A patchwork of creativity returns for 41st year
Apr. 15—Every April for the past 41 years, the Palouse Patchers Quilt Guild has taken over the Latah County Fairgrounds for its annual quilt show.
This year is no different.
For guild president Margaret Donelick, the show, scheduled for today and Sunday, is both a fundraiser and a way to show how quilting has evolved over the decades. The proceeds from the admission and a quilt raffle help the group rent meeting space and pay for fabric purchases for quilts donated to two local organizations, Court Appointed Special Advocates and Quilts of Valor.
The Court Appointed Special Advocate quilts are given to children placed in foster care in Latah and Whitman counties and the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley. The Quilts of Valor are given to veterans.
Donelick said at least one third of the quilts in the show are not bed quilts but for artistic expression.
"Quilting really took off in the U.S. due to the (1976) bicentennial celebration," Donelick said.
The International Quilt Museum at the University of Nebraska reported a 2010 study from the Creative Crafts Group that quilting was done by more than 21.3 million people older than 18 in the United States. The modern interest in quilting, according to the museum's website, stems from the 1970s with an exhibit in the Whitney Museum of American Art and an article in Life magazine.
The museum defines a quilt as three layers of fabric: a top layer which is the decorative part of the quilt; the batting, which provides the warmth; and the backing which can be plain or decorated. For more information on the history of quilting visit worldquilts.quiltstudy.org/.
This year's show includes a raffle to win the "Fassett's Facets" quilt, made by guild members throughout the year.
The quilt is made from fabrics members collected from a monthly subscription box to Kaffe Fassett, a knitwear and fabrics designer. The fabrics are bright and vivid, Donelick said, and the quilt was a pool of members' stashes.
The diamonds on the quilt, Donelick said, are cut on the bias, which can lead to them stretching out and being hard to keep lined up. Cutting on the bias means to cut on the grain of a fabric. Members start working on the raffle quilt in the fall and generally take months to complete it, even with machines to assist in the sewing.
"Not only is it bright and beautiful, it is also a very difficult quilt to make because of the diamonds," Donelick said.
The show is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at the fairgrounds, at 1021 Harold St., Moscow. The show will feature more than 200 quilts made by the guild and other community members. Local vendors will join shops from around the Northwest.
Admission is $5 for the general public and $3 for seniors and children younger than 10. Raffle tickets are $1 and the drawing will be Sunday.
Nelson can be reached at knelson@dnews.com.
