‘Imagine That’ Swamp Fox Quilters Challenge 2008 on display at museum

By Ardie Arvidson

Published: June 20, 2008

Jan Davis’ “Fractured Kaleidoscope” earned Best of Show in the Swamp Fox Quilters Guild Annual Challenge 2008. Davis, of Florence, embellished the quilt with her mother’s button collection.

Davis started quilting in the early 1980s; however, she has been sewing since she was a young child making clothing.

In the 1970s, she owned and ran fabric shops in Florence, Hartsville, Cheraw and Sumter. She said she begins a quilt without a plan and makes her own designs.
“Making a quilt is like taking a journey that sometimes resembles a ride on a roller coaster,” Davis said.

“The quilt takes on a life of its own.”

Davis said quilting today has taken the direction of becoming an artistic design rather than the traditional quilt most of us are familiar with.
In addition to quilting, Davis is also a watercolor artist. She took classes from Ann Finch in Florence.

Early Morning Attitude
Rita Studdard of Hartsville has been quilting for 25 years and was encouraged by her grandmother. She began quilting early in her married life when her husband was in the Navy and away from home a lot. She felt the need to “create” and began Tole painting, tatting and working in macramé to fill her time. One of Rita’s first quilts was made in the 1970s with the then new polyester knit material. Rita said, “The quilt was so ugly that it didn’t need to be completed.”

Around 1983, the rotary cutters came out, and she loved the fact that you could not only cut out fabric a lot faster and save time, but it made the cuts a lot more accurate as well. Rita proceeded to use her new tool and cut out the largest quilt to date because she “loved that tool, and the size grew with the speed in cutting precision.”

Studdard said she enjoys being a member of the Swamp Fox Quilters because she says the members “feed off each other” for ideas. They encourage each other to strive and grow with their techniques and creative imagination in using color, design, shapes and textures.

One of her pieces in the exhibit was called Early Morning Attitude.

Sahara
Peggy O’Quinn of Timmonsville is the chairperson this year of the guild’s Challenge. Each year they challenge each other to create a quilt using a theme decided upon by the club. This year’s theme is Imagine That. The theme for this year has encouraged many quilters to “think outside of the box” and use their creative instincts to make a quilt into a fine art form, O’Quinn said.

Today’s trends in quilting are into “heavy” quilting and quilt designing as an art form, said O’Quinn, who declares herself a novice, having begun her quilting career just
eight years ago.

When she retired from a lifelong career in real estate, she knew she wanted to spend her time doing something just for the fun of it. Peggy has experimented in the dying of her fabric and drawing her own designs such as the camel and rider in her creation Sahara that is exhibited in this year’s show at the Hartsville Museum.

Needle felting on the machine is another technique O’Quinn used in one of her quilts this year.

There are so many fabrics, colors, textures, embellishments, designs and techniques to choose from when creating a quilt. The actual quilting can be done by hand or on a quilting machine. Just about every needle art can be incorporated into a quilt.

Most are used by the 50 members in the group.

The Swamp Fox Quilters meet at 9:30 a.m. on the first Thursday of each month at John Calvin Presbyterian Church, 2000 Marsh Ave. in Florence. Guests are welcome and may attend two meetings before joining the guild. Guild membership is $15 annually.

All of these quilters agree that when gathered together their enthusiasm grows, and they get ideas from each other.

Members of this club travel to Houston, Texas, for the Annual International Quilt Festival, where companies such as R.J. Reynolds sponsor exhibits and award large amounts of money to the winners.

One thing is for sure – each member genuinely loves the art of quilting and their feelings and emotions become a part of the finished product, said Penny Anthony, who greets those coming to the museum to see the exhibit. The Swamp Fox Quilters Challenge 2008, Imagine That, will be at the Hartsville Museum through August. Stop by and cast a vote for your favorite quilt. On the last day of the exhibit, the quilt with the most votes will be declared The People’s Choice. The winner will be announced Aug. 29.

Museum hours are Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free.

Editor’s Note: Interviews with the quilters, photos and information were provided by Penny Anthony at the Hartsville Museum.