Oaks Festival, Mocksville

You saw Richmond Hill on the cover of our JulyAugust Magazine After extensive and meticulous updating and repair work inside and outside the historic house of one Justice Richmond Mumford Pearson, his house has now reopened to docent guided tours on the following schedule:

Saturday, August 28 - 1:30 to 4:00p

Saturday September 18 - 1:30 to 4:00p

Saturday October 16 - 10:00a to 4:00p for the annual Civil War Day. Planned is an encampment and firing demonstrations. Local musician Stan Clardy will perform twice: 11a and 1:30p. Bring a chair or blanket and stay awhile. Restrooms, picnic tables and shade available at two separate Park shelters. As an indoor/outdoor event we request you use masks and spacing as individually needed and suggested by NC.

to learn more: www.merlefest.org

Mayberry Market

& Souvenirs

182 N. Main Street Downtown Mount Airy 28 different vendors

Mayberry souvenirs • gift items • home decor boutique clothing • jewelry & accessories • pottery jams • ciders & candy • baby boutique • masks handmade soaps & more!

Open Monday - Sunday 10am to 6pm 336-719-2363 • MayberryMarkets.com

Consignment clothing and bargain basement including furniture and household items

Back to School Cool

Backtoschool glasses for all ages!

Transitions and Polarized lenses Flexible Titanium Frames Contact Lenses Frames MadeintheUSA! Gift Certificates Available

We Specialize in Sunglasses

Ask about Zeiss Precision Pure Lenses with Digital Inside technology that optimizes vision for both conventional and digital reading needs.

Bring your prescription to us, because when it’s all said and done, we are the better vision value

Gloria and Rosalee from Gloria Sews

Quilting: Beauty Meets Practicality

WRITER/PHOTOGRAPHER J. Dwaine Phifer

Historians seem to agree quilting, having Egyptian origins, may date back to sometime around 3400 BC. Quilting traditionally translates as three layers of material stitched together. Various historians relate that the idea of quilting was brought back to Europe by the Crusaders sometime around the 12th century. Quilted fabrics gained popularity as garments to be worn under knights' armor. These workaday garments then morphed into the fashionable men's doublet, a type of stylish jacket, favored by European men for a long time. Quilting— as we now know it-—thus emerged as a serviceable, artistic and historic craft that grew and changed over time to fit the needs and whims of artisans. Technology and inventions like the long-arm quilting machine keep quilting contemporary without sacrificing the idea quilted objects are first and foremost useful and beautiful creations with ancient roots.

The North Wilkesboro community is home to many talented and creative quilters. Yadkin Valley Magazine readers may already be aware of two quilt shops in the area through ads in the magazine: Gloria Sews, 303 10th St. (336-8180940) and Sew Blessed Quiltworks, 201 Sparta Rd (336-9020999). See their ads in Yadkin Valley Magazine and website for additional contact information.

Gloria Mastin, owner of Gloria Sews, was excited to talk about her love for all things “quilt.” Due to the downturn of the economy in 2008, Gloria found herself without a job. She approached the situation creatively and decided to pursue her love of quilts and quilting by fulfilling a need in the community. Upon opening her first shop, she was amazed at how much interest and support the Wilkesboro quilting folks provided. She's now located in bustling downtown North Wilkesboro in a beautiful, inviting shop. With the addition of a long-arm quilting machine, she provides an invaluable service for quilters.

Piecing tops is what motivates quilters. The major chore of quilting layers of fabric together efficiently and artistically has become a gift provided by quilting machines. Rosalee Reavis began working with Gloria during high school and now does the long-arm machine quilting. She also teams with Gloria in helping quilters envision how a finished quilted project will look.

Like almost all quilters, Gloria and Rosalee are solidly connected with the widespread quilting community. They attend shows two or three times a year. Gloria gets excited helping beginner quilters get started. Her sage advice to all new to quilting is, “Start small. Quilted place mats or even potholders are perfect. Not every quilted project has to be for a queensize bed,” she chuckles.

Gloria provides an amazing service to both the quilting community and North Wilkesboro at large. Because dedicated quilters enjoy quilting so much, they'll piece one quilt top after another. In many cases the quilters are older folks. When they pass away, the family has to make decisions about the quilter's estate. In one recent situation, a family donated over a hundred beautiful and well-crafted quilt tops that were finished but needed final quilting using the long-arm quilting machine.

Gloria and Rosalee are steadily working through this treasure-trove of quilt tops and producing beautiful bed covers they donate to the Catherine Barber Homeless Shelter and to DSS for distribution to elders in need of warm bedding. Gloria and Rosalee also receive ready-for-quilting tops donated by a very special group of area quilters. These quilters make tops in their spare time and donate them for charitable causes. Their generosity, and Gloria Sews talent, provides creative satisfaction for the quilters and a joy for those needing a warm, comfy bed cover.

Gloria is certainly excited about quilts, about quilting, and

about the delight the quilting community brings to her community. Most importantly, though, quilting is all about her love of color and how colors, worked into patterns, create beautiful designs and tell wonderful stories. Too, she appreciates quilters and what their creativity offers to those who may not feel inclined to pursue quilting. She states, “My favorite thing is helping people make decisions about color, fabrics, and the kind of quilt work they want to do. Quilts should be used and loved!”

Just three miles from the south fork of the Yadkin River on Hwy. 64 near where Davie, Iredell and Rowan counties meet, one can find a bit of the area's long practical and purposeful rural history alive and well. Nestled on the rolling hills of the family's former dairy farm, sisters, Patti Cline and Cindy Page, have established a welcoming spot for quilters and those who appreciate the echos of the past, the expressive artistic value of quilting, and the enduring heirloom potential of quilts.

