The quilts ranged in size and concept. Some were Christmas-themed, some depicted images and some featured intricate geometric shapes and patterns. The guild offered a “People’s Choice” box where visitors could vote on the quilt he or she liked the most.
The show also featured a raffle, vendors from different quilting shops and a gift shop with items made by guild members.
Pat Surra, one of the co-chairs of the Quilt Show and the guild’s treasurer, said the show aimed to educate the community to the art form of quilting.
“I think one thing I’m really excited about is to get the community to understand a little better about what goes into the whole process of quilting and that we aren’t just little grandmothers sitting around, that it is an art form,” Surra said.
The guild started 30 years ago with a membership of fewer than 12 people and now has 200 members, each with their own unique style of quilting and reason for quilting.
Kathy Kessler, the other co-chair of the Quilt Show, said she first fell in love with quilting when an employee accompanied her to a local quilt shop.
“I bought my first pattern and some fabric and made my first quilt in a matter of days,” Kessler said. “I turned around and made the same pattern with completely different fabric, and I got hooked.”
Surra said she got into quilting because her daughter took up the art. Surra enjoys working with very small pieces of fabric and puzzling them together.
“I loved the mathematics and engineering of it because of my left brain,” Surra said.
Like Surra, guild member Donna Molzon also got involved in quilting because of her daughter.
“I thought, ‘If she can do it, then so can I,’” ?Molzon said.
In the small descriptions next to the quilts on display, many said the quilts had been made for or in dedication to family members.
“It’s nice to give them away to people and see their reaction,” Molzon said.
Meeting the first Tuesday of every month between September and June, the guild comes together to discuss business, have a show and tell and listen to guest ?speakers.
Aside from making quilts for gifts and personal use, the guild also makes more than 300 quilts a year to donate to different local and national organizations, many of which were on display at the Quilt Show before being donated to places such as IU Health Bloomington Hospital, Middle Way House, Habitat for Humanity and the ?Red Cross.
“Quilts are a way for us to make something that hugs people,” Surra said. “Sometimes we don’t ever see the people it hugs.”
