Quilting Around The World

Quilts provide comfort for tornado victims

Boxes of fabric, rotary cutters, half-finished quilts, batting and rulers have made their way to Joplin, Mo., from around the world, thanks to one south Charlotte woman's concern about Joplin's quilters after a deadly tornado there. Deb McConaghy, publicist for the Charlotte Quilters Guild, frequently searches the Internet for news of quilt shows and quilt guilds around the United States. When a search led to pictures of Joplin after a tornado killed more than 140 people there in late May, McConaghy thought immediately about the local quilt guild. "The pictures of the destruction really got to me," McConaghy said. She found contact information online for the Town and Country Quilters Guild of Joplin and sent an email to its president. "I hope you're doing OK," McConaghy wrote. "Do you need any cuddle quilts?" The Joplin quilt guild, like many quilting groups, makes and donates "cuddle quilts" for children and adults who might receive comfort from them. In 2010, the guild gave away 178 quilts. McConaghy's request couldn't have been timelier. Town and Country quilter Gloria Park responded within an hour. Park said she was doing OK but that the house where the guild stored supplies and all the quilts it had made since October was near St. John's Regional Medical Center, which was ravaged by the tornado. The house also had been destroyed, and now the group that gave quilts to the needy was in need itself. McConaghy sent another email to a quilting friend who is nationally known, and soon the friend and several other quilters with large followings posted information about the needs in Joplin on their blogs and websites. "It went like wildfire," McConaghy said. Requests to donate came from as far away as Australia. "We started to get an unbelievable amount of stuff." Many sent donations straight to Joplin, and McConaghy began collecting quilting supplies in Charlotte. Her next-door neighbor, Mark Sirota of Poteet Printing Systems, shipped a pallet of supplies to Joplin for free. Charlotte-area donations came from guilds in Lake Norman and York, and some women gave unfinished quilts and wrote notes to send with their donations. They hoped Joplin quilters would find comfort and normalcy in finishing a quilt. "It's amazing how many people rallied on all of this," McConaghy said. "They really opened their hearts." In Joplin, quilters were thrilled. "It was like Christmas every day," Park wrote. "The most wonderful quilters responded as far away as Hawaii, giving whatever they could, and wanted to help in the worst way. Our guild was in shock when we saw how much we were cared about." The Town and Country Quilters Guild now has a two-car garage full of supplies. Quilters are sorting and categorizing the donations, writing thank-you notes and hosting work days and quilt-athons. "We have renewed faith that everything will get back to normal some day," Park wrote.

"Quilting Around the World" at the Tehama District Fairgrounds ...

Near desk globes, atlases, travel books and cultural items, quilts of nearly every color were displayed with care this weekend.

The Sun Country Quilters 9th Biennial Quilt Show took place Saturday and Sunday at the Tehama District Fairground with the theme “Quilting Around the World.”

Rows of quilts featured many styles and cultures. From city, with the quilt “New York Beauty” by Gayle Scott, to country with “Tractors Galore” by Kathy Osburn, styles varied. Designs were inspired by countries from China to the United Kingdom, Spain to Pacific Islands.

In addition to quilts, vendors from all over the North State came to demonstrate sewing machinery and offered items for sale such as fabric by the yard, hand-dyed wool and fat quarters, material pre-cut in small pieces.

This year’s featured quilter, Charlene Brians, was dressed in costume and on hand to show her own quilts and scrapbooks, welcoming people to the show.

Anna Williams, 84, of Magalia comes to the Red Bluff show to see the newest quilts, she said.

“There were a lot of nice quilts this year,” Williams said. “They were darker last year, but they were much brighter and prettier this year.”

Williams has belonged to two quilting guilds, she said. Two of her grandmothers got her into quilting.

Others came with their families to enjoy the show.

Debbie Lomont, 57, of Cottonwood has been quilting for 30 years with her mother, she

said. They were at the show together.

“I come every year to see the new and the different, to see what people’s imaginations are doing,” Lomont said.

Quilting is often a skill handed down through generations.

June and Leonard Kirk, of the Bowman area north of Red Bluff, brought their grandchildren Jessica Kirk, 10, Candyce Bradley, 10, and Noah Sowl, 11, to visit and see the quilts together. Their daughter, Roxi Bradley of Bradley Quilt Co. was a vendor at the show.

After looking through all the displays, the children, who each have made quilts before, all picked favorites.

Jessica Kirk picked “Solar,” she said.

“I like all the colors and all the planets,” she said. “It’s very beautiful.”

“Solar” by Joyce Gravell has 12 large framed planet scenes stitched with vivid purples, greens and yellows.

Sowl preferred a more down-to-earth themed quilt. “Bear Country” was his favorite.

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