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Libby Sigmon sits in front of a quilt she crafted for donation to the Children’s Advocacy & Protection Center of Catawba County.
Dotty Williams holds one of the yo-yos she made as well as the little frame on which she crafts yo-yos.
Gigi Miller holds the modern quilt she created and titled “Dolly Parton’s America.”
Shown are four examples of Dotty Williams’ quilted post cards.
Elle Clemens stitches an antique quilt top to backing. The top and backing are stretched onto a circa 1976 handmade quilt frame.
A section of Debbie Rabin’s modern paper-pieced quilt.
It’s been four years since I stopped by Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hickory on a Thursday morning to watch members of the Catawba Valley Quilters’ Guild in preparation mode for a large-scale quilt show.
Usually, the 130-plus-member group of women and men puts on a show every three years, but COVID-19 pushed the pause button. Now the quilters are a year behind, a fact that’s got the textile artists even more excited about the 2022 show, Stars Over the Valley, Oct. 21 and 22 at the Hickory Metro Convention Center.
An email from show co-chair Gigi Miller reminded me that the quilters' guild was started in 1984 as a nonprofit for the purpose of promoting and perpetuating the art of quilting. The guild is also a service organization.
During COVID-19, explained Gigi, “We supplied the medical community with hundreds of masks and gowns almost immediately, and then we made more for the community. Our current projects include providing preemie quilts for the hospitals, quilts and pillowcases for the Family Guidance Center and the Children’s Advocacy & Protection Center of Catawba County, and Quilts of Valor for men and women currently serving and veterans of the military. To date we have awarded over 550 Quilts of Valor locally.”
On Sept. 29, I saw several quilters at work, many of them finishing small items that will be sold in the Lily Boutique at the exhibition. As had happened when I visited in 2018, I was in awe. It’s not enough to say the guild members are talented. They are mathematicians, designers, and engineers, people with the hands and focus of surgeons. And they’re so unassuming. When asked, they’ll graciously show you what they’re in the process of making, but they’re equally as eager for you to see what their fellow quilters are crafting. Furthermore, they’re always ready to listen to suggestions and try out tips offered by peers.
Give the members needles, thread, and material, and they’ll make something you likely have never considered to be a thing one would quilt. Take for example Dotty Williams’ charming quilted post cards. Send one to a friend, and I guarantee she’ll keep it forever. Or Peggy Poe’s handkerchief angels. Peggy’s been collecting lovely hankies for years. With some well executed twists, pinches, and stitches, she turns them into delicate cherubs.
Mary Bucy, who’s co-chairing the show with Gigi, took me on a quick tour of the room. Catching my eye was a big quilting frame, the kind quilters sit around while hand stitching a quilt top to backing. Mary pointed out that guild members don’t do a lot of hand quilting. Most contemporary quilters use sewing machines. But since the guild had the donated frame and a donated antique quilt top, they were taking turns working on it.
Janice Setzler is the one who brought the frame to the guild. She explained, “It came from the Major’s Shop, which used to be on (Highway) 70. This is a rarity. It was handcrafted by Lynn Newton, circa 1976, at the Major’s Shop.”
As Mary and I moved about the room, she explained that the quilt show was the group’s only fundraiser, with the proceeds used to pay for workshops, including bringing regionally and nationally known quilters to Hickory to give programs. Money raised from the show also buys materials, so the group can make the quilts and various sewed items they donate.
I wandered from Mary a moment to have a look at a quilt draped across a table. Created by Debbie Rabin and described as a modern, paper-pieced quilt, it’s one that will be displayed at the show. I read at www.thequiltshow.com that “paper piecing refers to sewing fabrics to a paper foundation to stabilize the quilt block due to unusual geometric shapes, small pieces or odd angles on a bias.”
Quilters' guild members have entered 280 quilts into this year’s exhibition. A national judge will examine the quilts and award ribbons. The judged quilts, along with more than 20 others, will be displayed at the show. “We compete hard for it,” said Gigi. “We get critiqued, which makes us better.”
