QUILTING IS ARTWORK

By ESTHER NUNLEY

Original Publish Date: October 21, 2022

The Heritage Quilt Guild members have outdone themselves with a fabulous quilt show at the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum with the quilts comprised of many different themes, detailed workmanship, various fabric choices and design. The show is entitled Celebrating 40 years of History to celebrate the 40-year anniversary of the Museum and will continue through the month of October.

Museum members tour free while non-members pay a $5 entrance fee. Seniors (over 60) and students are discounted to $3. The event is sponsored by Denso Manufacturing, the Tennessee Arts Commission, McMinn County and the City of Athens. This show is well worth visiting. While you enjoy the show, you can also be your own judge by voting for a quilt in the Viewer’s Choice category.

Lena Beth Reynolds was this year’s certified judge and has judged other shows in the past. She served as president of the Quilt Guild some 27 years ago but has not been an active member of the Guild for many years. She explains that she is not one to sit down to create a quilt piece. Instead, she took classes and workshops to get an understanding of the harder techniques. She wanted to be able to understand the workmanship. She buys and sells antique quilts, is a certified AQS Appraiser and she also give lectures from time to time.

She found that there was a big variety of artwork, many different techniques, detailed workmanship, different fabrics choices and design. She was impressed and very pleased. She enjoyed judging the show and working with guild members while making her decisions. When judging she looks for the beauty of the quilt, the difficulty involved, how well the piece is made and the absolute quantity of workmanship. She also considers the quilting quality.

Katherine Abbott was surprised that all three quilts she entered into the show won prizes. In fact, she walked away with Best of Show. “I’m already thinking about what I can do next year to top that!” she said.

Abbott is one of the original founders of the Heritage Quilt Guild. She helped start the group in 1990 at the request of Museum Executive Director, Ann Davis. Abbott worked with Andrea Keyes, who has since passed away, and Martha Pendasulo, who has moved out of the area, to organize the Guild. In return, the Museum provides the Quilt Guild with a place to hold meetings and other events at no charge. She encourages anyone who might be interested in quilting to come to a Quilt Guild meeting. They meet the first Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the museum.

She entered her quilt “Drunkard’s Path” into the Large Pieced Bed category and took Best of Show. Some historians say that during abolition days women sewed this pattern to promote the abolition of alcohol using the blue and white theme with white being purity and blue being water—the purest of all beverages. But this is not why Abbott chose the pattern stating, “I liked it and it’s a catchy name.” She explained that she enjoys working with the curved fabric designs and she liked the blue and white color scheme. She quilts to create artwork just like someone who paints. Her “Split Star” in the Small Wall Hanging category took 2nd place while “Undulating Fans” in the Small Bed category received an Honorable Mention.

Judge’s Choice went to a quilt entitled “Antique Floral” in the Applique Category and entered by Jean Wilson on behalf of her grandmother, Mattie Carruth Townsend (b. 1878, d.1934). She was the wife of the former Rev. J. W. Townsend (b. 1870, d. 1952) of the Eastanallee Baptist Church. Wilson believes that the quilt is pre-1930 and is unsure of the specific time period that it was made. It is hand stitched with fabric applique pieces of bright red and green floral. Townsend used a technique called trapunto where extra stuffing is placed through the back, in between the woven threads, and then hand stitched to hold it and to give a puffy appearance. The quilt is made up of blocks of whitework floral and the colorful applique pieces.

Reynolds feels the quilt is well over 100 years old and has the best combination of difficulty of construction and workmanship put into it. “The amount of stitching in this quilt is rare in this day and it is home spun, handwoven, and hand stitched. I really liked the borders and how they helped to frame the quilt,” she said. Calling it innovative for its time she marveled at how the quilter was able to keep the borders straight and square.