Quilters offer chance to ‘stitch history’
Published 8:16 pm Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The Fellowship Quilters at Mount Moriah Baptist Church will bring something old and something new to the Peanut Butter Festival in Brundidge on Saturday.
The quilters will demonstrate the age-old art of quilting and have several of the quilts on display that they have “stitched” at the Monday quilting bees at the church.
The quilters will also have many of the other needlework items that they create on display and for sale. “We do all kinds of needlework from aprons to quilts and everything in between,” said Mary Mitchell, a member of the Fellowship Quilters. “We all enjoy quilting and love to share what we do with others.”
A quilting revival in recent years has generated interest in the old art among people of all ages. Young people are taking an interest and so are a few men. But, quilting continues to be a “woman’s art.”
Mitchell didn’t say that one of the main reasons is that women enjoy the fellowship that is a natural by-product of a quilting bee.
“No, we don’t gossip,” she said laughing. “But we do enjoy each other and we enjoy quilting and want others to learn to enjoy it, too.”
In an effort to introduce others to the art, the Fellowship Quilters have pieced a top that will be quilted at the Peanut Butter Festival.
“We have the quilt top on a small frame and we’ll invite everyone to make a few quilting stitches on the top,” Mitchell said. “We want women, men and children to try their hands a quilting and, those who do, will have the opportunity to sign their names on the border of the quilt. When the festival is over, the ‘community’ quilt will be donated to the Brundidge Historical Society to be hung at the We Piddle Around Theater.”
Mitchell said the Fellowship Quilters are excited to be part of the Peanut Butter Festival and to share their love of quilting with the community.
The year 2010 is the state tourism bureau’s Year of the Small Town Downtown, which is an event of the Great Alabama Homecoming.
Those who stop by the Fellowship Quilters’ booth on Saturday will make a stitch in time that will become part of a “piece of history.”