With Covid creating such upheaval in our lives for so long, we all have had to rethink “life before.” We have had to cope bravely, mindfully and purposefully. We have had to reorganize how we interact with others. Even the art and craft of quilting was affected and redefined. Like the folks at Gloria Sews in North Wilkesboro, the sisters' Quilter's Gallery, a shop filled with fabric and quilting supplies, had to close. Like Gloria, they too had to rethink how they could continue to support the quilting community because workshops and quilt shows were canceled across the state and country.

Throughout the lock-down period, the sisters provided support and encouragement for the quilting community through their Facebook page, www.quiltersgallery.net, and their email Quilter's GalleryNewsletter, quiltersgallery@gmail.com.

The practice of quilting—always a mainstay of practical purpose, utilitarian and artistic value, and a medium through which families passed along history—had to change and reinvent itself once again during 2020.

As spring 2021 arrived, the sisters put on their creative thinking caps.

Their goal was to develop an innovative and very practical way for quilters to once again meet safely and share their love of quilts and quilting. In June, an outdoor “Show and Tell” event was held. Participants sat outdoors, sheltered by a large tent, near a meticulously cared-for vegetable garden. Barn swallows, nesting under the eaves of the quilt shop, swooped and tittered as the parents fed noisy, hungry babies. The sisters' mom, Lorane, welcomed guests and encouraged participants to sip water with floating cucumber slices and herb sprigs while enjoying homemade pound cake. In the distance, large bales of hay created an impression of rhythmic musical notes across the dips and swells of the rolling landscape. A gentle breeze played with the tent's edges and each of the quilts while attendees displayed their work and told their stories. There were large quilts, small quilts, picture story quilts, new quilts, old quilts and quilt tops on the way to becoming a finished quilt. Each presenter shared the connection she had with her quilt—each story as unique and individual as a fingerprint. Although the new quilts were spectacular and had singular stories, the memories and moments attached to the very old, historic quilts elicited mistyeyed appreciation. June's gathering of quilters and those who appreciate quilts certainly underscored how important quilts have been and continue to be for all of us.

Although there are many creative, talented male quilters, at the June Showand-Tell event, this writer, not having a clue how to sew, was saved from being the only male in attendance by Curly and Wilbur, the two resident rescued donkeys. These guys are the quilt shop's goodwill ambassadors and always ready for a snack of carrots and a well-placed head rub from visitors.

With a nod to the arrival of Fall, 2021, Yadkin Valley quilters and friends should mark their calendars for September 17 and 18, 2021, the dates for The Statesville Fall Quilting Marketplace to be held at the Statesville Civic Center. This event provides Yadkin Valley quilters a chance to meet local business folks who celebrate quilting and provide necessary tools and provisions for quilters. Besides meeting other quilters, folks can buy materials and become acquainted with useful supplies and technology. Although this event is not a quilt guild exhibition show, there will be lots of quilts on display. The market event will provide an excellent place to meet other quilters.

For more information and a schedule of upcoming quilting events or workshops, be sure to call or text Cindy at 704-376-2531. Subscribe to the sisters' quilting newsletter for inspiration, upcoming events, and always lots of great photos.

Curly and Wilbur's cuteness factor is always worth a visit to the Quilter's Gallery website.

Alpha & Omega Corn Maze

September open Saturday 10-9, Sunday 12:30-6:30 October - November 13th Wednesday 9-3, Thursday 9-3, Friday 9-9, Saturday 10-9, Sunday 12:30-6:30 See the story on page 104

Brushy Mountain Apple Festival

Saturday, October 2 See page 106

Carolina Classic Fair, Winston-Salem October 1-10 See page 105 Wine Tasting see the story on page 104

Yadkin Arts.org Yadkin Cultural Arts Center 226 E. Main St, Yadkinville 336-679-2941

55th Autumn Leaves Festival

October 8-10 Downtown Mount Airy

Oaks Festival 10-5 Saturday October 9 Free Concert 1:30-8 Downtown Mocksville food trucks, kids corner see page 95 for more details

Different Types of Wine Storage Creates Different Tasting Profiles

WRITERS

John & Carrie Byrd

We use all types of storage vessels here in the Yadkin Valley for fermenting our precious wine. Some of those include stainless steel tanks, cement tanks and the most popular wood barrels. Think of storage vessels as a way to ferment wine and create a unique tasting profile. When a winemaker chooses a certain type of fermenting method they are looking for a result in how the wine tastes after being bottled.

Winemakers are to wine as bakers are to cakes. Different ingredients, different production methods create different flavors and tastes. Winemakers have different yeast to use, different grapes varietals and yes, different storage techniques. The fermentation methods are very important in the wine making process.

Stainless wine storage tanks create a crisp and clean wine and most often associated with white and rose wines. This type of wine fermentation storage is desired when a winemaker is going for a very fruit forward fermentation. Cement storage has been used to create a minerality effect and taste to a wine. Maybe a Vermentino, Pinot Grigio, or similar varietal would be used in this type of storage.

Most popular is, of course. the wood barrels. Wooden barrels are used most often in red wines and some whites like Chardonnay. Different types of oak barrels lend a different tasting profiles to the wine. America, Portugal, Hungary, France all create different flavors to the wine. New barrels versus older—the barrels are toasted to different levels which make a difference in how the wine will taste. Winemakers have all of these methods of storage in their arsenal to ferment their wine and create a unique tasting wine. I would encourage you to visit a local winery and take a tour of the facility. Learn how your Yadkin Valley Wine is made and more importantly the processes used.

To learn more about visiting Yadkin Valley Wineries:

John & Carrie Byrd

Yadkin Valley Wine Tours

yadkinwinetours.com 336-408-3394