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By SUE RYAN
News staff writer
July 12, 2006
Quilters who wanted to share their love
of the art form put together a First Friday display.
“We hold quilt shows in the region and this one came about because
there is quite an ‘art’ side to quilting that people don’t realize is
often part of it,” said Marbe Cook, the show’s organizer.
She wanted to share her passion for quilting with others but also
educate how the medium has grown beyond patchwork and strip styles.
Quilters have been talking about forming a regional quilt guild
because of interest from the many active quilt clubs in Hood River,
Cascade Locks, Goldendale, Stevenson, and The Dalles.
Cook began working with textiles, as many quilters do, through taking
a class. She learned the basics of building blocks and forms but took
an interest in whimsical representations.
Red shoe buttons follow a diagonal line on a piece Cook titled “Red
and Black.” She said for her, the transition to art quilting took
place after she had mastered techniques.
Organizers pinned a quilt edge up to
reveal stitching details on the back.
“I think everyone gets an identity as a
quilter, as an artist, really,” she said.
Quilting appeals to her because of the tactile sensation and
pliability of the form. She refers to quilting as “forgiving” and
finds pleasure in playing with color selection for hours on end.
Across the room from Cook’s playful piece hung several quilts
throbbing with rich themes of the African continent. Black, gold, and
brown colors meshed in rectangular hangings. Quilter Rhonda Harris
echoed Cook’s sentiments about the appeal of fabric’s feel drawing her
into the art.
“I love to sew. I used to do watercolors but sewing you can do
anytime; where watercolor took a lot of time just to prepare,” she
said.
Harris calls her style “more collage than anything” and said the
vibrancy of earth-toned fabrics is why she chooses them for her work.
While every art show includes pieces of work to admire or puzzle over,
the quilters wanted to physically engage people in their art. So they
brought sewing machines and fabric to the site, along with projects to
try out.
Quilter and shop owner Ann Zuehlke waved her hand over rows of pink
fabric cut into shapes. She explained to middle-schoolers Allie
Ferrick and Jennifer Mikkelson how they could put the forms on top of
freezer paper and make squares.
Rhonda Harris hangs her pieces for
the Quilt Show at Riverside Community Church.
“You mean, make our own designs?” asked
Ferrick.
“Yes,” said Zuehlke.
“Wow, how cool,” Ferrick said.
The pair scooped up triangles and squares as they began work on a
project that will culminate in a sew-in Sept. 30.
Zuehlke wanted to coordinate the project locally as part of the
first-ever national “Quilt it Pink.” She became involved because of a
history of breast cancer in her immediate family.
The American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine has designated it as a
national awareness date for breast cancer.
“I feel like the quilters know about it but the community doesn’t, so
I thought I would bring the fabric here,” she said.
Zuehlke said people often shy away from making a block because they
say they can’t or don’t sew. By mixing precut pieces and freezer
paper, they can feel free to design and walk away. Ironing the blocks
to the paper means Zuehlke can sew them later on when she has more
time.
Eileen Utroske, another shop owner and quilter, also brought projects
for people to try with machines demonstrating embroidery and painting
with thread.
“It’s a way to combine the forms,” she said.
Ann Zuehlke reaches for a flyer
explaining the
“Quilt it Pink” project.
Utroske encouraged longtime quilter and
exhibitor Elizabeth Garber to give the machine a whirl. Garber said
she doesn’t mind using machines but prefers the old-fashioned method.
“I hand-quilt everything,” she said. “It’s not typical anymore.”
She began quilting at age 13 and said she likes the changes that
quilting has undergone during the decades that have passed.
“I like to take a class to learn a technique; not to make a quilt just
like the instructor,” she said. “I started venturing out into my own
patterns in 1986.”
She said the combination of having an encouraging teacher in Spokane
and the new method helped her modify and customize traditional
patterns. About six years ago, she began to embellish. Her stitches
wind through the blocks with metallic thread and beads. She used a
pinky finger to flick a bead hanging from the print of a Japanese fan
and flower in one of her works.
“I like the sparkle,” she said.
*****
For more art in quilting, attend the next regional event during the
first Bridge of the Gods club show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 15 and
16 in the Cascade Locks city hall gym. The show honors Cascade Locks
quilters Lois Williams and Florence Parduhn.
There will be a $1 entrance fee. For more information call organizer
Darla Davis at 490-9146.
Reporter Sue Ryan admits to having once hand-pieced a nine-patch but
finishing the quilt remains to be done. In the meantime, safety pins
are holding it together. |
