt also. I sit and I applique. Sometimes it takes me a couple of years to get something done, and that’s not unusual. But that what I enjoy, the quietness, the peace, the relaxation of quilting.”
The guild is always seeking new members. Hunt said she hopes those that attended the show will pick up an interest. For those who want to join, she said attending one of the monthly meetings, held at 9:15 a.m. on the second Friday of each month at Christ Our Savior Lutheran Church in Loudon, is a good place to start.
“The guild meeting is open, and we have a fabulous show and tell,” Hunt said. “So, if anybody wants to come and see what we do. We have quilts on display every month because we brag about what we do and want to get the applause and the recognition from our fellow quilters, which is the best reward. When I went to my first guild meeting I said I don’t care if I ever learn to quilt. I just love this so much. It was so much enthusiasm and so much energy that it was just a fun group to join.”
