{"id":20556,"date":"2016-03-07T09:01:11","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T17:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/ketchikan-quilters-guild-celebrates-25th-show\/"},"modified":"2016-03-07T09:01:11","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T17:01:11","slug":"ketchikan-quilters-guild-celebrates-25th-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/ketchikan-quilters-guild-celebrates-25th-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Ketchikan quilters guild celebrates 25th show"},"content":{"rendered":"

KETCHIKAN \u2014<\/strong> Two dozen quilts add quite a bit of height to a bed, and 25 quilts make it hip-high. Rainy Day Quilters Guild member Mary Castle stood with her hand on the thick stack of quilts during a traditional \u201cbed turning\u201d event at the local quilters guild\u2019s annual Quilting in the Rain quilt show on Feb. 13 at the Ted Ferry Civic Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause this is the 25th show, we decided that we wanted to go for 25 quilts of various (kinds), like the first quilt that they made or the best one or the last one or their favorite one \u2014 just whatever category that they wanted so you could see what had happened over the years to the quilters who first started here,\u201d Castle said.<\/p>\n

In a bed turning, an emcee tells the story of a quilt that is displayed on the bed before helpers carefully fold it and put it aside. Quilts included in this year\u2019s bed turning ranged from the guild\u2019s first raffle quilt to the quilt with the \u201caward for winning the most awards\u201d in the show\u2019s 25-year history.<\/p>\n

The goal of the ceremony was to show growth and appreciate technical skills, and Castle said she had to do some convincing to include original pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis quilt is Valerie Sandusky\u2019s \u2014 right there,\u201d Castle said, pointing to Sandusky, who was a folding assistant in the bed turning ceremony. \u201cI had to talk her into it many times. She did not want to put this in, and I said, \u2018You\u2019re going to put this in.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The quilt on display was the first one that Sandusky made. The brown quilt with a quarter-square triangle pattern \u2014 in which four triangles make a square, and squares are sewn together to make a grid \u2014 is more than 30 years old and has obviously seen a lot of love and use.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used this quilt regularly for many years until it started falling apart,\u201d Castle said, reading a statement from Sandusky. \u201cIt\u2019s been hidden away for 25 years now. It\u2019s not square, seams have pulled out, holes have mysteriously developed, the flannel backing has furballs, and it\u2019s worn thin, but we love this old quilt to death \u2014 literally. Although I have made quilts that are sewn and pieced better and that have more interesting colors and patterns … none have been used and loved as much as my first.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rainy Day Quilters displayed more than 100 quilts from 50 artists throughout the two-day show. Peggy Gelbrich, a founding member of the guild who now lives in Oregon and is a professional quilt maker and teacher, said the show has changed since it began in 1991. The guild itself was established in 1987.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very first show was in the (First) Lutheran Church gym,\u201d Gelbrich said. \u201cWe had no hanging racks like we do today. We strung cord rope from basket to basket in the gym and hung quilts from those. We stacked up three tables, folding tables, like a teepee, and we\u2019d hang the quilts on each side of those, which was probably kind of treacherous, but that\u2019s what we did. It was just fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t remember how many years we were at the Lutheran church,\u201d she added, \u201cand then we went to Holy Name (Catholic Church), and it was there for a long time, and then it went to (The Plaza) mall, and then it came here. This is the first time I\u2019ve been since it\u2019s been here (at the Ted Ferry Civic Center). … It\u2019s very professional looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gelbrich said though she moved from Ketchikan about 14 years ago, she still gets the chance to return to the First City to teach quilting classes for the guild. But attending Quilting in the Rain gives her the chance to see what she knew as quilts in progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s fun for me is to come here and see all the quilts (from) the classes that I taught \u2014 to see the finished quilts,\u201d Gelbrich said. \u201cWhen I teach a quilting class, I see a lot of quilt beginnings as they start, but I don\u2019t see a lot of quilt endings. I always ask people to send me their pictures when they finish their quilts, but I don\u2019t always see that, so it\u2019s fun to come and see the quilts that are done.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were two unfinished quilts at the show, but that was intentional, according to guild member Cathy Tillotson, who heads the guild\u2019s community service committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis quilt right here is a special quilt, because it\u2019s going to go to somebody who loses all their stuff in a fire,\u201d Tillotson said, pointing to a quilt that show-goers were helping tie on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Each year, the guild as a group makes a number of quilts and other pieces for community organizations, including \u201cfire quilts\u201d for victims of house or wild fires, clothing protectors for Ketchikan Pioneer Home residents, and pillow cases for local women\u2019s and children\u2019s shelter, Women In Safe Homes, according to Tillotson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese pillowcases we give to WISH, to kids and, I assume, adults who don\u2019t have anything,\u201d Tillotson said, pointing out a display of pillowcases. \u201cWhen we chose them as a project, we chose it because if you\u2019re a kid taken from your home or you have to leave in a hurry, maybe you can\u2019t have any way of putting your stuff together, so if it\u2019s not used for a pillow, it\u2019s used as a stuff bag. We thought it was important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tillotson said the value of a quilted item isn\u2019t always in its function.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the maker, you\u2019re thinking about somebody, and you\u2019re wrapping your thoughts into that (piece), and that\u2019s important,\u201d Tillotson said. \u201cIs a fleece blanket more comfy? Often. Is a down comforter cooler? Maybe. Do they look homey? No. A home needs quilts. They don\u2019t look right without quilts in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quilting also can be therapeutic, Tillotson said, helping quilters through grief or winter blues. But Gelbrich said the reward often comes when the quilt is out of the maker\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiving a quilt to somebody who doesn\u2019t expect it is \u2014 I gave one to my brother-in-law one time and I didn\u2019t wrap it, I just took it to their house, and he said, \u2018I didn\u2019t have a baby, I didn\u2019t get married.\u2019 My brother-in-law\u2019s kind of a tough guy, but you could see he was a little bit teary about that,\u201d Gelbrich said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to give \u2014 it feels really good to give quilts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandusky agreed, saying that once you start quilting, it\u2019s hard to stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a passion. You just need to keep making them and start gifting them,\u201d Sandusky said. \u201cWe\u2019re never going to get rich off of making quilts. We do it because we love what we do. We give most of our quilts away out of love for other people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KETCHIKAN \u2014 Two dozen quilts add quite a bit of height to a bed, and 25 quilts make it hip-high. Rainy Day Quilters Guild member Mary Castle stood with her hand on the thick stack of quilts during a traditional \u201cbed turning\u201d event at the local quilters guild\u2019s annual Quilting in the Rain quilt show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":20557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-20556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20556"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=20556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}