Profile of a quilter:
Carol Pettigrew, retired teacher and Edmonds resident for 45 years. She started quilting roughly five decades ago with her grandma and now teaches quilting classes. She’s also a member of the Pacific Spirit Quilters, which is hosting a quilting expo on Saturday, March 5, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Edmonds Community Centre. Admission is free, and there will be a draw for a prize quilt.
What will people see at the quilting expo?
Quilters with displays of the quilts they’ve made. There’s a room where people will be demonstrating various kinds of quilting and aspects of quilting. Like free-motion quilting, applique, hand quilting, piecing. We’ll also have a hands-on activity for kids and adults. So they’ll get a chance to try their hand at various aspects of quilting.
What is free-motion quilting?
That’s where you quilt with your machine, but you don’t have your feed dogs up, so the quilter is moving the quilt under the needle to do the quilting.
So it’s almost like freestyling.
It is.
Is quilting experiencing a resurgence right now?
It is as pretty much all hand art, like knitting and crocheting, it’s a resurgence. There are brand new guilds called modern guilds, and a lot of young people are doing it because they’re simpler quilts, and they have those clean industrial lines to them.
What do you like about quilting?
I like to design my own quilts. I don’t follow patterns. I do the whole creative process, from designing to picking the fabric, creating something original. The best thing is the look on someone’s face when I give it to them.
How long does it take to make? I hear it’s a lot of work.
I do hand embroidered and stitched quilt that takes between 60 and 80 hours. The reality is people work on several quilts at the same time because they get tired of them.
What’s special about a quilt?
It has three separate layers - a top, middle and bottom - that are held together by stitching, that’s the definition. Quilting has been going on for hundreds of years. Originally, it was meant to use up scraps. It was something poor people did - sew all your scraps together to keep warm. Then it was a friendship thing. … Today people make quilts for the people they love as a way to be connected - for their grandchildren, for a wedding, a lot of quilting today is about creating community, it’s a heirloom for someone you love.
There’s a real need, and you’re seeing it (with these knitting groups popping up in libraries) for people to have a sense of community, because we live these separate little lives, a lot of people who come to our meetings, they just want to be with other people.
Is it hard?
It’s easy, absolutely dirt easy. I teach quilting to kids. If you can color or you can stich a straight line, you can quilt. My six year old grandson has made his first quilt.
The Pacific Spirit Quilters meet once a month at the Burnaby Village Museum. They host speakers, run workshops and make charity quilts. There will be a sign-up list at the group’s membership at the March 5 event.
