Fabric of Legacies

The Fabric of Legacies started as a juried quilt show 25 years ago to raise funds for Crossroads Safehouse, an organization for victims of domestic violence. The mission was to put on a quilt show, make a raffle quilt and sell tickets to raise money for Safehouse. That first year (1982) the Fabric of Legacies was a small quilt show held in an empty store front in a mall. It raised $11,200. Over the years it has turned into a major fund raiser for the organization and I believe that it raised over $60,000 last year (but I can't substantiate that figure). This quilt show has come a long way from it roots; more on the current show at the bottom of this post.

Here is the quilt I entered, o so many years ago. This is my second or third quilt. I obviously didn't know what I was doing entering a juried quilt show, but I was accepted! The melon pieces were hand stitched by my step-grandmother, Vera. It took me five (5) tries but I got the setting sections drafted to fit. I also hand pieced just like Grandma. She used muslin, I used muslin. I didn't know how to do borders and didn't measure the center so, you guessed it, the borders flutter. See those folk-arty flowers? I cut a stencil and stenciled those flowers on using Plaid Acrylic Paints. Yes, you read that correctly -- I used those little bottles of craft acrylics that cost about 67 cents each. I then used the same stencil as a quilting pattern for the hand quilting. The quilt is now 25 years old, has been washed and dried (by machine) several times, is currently hanging on the wall in my sewing studio and really doesn't look any the worse for wear. Unfortunately, I used a poly bat (gasp!) and it bearded. But my quilting stitches were fairly even and consistent. All in all, it's a good effort for a beginner.

Judges' comments: nice blending of traditional and contemporary. Does that make me maverick?

The Fabric of Legacies quilt show has become an Art Quilt show. It is no longer hung like a quilt show but is installed as art. All quilts are behind plexiglass in a gallery installation. Because I can't show pictures of the current show without contacting the artists, I am going to lead you to the flyer. It is a .pdf file and you will need Adobe Reader to view it. There are some excellent photos in the flyer. Much better than I could ever shoot.