Ask a quilter to tell you their story and you may hear about babies and weddings, family heirlooms passed down through generations, memories woven into each stitch.
“Every quilt has a story,” said Terry Cook, owner of Chelatchie Quilts in Amboy.
For quilters showcasing their work at the upcoming North Clark Historical Museum’s 11th annual Quilt Show in Amboy, telling this story is an important piece of the event.
“We ask everyone who enters a quilt to tell the story of how the quilt came to be,” Cook said. “Some of the quilts are quite old. We have one quilt that is 100 years old.”
Long before women fought for the right to vote, entered the workforce alongside men and demanded equal treatment and pay, Quilting Bees were a way for women to gather and talk about everything from childrearing to politics. Although most quilts became exactly what they were meant to be — a beautiful bedcover presented to newly married couples and new mothers to be saved and handed down to the next generation — some quilts were used as a means of subversive communication. In the 1830s, for example, female abolitionists hosted craft fairs and used their quilting skills to express their abolitionist views and raise money for anti-slavery petitions.
As for Cook, she says quilting never appealed to her until after she retired.
“My mother and sister both quilted, and I used to think they were crazy to buy all that fabric and spend all of that money and time on quilting,” Cook said. “Then I realized how relaxing it can be. And I love the challenge of putting together a new quilt.”
In 2011, Cook entered her first quilt in the North Clark Historical Museum’s annual Quilt Show. In 2012, she opened her Amboy quilting shop and started teaching quilting classes to help other quilting enthusiasts create their own works of art.
Cook said she is particularly excited about this year’s 11th annual Quilt Show, to be held Saturday and Sunday, April 2-3 at the Mountain Valley Grange in Amboy, because quilter Ruth Rudolph will also host a trunk show and daily quilting demonstration at the nearby North Clark Historical Museum.
“Ruth does all of her quilting by hand,” Cook said. “She was showing this big king (sized) quilt, and said it took her two years to finish one of them.”
The North Clark Historical Museum, at 21416 NE 399th St., Amboy, will showcase Rudolph’s artistry the same weekend as the quilt show. At 1 p.m. on both Saturday, April 2 and Sunday, April 3, Rudolph will present some of her hand-quilted and hand-pieced quilts. After each presentation, Rudolph will stay to demonstrate “how to baste a quilt within an inch of its life.”
Cook said she loves to watch Rudolph working on her quilts: “It is fascinating to watch Ruth make her stitches; they are so perfect it’s hard to believe your eyes.”
Rudolph said she prefers hand-quilting to using a quilting machine because she ends up with more accurate work and because she loves to sew her quilts on her lap while traveling in a car.
“Just don’t try to quilt on an airplane,” Rudolph said. “The airlines don’t like needles or scissors.”
Originally from California, where she owned an antiques business, Rudolph and her husband, Ron, moved to North Clark County to be closer to their children. In addition to her award-winning quilts — several of Rudoph’s quilts, including her all-white “Trupunto” quilt — have won Best of Show at the North Clark Historical Museum. She has a drawer filled with blue ribbons from the Clark County Quilters at the Clark County Fair — Rudolph also likes to make braided rugs and build leaded glass windows. Her husband also is an artist and plans to sell more of her beautiful quilt racks, made from carved pieces of antique furniture tops, at this year’s quilt show.
Quilting enthusiasts will have a chance to visit the quilt show, held upstairs at the Mountain Valley Grange, 40104 NE 221st Ave., Amboy, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 2 and from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 3. There will be a scavenger hunt both days, with cash prizes. A cafe and vendors selling quilt-related items will be located downstairs at the Grange hall.
Both the quilt show and Rudolph’s trunk show at the museum are free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.lewisriver.com/amboy/museum.
