ARTS & EDUCATION
Meet Me at the
Quilt Show! written & photographed by SHERIL BENNETT TURNER
T
he Landrum Quilters began in 1979 when renowned quilter Georgia Bonesteel, along with local Landrum Librarian Ruth Farrar, gathered a group of interested ladies together to learn the art of quilting. Ruth remembers how it all started. A friend of mine came to the desk one day and said, “I have just come from a quilting place in Tryon, and Georgia Bonesteel is teaching there. Would you please ask her if she would teach here?” So I called her and said “Georgia, there’s some ladies here that want you to come and teach some quilting classes.” And she said, “I’d be glad to.” We quilted at the library here in Landrum through the Friends of the Library and called it the Landrum Library Quilt Club at the time. We started out with maybe 20 or 30 members, and have grown to over 150 today. I counted recently and throughout the years, Georgia has taught over 400 people through the Landrum Quilters. Every two years, the Landrum Quilters put on one of the best quilt shows in this area. A three-day event, the show includes demonstrations, vendor displays, a boutique filled with quilt-inspired gifts, and hundreds of marvelous quilts on display, with favorites chosen by viewer vote and awarded ribbons on the final day. I caught up with some of the talented ladies on the final day of the show to learn a little more about their experiences as quilters.
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ARTS & EDUCATION
Donna Sutton
From the moment Donna first entered a small quilt shop in Chagrin Falls, Ohio over twenty years ago, she was hooked on quilting. Although she had never even sewn before, Donna was intrigued with the beautiful quilts, and so began a lifelong love affair with the craft. Donna has completed over 100 quilts and usually you can find her working on three or four quilts at a time. At this year’s quilt show, Donna entered four quilts, three of which won awards. She also gleaned the top award “Best of Show” for her intricate hand quilted, hand appliquéd wall hanging entitled Hugs & Kisses. “This quilt took me a year to make. My inspiration was the eagle and the color yellow,” Donna explains. Donna’s quilt also won five Vendor’s Choice Awards, and First Place in the Large Wall Quilt category.
Connie Wells
Connie kept the quilt that her great-grandmother had started in her closet for thirty years, waiting until her stitches were good enough to complete it. Appropriately entitled “Finally Done – Boston Commons”, this quilt holds a special place in Connie’s heart, even if she didn’t take home any ribbons for it. She did, however, receive a First Place ribbon in the Bed Quilts - Hand Quilted category with her “Feedsack Leaves” quilt. Self-taught, Connie has a penchant for fabrics from the 1930s and 1940s, as well as for old patterns. “I’m going to the Marie Webster house next month up in Indiana. She was in her 50s when she started quilting and her first quilting page was in the Ladies Home Journal on January 1, 1911. She was a real pioneer.”
Karla Glova
Karla remembers visiting her grandmother in Florida when she was just a little girl. “She lived in a little trailer with no air conditioning and there was nothing to do, but we’d sit side by side and piece quilts.” But it wasn’t until years later when Karla had two small children, that her own mother got her involved in quilting. “I was really busy with the kids. Mama lived about an hour away at the time and she’d come to my home with the patterns and the fabrics and the ideas. She really taught me how to quilt.” Her small wall quilt entitled “I Remember Mama”, a tribute to her beloved mother, won a First Place ribbon and a Vendor’s Choice award.
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FEATURE
Jeannie Smith
Jeannie never knew her Newfoundland great-grandmother who passed away in 1932. But 48 years ago, she received a quilt that her greatgrandmother had started—handstitched squares made from vintage fabric, some from clothes dated prior to the 1900s. Jeannie, who didn’t quilt at the time, stuffed the half-finished priceless quilt in a plastic bag, and carried it everywhere she moved—from Maryland to Massachusetts to New Jersey to Georgia. Finally, one day as she was driving down the road she saw a sign that read, “Ladies Quilt Guild – All Welcome – Tuesdays 9am.” She stopped, and the rest is history. Entitled “Grandma’s Squares”, the now completed quilt holds a place of honor in Jeannie’s home. “I sleep under it,” she smiles, “because I believe quilts are made to be used.”
Polly Duncan
After retiring from teaching in 1987, Polly says she “got hooked on that little ole’ rotary cutter that someone showed me how to use” and joined the Landrum Quilters. “My father,” Polly says, “was a traveling salesman who sold dry goods. He had these sample books with all these little swatches of fabric in them, and when they were discontinued, he’d throw them out. I still have a little quilt that I made out of those samples.” Today, Polly is still going strong on her rotary cutter, as evidenced by her fun butterfly-inspired quilt entitled “Don’t Strip Us In. “I thoroughly love the idea of cutting stuff up and putting it back together. It’s just fun!”
Amber Singleton
During the summer months, 16-yearold Amber works on quilts with her grandmother (Donna Sutton) twice a week. “I do the cutting and Amber does the sewing. I don’t want her to lose any fingers on the rotary cutter,” laughs Donna. Amber entered her quilt “Purple Wonder” in the show this year and won First Place in the Lap Quilt division. “The embroidery was my favorite part,” Amber says.
Linda Bennett
Always the artsy person, Linda first started quilting after attending a meeting of the Cobblestone Quilters in her home town of Charleston, South Carolina. “I found that I liked the girls and was interested in what they were doing, so I said this is for me,” Linda remembers. Later, after moving to Greer, Linda met some girls who were quilting at the Gowensville Community Center with the Landrum Quilters and she decided to check it out. “I just fell in love with the ladies and the guild—plus all the help that I got!” Linda entered her first large quilt in the show this year, a long arm quilted bed quilt entitled “Variable Stars”. She received rave reviews, especially from her family, who continue to be amazed and inspired by her creativity, talent, and focused energy.
Each year, members of the Landrum Quilters make and donate more than 100 quilts in support of two charities, The Ronald McDonald House in Greenville, and Steps of Hope, a shelter for victims of domestic violence located in Columbus, NC. For more information on the Landrum Quilters, please visit www.landrumquilters.com. GreerNow JULY/AUGUST 2009
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