'The possibilities are endless': Marshfield show to highlight quilting guild with 33-year history

MARSHFIELD – From freestyled rainbow patterns specked with rhinestones to fabric re-creations of local homes and spooky images made from different, quirky patterns – these aren't the quilts your grandmother would recognize.

"Anything is acceptable now and it's fun. We have traditional quilters but also artsy quilters and unique techniques that make something much different than your traditional bedspread," Holly Carpenter, a member of the Herring Run Quilters' Guild, said. "We don't listen to the quilting police anymore."

Carpenter is a co-chair of the group's 2022 Quilt Show Committee, which is preparing for an exhibit of hundreds of unique quilts from local makers next weekend at the Boys and Girls Club of Marshfield. The biennial show, which hasn't happened since 2018, will be on display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 24 and 25.

"When you tell people you're having a quilt show, they don't know what to expect," Rosemarie Gentile, another co-chair, said. "It's modern, we have fabric art, it's most likely different than anything you've seen before."

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Of the roughly 200 pieces that will be on display, a dozen will be within the 2022 challenge theme of "Everybody interprets a rainbow differently." There will also be pieces that fit into the 2020 challenge – that year's show was canceled due to the pandemic – which asked quilters to incorporate 20 random items into their piece, including a button, a piece of lace and something orange.

"There are a lot of ways of approaching (the challenges), depending on your skill level," Gentile, of Scituate, said.

The event will include refreshments, a silent auction and raffle prizes, including a blue-and-white traditional-style quilt made as a group effort by several members. There will also be craft-related vendors, including Anthony Ferranti, who will be cleaning sewing machines during both days of the show for $145.

This year's featured quilter,  event co-chair Nancy Robinson, has earned a place of honor in the show. She will display several full-sized quilts and wall hangings, including a rainbow peacock and an intricate quilt covered in woodland creatures.

When asked how Robinson earned the spot as this year's star quilter, her friend had an easy answer: "Because she's wicked awesome," Carpenter, of Marshfield, said.

33 years of community quilting

The Herring Run Quilters' Guild held its first meeting in 1989 with 30 or so original members.

Today, the club enjoys a membership of roughly 150 and meets monthly except summers. The regular events include a business meeting, a show-and-tell period and usually a featured speaker or a class teaching a specific technique.

For the last 30 years, members have participated in making "comfort quilts" for those in need, as well as Quilts of Valor for veterans. Some, like Robinson, also meet more regularly in small groups.

"It is solitary, or it can be, but there's nothing more special to me than sitting around sewing with other women," she said.

In addition to the monthly meetings, the guild does a yearly retreat and takes over the conference room of a hotel for sewing as a group and taking classes. Members come from as far away as Medway and the Cape.

"It's very inclusive," Carpenter said. "You just appreciate the fact that people want to do it and want to have fun. We have people who are totally awesome and people who just started."

"You always feel totally comfortable showing your work," Gentile added.

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'The possibilities are endless'

The popularity of traditional-looking quilts with basic squares or other simple geometric patterns isn't what it once was, the members admit, but quilting as a verb still has a wide draw. It's less giant blankets and more unique wall hangings, colorful pieces and artworks. The types of products made by guild members range widely, Carpenter said.

Among them, the three co-chairs have roughly 40 years of membership in the guild.

"The quilts have gotten much more sophisticated," Robinson, of Scituate, said. "We welcome people of all ages and abilities and skill levels, and we don't want to intimidate anyone, but there are some really good quilters in the guild."

The show-and-tell portion of monthly meetings, where members can show off their most recently completed work or ask for advice on a quilt-in-progress, is what brings the group most together, its members said.

"It's very inspirational to see other people's work. Someone will say, 'Wait, don't put that away, I want to see what you've done with that,' " Carpenter, who teaches quilting at the Marshfield Senior Center, said. "Everybody thinks, 'Well, it's quilts, it's for the bed,' but the things people do are amazing. The possibilities of modern quilting are endless."

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Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com. 

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Herring Run Quilters' Guild to host Marshfield quilt show Sept. 24, 25