Making a quilt isn
’t what it used to be. For generations, women like Deborah
Slaybers’ great-great grandmother stitched pieces of fabric
together to stay warm and to cover their children’s beds.
Making a quilt isn’t what it used to be. For generations, women like Deborah Slaybers’ great-great grandmother stitched pieces of fabric together to stay warm and to cover their children’s beds.
Picking up a blanket at a local general store wasn’t something families easily could go do back in the mid 1800s and before. Quilting was thought of as something of a necessity that older women could do while sitting in their rocking chairs.
But times change, and quilting has changed with it. What used to be a necessity has become a form of expression, as quilters – now both young and old, and male and female – have started mixng fabric colors and designing artistic quilts much better suited to hang on the wall as art than as a bed covering. Nowadays, for women like Slayers, quilting isn’t just a hobby – it’s art. And one thing is for sure, quilting isn’t just from grannies anymore.
“Taking fabric and painting with it is challenging,” said Slaybers, who is the co-president of Stitch by Stitch Quilting Guild of Morgan Hill. “We look at it more as art than quilt-making.”
Co-president Ann Horner agreed.
“When people think of quilts, they think of little old ladies sewing,” said Horner, who has been quilting for nearly a decade. “They’re more than just bedcovers anymore. These days, you can do much more interesting stuff.”
Horner said that quilt-making had to change from being a basic necessity into something different because buying a blanket is now cheaper than making one.
“I think a lot of things changed in history. It’s not a money saver to do it anymore,” she said. “You can get a good blanket at Kmart. I think the necessity of keeping warm went away.”
So, in the last decade, as the idea of a quilt’s use changed, its popularity jumped significantly. Quilt shows have become quite popular. Most people know about the enormous AIDS quilt that is shown yearly on the White House Lawn to raise awareness and remember loved ones. Nearly every city has a quilt guild. The Stitch by Stitch Quilt Guild has seen a huge increase in size, growing from about 30 members to more than 100 in the last seven years.
“Our group is just now evolving,” Horner said.
The group meets on the third Thursday of the month at the Morgan Hill Presbyterian church at the corner of West Dunne and DeWitt avenues to show off their latest works, to learn new techniques and get ideas for new quilts. The group also makes and donates hundreds of quilts to children’s homes, the pregnancy center, the Linus Project and Community Solutions.
“It really is a creation outlet for people,” Horner said. “And it’s for a good cause.”
The best quilts get entered into quilt shows. One quilt Slaybers entered in a Santa Cruz show in February brought her back two blue ribbons.
The quilt, which was made for a special competition called “A Stitch In Time,” is the story of how quilt-making has changed through time as it passed through generations of Slaybers’ family.
Slaybers, with help from her mother, searched her ancestral lines back and found that the family was quite adept at quilting. She set out to tell their stories. The quilt won a blue ribbon for the competition and also took home a blue ribbon for the Viewer’s Choice Award over the other 350 quilts in the show.
“It was a challenging quilt.” Slaybers said of designing her own quilt. “That was so unexpected. I didn’t even know that they were going to have a Viewer’s Choice Award.”
Slaybers also makes quilt versions of her sister Jylian Gustlin’s art work with some help from her mother.
“She paints modern art, and I am replicating her art in quiltery,” she said. “(My mom and I) made a quilt of 12 of her paintings for her for Christmas. She was crying.”
Slaybers said her sister often sells her paintings, so the quilts will leave a lasting memory of the works. However, Slaybers said creating the pieces can be difficult because she is trying to duplicate her sister’s work instead of creating something of her own.
“Everybody interprets things differently,” she said. “But when I’m doing Jyl’s things, I’m trying to copy it.”
Slaybers has been quilting for about 10 years now, and said she hopes to continue to pass the tradition along to her little girl once she gets old enough.
“I’m passing it on to my daughter I hope, as long as she wants to do it,” Slaybers said.
The Piece by Piece Quilt Guild is planning its first quilt show in Morgan Hill on May 10. The show will be free to the public, and Slaybers said she hopes it will open up a few people’s eyes to what quilting is all about.
“We not really sure what to expect,” she said. “We’re hoping that all the local residents and people from the South Bay can come and see the art.”
For Horner, quilting is more about the camaraderie. Although she has been quilting for more than seven years herself and has many of her own creative quilt designs, she talks more about the people she meets when she talks about quilting.
“Everywhere you go you’ll have friends with quilters,” she said.
Horner said that 10 women from the quilting guild started a new tradition last summer when they went to Slayber’s cabin to work on an intricate flower quilt that takes a long time to make. Since no one in the group had the courage to take on the quilt alone, they all decided to go through the trials and tribulations together.
“We’d stay up until 4 in the morning,” Horner remembered. “Two of us would be in charge of cooking and the others would just sew. Ten of us girls made it, and none of them look the same.”
Horner said that it can take anywhere from 30 hours of work to a whole year to make a quilt, depending on the size and design. However, she was a little more tight-lipped about the cost to make a quilt.
“I think quilters never tell how much it costs,” she said.
However, some quilt-making kits can go for as low as $30 to $40 a piece. But Horner said that once someone gets into quilting, they could spend much more money on buying special fabrics.
“It’s a mad hobby, it’s crazy,” she said. “It’s a compulsive thing, Everywhere we go, I plan to make a stop at the quilt shop there.”
However, quilting lends itself nicely to being creative. Horner has made quilts with flowers, fish, crazy chickens, Christmas designs and even wilder ideas.
“Just about anything you can think of,” she said. “It’s so much fun. Quilting is just so darn exciting.”
For more information about the Stitch by Stitch Quilting Guild, call Noni Gamino at 848-5553.
