American Legacy Quilt Show puts local talent on display

Published 2:00 pm Monday, April 10, 2017

TIFTON — The 2017 American Legacy Quilt Show was back at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture April 7-8.

The Wiregrass Quilters Guild, who put on the quilt show, showcased quilts made by members of the guild, who hail from Tifton, Fitzgerald, Douglas, Ocilla, Albany and Leesburg.

Margo Martin, a member of the guild who was volunteering at the show, said that most of the quilters create their quilts using a sewing machine, but a few still do everything by hand.

Each piece of fabric is cut to an exact size and shape, and, following whatever pattern the quilter is using, is sewn together into a block. Each block is then stitched together to form the quilt.

The quilts ranged in size from small wall quilts to large bed quilts.

Some of the quilts have embroidery, some have appliqué, but each quilt is unique.

“We have every year in our guild a challenge and the members of the guild who want to try to meet the challenge will make a quilt following the rules and we always have that displayed at the show,” Martin said.

“This year we had a quilt challenge that was a little intimidating to some people so we only had five people who entered quilts.”

The challenge was to take a block pattern that had a lot of pieces in it and, using different fabrics, make each block look completely different while still being constructed the exact same way.

On Saturday, the guild presented a Quilt of Valor to a local veteran.

The Quilts of Valor Foundation was started in 2003, and are given to active duty service members and veterans who have been touched by war as a way to thank them for their service.

This year the quilt was presented to Gerald F. James Sr., who joined the U.S. Navy in 1958 and served 20 years.

The guild was also featuring a few quilts made by Linda O’Sullivan, who has an exhibit in the museum gallery.

The exhibit will showcase 24 unique quilts by the artist.

O’Sullivan’s work earned the People’s Choice Award at last year’s quilt show. She has been a member of Quilters Unlimited of Tallahassee for over 30 years and a member of The Dyffryn Quilters in Wales for 10 years.