The stitches that bind
Rose City Quilters celebrate their art at exhibition
Hanging on the wall in Anne Adams’ lounge is a quilt full of her favourite sayings. “Just do it.” “Take life one stitch at a time.” “Creativity takes time.”
Those ones seem particularly relevant to why Adams has invited the Manawatu¯ Guardian into her Palmerston North home.
She is the convener of Celebration of Quilts on Saturday and Sunday. Organised by Rose City Quilters, the event is held every two years.
Adams says when her children were little, quilting was one thing she had power over; the choice of fabric and design was totally hers.
“It was my creative outlet.” Lee Matthews’ ability with needle and thread started early.
When she was about 4, she decided her teddy bear needed a jacket.
It was too small because she hadn’t taken into account that the bear was three-dimensional.
“I was a girl in a hurry, my teddy needed this little thing.”
Matthews was so proud of the jacket she showed it to her grandmother’s neighbour, who dug out scraps of fabric, and she was off.
She has loved fabric and making ever since.
Quilt making is creative and meditative.
“Quilting is much, much more than chopping up bits of fabric and sewing them back together. It’s colour and design and imagination, and it involves learning masses of amazing new sewing skills.”
Matthews says if you can thread a needle you can learn to quilt.
She has discovered quilters are everywhere — suddenly you part of a big international community.
The first thing she does when she goes to a new place is head to the quilt shop.
“It’s a big sisterhood.”
There are murmurs of agreement from the other quilters in the room.
President Kay Booth shared her quilting journey with the paper two years ago.
She says the creative spirit is inside all of us — even if don’t know it — and quilting is a really good outlet for it.
When Dot Hopcroft was in Standard Three (now Year 5) she had to hand-make a skirt and a challenging choirboy blouse.
She went on to make all her children’s clothes and for other children. She also used to make little house treasure boxes that were popular with her daughter’s friends.
Hopcroft likes designing and putting colours together. One day she thought she might do some quilting,
and has been a member of the club since 1981. She is the convener of community quilts.
Rose City Quilters donates quilts to community groups and individuals and Hopcroft makes all backs.
Dianne Southey is a life member and has been quilting for 40-something years.
Her parents had a Bernina shop in Matamata when she was small. Her mother always sewed and her father was there to repair the sewing machine and demonstrate its features.
In the mid-1990s, Southey went to a Jennie Anderson beginner class and has quilted ever since.
Anderson started Rose City Quilters in 1981 and it now has 156 members.
Southey used to have a quilting shop at Hokowhitu Village. She says it has been a wonderful life being involved with fabric and producing quilts. Quilters are generous and friendly.
For about a month this year, her studio was used as a sewing room as members made quilts for people affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. They also made cushions for flooded school libraries, book bags, library bags, jerseys, singlets and hats.
The items are both practical and a reminder to flooding victims that people are thinking about them.
Rose City Quilters donated about 420 quilts to Hawke’s Bay and Taira¯whiti. Given each quilt takes a minimum of 20 hours, it has been a mammoth effort.
Some quilts take much longer. Some become referred to by altered acronyms: UFO — unfinished object; PhD — project half done; WWIT — what was I thinking.
All the quilts on display at the celebration will be finished. Back to Anne Adams, who encourages everyone to come along to the celebration for a feast of colour and design.
It is a members’ exhibition and will be judged by Chris Kenna, of Wellington. More than 110 quilts and 17 challenges have been entered.
There will be traditional and modern
quilts to appeal to all ages. “People will leave with a smile on their face.”
Some of the stories behind the quilts are heart-warming, some comment on climate change and sustainability. The club hopes people will be so inspired by the quilts on display they will join. There will be three merchants on site, demonstrations and a cafe.