Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Pieces Of Lives
Quilters stitch together memories in cloth
Quilting is the ultimate in recycling and reusing, with the bonus of often becoming keepsakes,” says Marti Olesen of the traditional craft she’s pursued throughout her adult life. And she hopes those who see her quilts at the 41st annual Ozark Quilt Fair “get the same joy I do from seeing the beauty that can be created from fabric, especially reused cloth from discarded clothes.”
Olesen, a resident of Ponca in Newton County, says her greatgrandmother, mother and aunt were all avid quilters.
“While Aunt Martha and Great-Grandmother Delilah were meticulous and adhered to traditional patterns religiously, my mother was an artist at heart, using fabric as her canvas,” she remembers. “As a child, I watched her piece quilts with velvets, satins and silks with an intuitive ability to reveal patterns through color and design. Some of her quilts used traditional patterns but unusual fabrics and colors, while others were her unique creations.”
Later, when Olesen was pregnant with her daughter, she made her first quilt for the baby, using “her father’s corduroy bathrobe and appliqued modified Dresden Plate circles from scraps of Laura Ashley fabric I’d saved from a trip to England,” she says. “I left the pockets on for diaper pins and a spare binky, and backed it with material from an old, soft flannel sheet. She used it until it completely wore out.”
But Olesen still shied away from full-size quilts — until now. This Saturday at the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale, she’ll debut her first one.
“I have been collecting fine wale cotton corduroy dresses from thrift stores for many years with such a project in mind. Finally last year I just jumped in, knowing it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be my own creation.”
She knows her efforts will be welcomed with open arms.
“The memories that people share at the Shiloh Quilt Fair as you walk around and chat with the quilters are priceless,” she says. “It could be an oral history
project in itself. I just love being there listening to people’s stories, and talking about the quilts I’ve brought to share, besides the fun of feasting on the incredible variety of patterns and colors hanging from the rows of clotheslines.”
“Quilts and quilt making have a long tradition in the Ozarks,” says Carolyn Reno, collections manager for the Shiloh Museum and quilt fair organizer. “The Ozark Quilt Fair is a way of recognizing the tradition, a tradition that continues through to today’s quilt makers.
“It’s usually on a very pleasant blue-sky September day. The music really adds to the atmosphere, and there’s always a crowd just for that. A couple of our regular entrants — the Barn Ladies, we call them — put up quite the display of quilts in front of our barn, and part of that includes a sewing station where the public can sew quilt pieces together to go into a quilt. There’s lots of visiting that goes on between the public and the entrants and between the entrants themselves. It’s fun to watch that happen.”