Respect Your Gift

“Respect your gift. Not everyone can or wants to make a quilt. If your gift is to do so, then by  all means make quilts.” Betty White in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine, Aug/Sept 2013

I’ve found my “creative home” in quiltmaking! Pleasure, joy and satisfaction in playing with fabric is how I experience piecing and quilting. To share that knowledge with those who are likewise interested pleases me.

I’ve often commented that the library has stored my favorite quilts books for me! Since I started quilting in 1994, the Fayetteville Public Library has moved to a larger (and greener) building Perhaps that move happened because of my prolific interest in reading about quilts and quilters! What do you think? Of course I am joking, but using library facilities is a wise use of resources. Every book that graces those shelves is one less book I have to store! And some of those quilt books are heavy. Sharing books and other materials creates community resource centers rather than private holdings. My mother, Marie, introduced all four of her children to our local Miami Springs, FL library at an early age. I figure I’ve been climbing library steps every month of my life–at first in my mother’s arms.

I volunteered to do a series of quilt programs as part of the Fayetteville Public Library’s “Explore Your Senses Series” this summer. On Tuesday, May 27, with help from librarian Nancy Hartney, we hung twenty-four quilts in the second floor reading room with its brilliant daylight lighting. I chose a range of quilts: vintage, time span, contemporary and modern. The quilts will hang for the entire month of June. Over the front desk is a vibrant Amish-style pieced quilt. We named this quilt “Joint Custody” because Valerie Doiel hand quilted it after I discovered it as an abandoned quilt top rolled and taped up at a local charity thrift store. We each added our efforts to the work of the original unknown quilter who had a great “eye for color”.

Please read about the four Wednesday night programs and pick all that interest you. Bring your friends and tell everyone that beginners are welcome.

“Joint Custody” is a Time Span quilt because Paula discovered the unfinished top at a thrift store and Valerie Doiel hand quilted if, making it a group quilt owned jointly by Paula and Valerie. For all of June everyone can enjoy this dramatic quilt hanging at the Fayetteville Library.

Quilt Month in the Ozarks: June, 2014

Antique Quilts: A Visual Feast of Plain & Fancy, June 4 from 6-7:30

Quilts reveal much about their maker and her life. See the vintage quilts and explore the stories contained in the fabric and the stitches. Learn useful information to help you date quilts from1870-1970.

Contemporary Quilts: Building on our Past, June 11 from 6-7:30

Today’s quiltmakers still play with fabric–from feed sacks to batiks to hand dyed fabrics. The many avenues of piecing, appliqué and quilting all offer challenges to anyone intrigued by fabric. We quilters explore this broad range of quilting territory with quilts that range from traditional to political to whimsical to outrageous. Come see what we are sewing today.

Memory & Scrapbook Quilts: Historical Documents, Personal Mementos, June 18 from 6-7:30

View quilts with vivid stories and colorful characters. Memory quilts may contain photo transfer pictures of family and friends, cartoon segments, favorite t-shirts, etc. Scrapbook quilts include souvenirs and artifacts from our lives. Think how your own memories could be translated into fabric.

Sew Your Own Log Cabin Block: Create with needle, thread and fabric scraps, June 25 from 6-7:30

Bring your tools (including a pincushion and scissors), or we will provide equipment and fabric, encouragement and instruction following a short display of log cabin quilts. Beginners welcome.

 About Paula Mariedaughter

Paula is an avid quiltmaker and amateur historian. She has been collecting vintage textiles since the early 1970s and has taught quilting in the area for nineteen years. She has a political science degree from Maryville College located in the mountains of east Tennessee where she first developed her interest in homesteading skills. Her presentations always include props and artifacts from earlier eras as well as her collection of quilts with “personality”. Paula currently teaches quilting classes at Lonesome Pine Quilts located 16 miles southeast of Fayetteville on Highway 16E.