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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 20, 2010
CONTACT: Molly Dannenmaier
Director of Marketing and Public Relations,
409-765-7834, ext. 1021
molly.dannenmaier@galvestonhistory.org
14th Annual Island Quilters’ Guild Show Now Open at Galveston’s 1861 Custom House
The 14th Annual Island Quilters’ Guild Show is now open at the 1861 Custom House, the headquarters of Galveston Historical Foundation, at 502 20th Street. The non-juried show features quilts showcasing everything from the first efforts of new quilters to quilts made by those who are masters of various techniques. This year, 39 quilts are on display.
The Island Quilters’ Guild is based on Galveston Island and has about 70 members. Its annual show consists of work completed by members within the past year, or work that has not previously been shown. It is an annual celebration of a group of women whose common passion for quilting allows them to continue to share ideas and grow in skill and creativity together.
The guild was organized in 1991 by Patricia Stevenson and friends of her shop Quilts by the Bay. Badly damaged by Hurricane Ike, her store has not re-opened. Many of the quilts on display in this show feature fabrics from her shop; guild members sought to pay tribute to her in this show for her leadership within the organization since its establishment.
IQG members regularly donate dozens of quilts each year to local charities, including the Ronald McDonald House, the Resource and Crisis Shelter, individual homeless people, and Rainbow Camp, a summer camp for kids with cancer and blood disease. One member, Sue James, does not have a quilt in this show because she has donated her entire output. This year James made more than 60 quilts for Rainbow Camp alone.
One donation quilt on display is The Colors of World Peace, by quilter Elaine Olsen. It is one of many she has made to give to someone in need. The tiny print in the background has peace and other universal symbols. Olsen is the guild’s community service chairperson in charge of donation quilts for IQG.
The show’s featured quilt (on the cover of the show’s publicity material) is named Sea Urchins and Chocolate by Mary Kortegast, 2009 president of the guild. When some friends of hers moved, she decided to make a quilt for them based on the colors in their new house—an array of jewel-toned blues and greens with creams, golds and chocolate brown. She used a special quilting technique described by Maxine Rosenthal in which a large-scale print is stacked and identical triangles cut. These triangles are sewn together into kaleidoscopic hexagons, and arranged to maximize the flow of color.
Another of the show’s noteworthy quilts is Totally Feedsacks, by Cassandra Bolen, made from vintage feedsacks. The feedsack-as-fabric phenonomen began when cotton sacks replaced barrels as shipping containers in the mid-19th century. During the Great Depression, resourceful women began to use feedsacks as fabric for clothing, quilts, even underwear. Manufacturers realized they could sell more of their products if the fabric was colorful, and began hiring artists to design interesting prints. Women began sorting through bags at the feed stores for fabric they liked. Chicken farmers, who went through a lot of sacks, made extra money selling their surplus. Bolen’s quilt was made to simulate what a quilt from that era might have looked like—she even used feedsacks for the entire back.
The 14th Annual Island Quilters Guild Show was organized this year by volunteer curator Jenny Chiovaro, a member of the guild who has agreed to curate all the upcoming quilt shows at Custom House over the next year. She takes over the job from quilter Jul Kamen, who introduced the idea of revolving quarterly quilt shows at Custom House three years ago.
Chiovaro has a multi-faceted background that includes teaching, psychology, maritime work, professional music and professional sewing. She retired from a position in school psychology in 2003, and has since devoted herself passionately to quilting. Her quilts have been juried into shows in Texas, California, Utah, Paducah, Kentucky, and this year, the Houston International Quilt Festival. She has had quilts in IQG’s annual show since 2004, and has worked with volunteer curator Kamen on previous shows for GHF. Chiovaro says she has way too much fabric to stop quilting now.
The Island Quilters Guild show will run through December 14, 2010, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday in the second-floor court room of Galveston Historical Foundation headquarters, the 1861 Custom House, 502 20th Street (elevator available). Admission is free. In addition to its regular hours, the exhibit will be open to the public on Saturday, November 27 from 6 to 9 p.m. during ArtWalk. For more information about the quilt show, call Galveston Historical Foundation at 409-765-7834 or go to www.galvestonhistory.org.
Although admission to the quilt show is free, donations to the historical foundation are appreciated. GHF is the second-largest local historic preservation organization in the U.S., whose mission is to preserve and revitalize the architectural, cultural and maritime heritage of Galveston Island for the education and enrichment of all.
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