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Date: 8/9/2018
EAST LONGMEADOW – Quilts & Treasures, located at 56 Shaker Rd., is hosting a Quilt Show on August 24 and 25 to show off the quilts that each of their quilt clubs made through the business’s challenge.
“Three years ago the friendly rivalry between the Batick Fabric Club and the Reproduction Fabric Club led to the idea of doing a challenge between the two clubs,” Valerie Morton, owner of Quilts & Treasures shared. “A quilt block pattern was chosen that was simple enough for everyone to do yet had some possibilities for creativity.”
The results from the rivalry caused a small quilt show to put the quilts on display, and since then, Quilts & Treasures has had three exhibits showcasing the club’s creative quilts. Each year a different pattern is chosen, however the finished size of the quilt is always 18 inches square.
Quilts & Treasures has four clubs: the Batik Fabric Club, the Reproduction Fabric Club, the Scrap Fabric Club and the Pfaff Sewing Machine Club. Morton explained that the four clubs combined include over 50 years of existence. The Batik Fabric Club meets every other month, the Scrap Fabric Club meets during the day, the Pfaff Sewing Machine Club meets monthly in two groups, one in the morning and one at night. The Reproduction Fabric Club meets every other month in the evening.
The Batik Fabric Club uses Batik Fabrics that are brighter, hand–dyed fabrics from Indonesia. The Reproduction Fabric Club uses reproductions of fabrics from the 1800’s. The Scrap Fabric Club organizes, cuts, stores and uses their fabric scraps from other projects.
“Each meeting they learn how to do a different block or technique that can be done ‘scrappy,’” Morton said. “Their scraps might be batiks, reproductions, holiday, floral or a combination.”
The Pfaff Sewing Machine Club learns new features of their Pfaff Sewing Machines, a new accessory, technique or project.
Each club member makes their own quilt for the quilt show. The Batik Club must use batik fabric, the Reproduction Club must use all reproduction fabric, Scrap Club must use more than five different fabrics and the Pfaff Club must use a specialty sewing technique.
“If a quilter is in more than one club, all the applicable challenges must be combined in one quilt,” Morton explained. “And we do have one quilter who belongs to all four clubs!”
Quilt & Treasures’ Quilt Show is open to the public. Members of the clubs will be in attendance to talk with guests and answer questions about the clubs or quilts.
“This year, we’re ready to invite everyone in to see this fun, creative and interesting exhibit,” Morton said.
The event will take place at the Norcross Center Carriage House at 89 Maple St. in East Longmeadow on Aug. 24 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and on Aug. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact Quilts & Treasures at 525–4789.