Gigi’s “Dolly Parton’s America” quilt will be on display. She described her depiction of the Blue Ridge Mountains as a modern quilt and explained its title by saying she’d listened to the podcast “Dolly Parton’s America” as she worked.
Dotty, the one who made the fabulous quilted post cards, was busy working on fabric yo-yos. No, you don’t wrap strings around them and bounce them up and down. They actually are crafted rosettes that are grouped together to form yo-yo quilts. Dotty described them as embellishments for quilts and said they were “a very old-timey kind of thing.” If you see a yo-yo quilt, you can be sure an enormous amount of time and hand work have gone into the covering’s production. It takes nearly 500 yo-yos to cover one lap-size quilt.
Besides being clever and productive, the guild members are highly organized. The guild has all sorts of folks in charge of things, such as a librarian to oversee the group’s collection of quilting literature and a treasurer to manage the organization’s funds. Libby Sigmon is in charge of public relations. She’s also the person who, on Sept. 29, was working on a colorful quilt that will be donated to the Children’s Advocacy & Protection Center of Catawba County. Some child is going to find a little joy and warmth in Libby’s creation.
In addition to quilts of various sizes, members make quilted pillowcases for the Children’s Advocacy & Protection Center of Catawba County and the Family Guidance Center. The quilters told me that when families have to suddenly leave their homes, they often have nothing in which to stow their belongings. The multi-colored, handmade pillowcases make beautiful as well as sturdy storage containers.
Working on another type of quilt that will be donated was Kathleen Whiddon. She was putting some finishing touches on a Quilt of Valor. You can read about the Quilt of Valor Foundation at www.qovf.org. The guild members, with Amanda Truett in charge, make numerous such quilts per year and host multiple presentations. Dotty, for example, has pieced 58 Quilts of Valor during the past four years. Peggy has put together 25 in one year alone. Twenty will be presented during the quilt show.
Stars Over the Valley is much more than an opportunity for the public to see the guild’s quilts. There will be a silent auction, featuring vintage quilts and a machine; door prizes; a scavenger hunt with prizes; and every half hour, attendees can watch demonstrations by guild members and vendors.
Gigi will instruct interested parties in the art of making T-shirt quilts. Besides offering demonstrations, vendors will be selling all manner of items. As mentioned, the Lily Boutique will be the place to buy handmade articles. In other words, it’s time to begin Christmas shopping.
If people want to do more than just look, they can try their hands at quilting. Gigi said this area of the exhibition will be especially fun for children. And that old quilting frame I told you about? It will be there, and if you’re so inclined, you can sit at it and do some old-fashioned quilting.
Finally, the guild welcomes new members. No quilting skills required. Gigi pointed out that some people who’ve become members were folks who’d never quilted before. One woman, explained Gigi, had never even turned on a sewing machine. She attended the guild’s Quilt of Valor workdays and learned to quilt. “She’s made her first quilt,” said Gigi. “She’s donated it to Quilts of Valor.”
Meetings are at 10 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (547 Sixth St. NW, Hickory). Interested persons can choose which time to attend. Membership fees are $20 annually. The informal “Sit and Sew” is from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Holy Trinity all other Thursdays.
For more information about the Catawba Valley Quilters’ Guild, visit the organization’s website at www.catawbavalleyquiltersguild.com.
Share story ideas with Mary at marycanrobert@charter.net.
Oct. 21, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Oct. 22, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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Libby Sigmon sits in front of a quilt she crafted for donation to the Children’s Advocacy & Protection Center of Catawba County.
Dotty Williams holds one of the yo-yos she made as well as the little frame on which she crafts yo-yos.
Gigi Miller holds the modern quilt she created and titled “Dolly Parton’s America.”
Shown are four examples of Dotty Williams’ quilted post cards.
Elle Clemens stitches an antique quilt top to backing. The top and backing are stretched onto a circa 1976 handmade quilt frame.
A section of Debbie Rabin’s modern paper-pieced quilt.
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