Without a doubt the 18 members of the Rumplestiltskein Fibre Arts Guild have the best-dressed beds in the Boundary. These 18 individuals along with local Women’s Institute groups and five or six other quilting friends contributed some 216 articles for the 2015 Traditional 2 Trending Quilt show.
The judges recognized four categories. The award winning quilts were:
Why? X3 submitted by Judy Harpur – Award: Innovative.
Oh Give Me a Home submitted by Bernie Bradford, Kelowna – Award: Applique
Modern Squared submitted by Miriam March – Award: Modern Quilt
The Queen and Her Court submitted by Loretta Jurome – Award: Traditional
From Despair to Delight submitted by Gail Matheson took the Viewer’s Choice Award. “If you have a choice between good luck or good sense, this project demonstrates that good luck wins every time,” read the note attached to the quilt.
“With no previous quilting experience, I signed up for a workshop to make a mandala quilt,” Matheson wrote. “I purchased the book (Sheila Finkelstein’s Magic Quilted Mandalas) the special ruler, a large mat, a rotary cutter and fabric. I managed to cut out the pieces for the wheel and sewed half of them into a semicircle. The project then lay in a vegetative state for over 10 years, sometimes thought about but mostly lurking in despair.
“A year ago I decided that something had to be done. There was too much invested to let it go. By that time I had been amongst the quilters long enough to know the mandala project was still beyond me. So I asked my good friend and neighbour Judy Harpur, a masterful quilter and artist, if she would tackle the project and complete the quilt. She agreed and a heap of fabric became a delight.” Miriam March, Whispering Pines Quilt Studio did the machine quilting.
The Kettle Valley Railway – Steel Bridge Triptych took the show Pictoral Award. The panels were by Lynn Wickens, Diana Bartelings and Lynda Dennill; the original photo was taken by Lynda Dennill of Rock Creek.
Other triptych panel projects were the Mount Baldy Triptych with panels by Bonnie Edstrom, Debbie Thomas and Miriam March with the original photo taken by Vivian Browne of Rock Creek; the Lawless House Triptych by Liesje Gough, Marjorie Thomas and Louise Bayles with the original photo taken by Liz Bryan of Rock Creek; and the Midway CPR Station Triptych shown in the picture accompanying this article.
Both Saturday and Sunday featured demonstrations by guild members: Bonnie Edstrom – machine felting, Ann Neufeld – fabric pottery, Miriam March – the modern quilt and Judy Harpur – rug hooking. Plus Alison Winstanley, Grace Hart and Jackie Austinson were hand quilting throughout both days.
Rumplestiltskein Fibre Arts Guild meets twice a month. For more information, contact Lynda Dennill at 250-446-2431.
The Boundary C 4-H sewing program also had a display of record books and an explanation of the program that see young members learn not only fabric arts, but public speaking and modeling.
In the board room of the pavilion the Kettle River Artists hung works in oil, acrylic and watercolour by more than 10 of their members. It made for a quiet place to enjoy lunch and some lovely landscapes and wildlife paintings as well. The room appears well suited for such a display as one wall is covered with windows from edge to edge. You can see work by these artists on display at Kettle River Woodcraft in downtown Rock Creek.
The show was one of the best deals in the Southern Interior last weekend, only $5 to get in.