TRIBUTE TO FRIENDSHIP:

QUILTING ROUND ROBIN


showcasing about 50 quilts
created in eight-state quilting round robins

Through Feb. 24, 2010
    

    Patrons will feel they are walking into a sunset when they view the quilts in the exhibit “Tribute to Friendship: Quilting Round Robin” at the Brigham City Museum-Gallery Dec. 23 through Feb. 24.  About 50 quilts in infinite colors have been fashioned by 100 women in eight-state round robins.  
    
    Artists in Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming were involved in the group project.  Some are members of the Utah Quilt Guild Round Robin, and others belong to local quilting chapters.  The pieces are owned by Kaye Evans of Ogden.  
    
    Evans selected the theme and the fabric for all the quilts.  A quilter works about a month on her portion (block) of the quilt.  It usually takes nine months to complete one round robin.  All of Evans’ quilts were returned as blocks, and she assembled, quilted, bound, added embellishments as needed and labeled them.  She says, “What fun when you open the mail each month to see what surprises are inside.”
    
    Clowns, monkeys, tigers, horses and a ring master perform under the “big top” in Evans’ lavishly colored “Circus, Circus” quilt.   Twelve members of the Roy Pioneer Quilters contributed the blocks for the creation which was quilted by Patsy Shelton of Pleasant View.  There are also signature star blocks in the quilt as Evans was president of the group, and these blocks were a thank you for her service.  

    “San Blas Island Memories” is defined by a cloth parrot with multi-colored plumage surrounded by sumptuous fabrics purchased by Evans during a vacation on the San Blas Islands in 2003.  The Panamanian islands are home to the Kuna Indians.  In earlier times, the Indians wore few clothes, yet decorated their bodies with bright-hued designs.  When encouraged to wear clothes by missionaries, the Indians transferred their colorful designs to fabric panels called molas, which are worn as clothing.  Sue McCarty of Roy quilted the piece.

    Approximately 35 quilters shared in the creative process of “The Many Worlds of Sue.” They fabricated a Sue rowing a sampan in the middle of the Lee River in China, shouting a command to a dog sled team in Alaska and sunning on the beach in front of a grass shack in Hawaii.  One Sue is depicted in her own quilt store.  Evans asked each artist to include a mailbox or similar item in their block with their name on it.  This composition, which was quilted by Ranae Haddadin of Sandy, consists of jewel-tone material on a black background.  Evans recalls “The Many Worlds of Sue” was the most challenging to put together because she had to work with 5-inch by 25-inch rows.

    When Evans sent instructions for a snowman quilt, most of the round robin group did not return blocks with gigantic snowballs piled on top of each other.  The responses included a snow mummy wrapped in torn muslin, a snowman putting a head on a little boy and another lounging on a beach drinking lemonade.  Luminous green and orange colors harmonize with shades of blue in “It’s a Snowman’s World.”  It was hand-quilted by members of the McKay Hospital Volunteers.   

    Evans is captivated by Cara Koolmees’ bold, saturated tones in her watercolor paintings of Ogden’s 25th Street and asked the artist, who resides in Ogden, if she could interpret one of  her images in fabric.  Evans was given permission, and she and six friends conceived “Contemporary Ogden’s Past,” which was assembled by Evans and also quilted by McCarty.  

    In “Friendships Verdant Arbor,” Evans asked three different groups to construct a tree using leaves she designed.  This piece was hand-quilted by the McKay Hospital Volunteers.

    There is a lot of emotional involvement in “There I’ve Said It Again” adorned with memorable sayings written on muslin.  Evans’ daughter Tami Schwab appliqued “I met him, I liked him, I liked him, I loved him, I loved him, I let him, I let him, I lost him” during a courtship.  Evans’ niece Amy Richards, who had two preschoolers at the time, sewed “Did you flush the toilet?”  The work was hand-quilted by the McKay Hospital Volunteers.

    The years of quilting in round robins also produced “A Flower Grows in Brooklyn,” “Duck with Lips,” “Evening Comes to Buttontree Lane,” “Boo to You, Too,” “Lost Socks,” “My Mountain Kinfolk” and “Fractured Hearts and Broken Dreams.”  This quilt honors the men and women who lost their lives during the terrorist attacks in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

    Evans encouraged all the quilters in the round robins to keep a journal.  She learned they have similar frustrations, struggles and joys.  One woman did not know how to paper-piece a snowflake, but she learned.  (You use a printed paper pattern and sew your fabric on the backside of the paper so points and sizes are accurate.)  Another designed her block while her son was seriously ill, while others quilted during the births of grandchildren.  Evans states, “What I’ve enjoyed the most in the round robins is meeting women who share the same passion for quilting that I do.  We are united by needle and thread.”

    Born in Colorado, Evans was raised in a number of states and countries as her father was career Air Force.  She’s a graduate of Ogden’s St. Benedict’s School of Nursing, now Ogden Regional Medical Center, and worked many years as a charge nurse in the operating room at the McKay-Dee Hospital.

    In the 1970s, Evans created her first quilts with calico, notably a bright yellow and purple Double Irish Chain.  She has been quilting full-time since 1992 and has entered quilts in numerous competitions.  In 2009, she won Best Use of Color at the Springville Quilt Show and First Place for Best Piecing at Quilting in the Tetons in Jackson, Wyoming.  

    Evans has taught quilting classes in Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.  In demand are classes about design, borders and bindings, improvisational piecing, scrap quilts, “curved flying geese” and piecing odd-size blocks together.  In February, Evans is conducting the seminars “And a Chain Runs Through It” and “Curved Geese” at a Bryce Canyon Retreat.

    “Tribute to Friendship: Quilting Round Robin” will hang in the museum Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m.  The facility is located at 24 North 300 West.  Admission is free.  For further information, please call (435) 723-6769.

***Article written by Mary Alice Hobbs