Date: Fri 28-Aug-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: JAN

Quick Words:

quilters-Frasier-Ryan

Full Text:

Two Newtown Quilters Get Kudos On The Show Circuit

(with cuts)

Two friends who met through their quilting avocation have received awards for

their entries at the Vermont Quilt Festival held July 15-19 in Montfield, Vt.

Connie Harris Fraser won a blue ribbon and a special award of "Most Humorous"

for her quilted wall hanging titled "It Takes All Kinds!"

Carol Ryan was awarded a blue ribbon for her wall hanging, "All Dressed Up and

Nowhere to Go."

The festival is an unjuried show, meaning quilts are accepted without being

prejudged for entrance.

"You see a wide range of talent," Mrs Fraser said. "It's a nice opportunity

for intermediate quilters to show their work without getting rejected."

In juried shows, slides of the quilts are sent first and if accepted the quilt

is shipped for judging in the show.

Ideas for quilts "just come," Mrs Ryan said. "All quilters have a lot of

ideas. I might see something that sparks something in my mind."

"My head is full of ideas," Mrs Fraser said. "I could make a list of 20 I'd

like to do next."

The theme of Mrs Fraser's prize-winning quilt is images of women of various

eras in time taken from photo transfers, antique fabrics, commercial fabrics

and rubber stamps, such as a washerwoman, Native American, a woman baking a

cake, another playing golf, a bride and a housemaid, who is depicted with a

dagger in one hand and a mop in the other.

"It's true over time, it takes all these kinds of women," Mrs Fraser said.

"The quilt celebrates the uniqueness of women,'' she said.

The images are enhanced by a light-hearted look at words, good and bad, that

are or have been used to describe women, appliqued around the outside of the

quilt, such as spinster, lady, housewife, nanny, dame, gal, hag, wench, babe,

chick, doll, wife, shrew, and mistress.

The back of the quilt depicts a grey-haired lady facing away from the

onlooker.

Mrs Fraser has been a quilter of both small and large quilts for about 30

years. For the past eight years, her work has consisted of art quilts that are

used as wall hangings.

Her interest in quilting began in the 1970s when she found some quilt tops

that her great-great grandmother had made before 1900. "I decided, if they had

been sitting around for 100 years, they should be finished," Mrs Fraser said.

She then set about teaching herself how to quilt from a book.

Mrs Ryan has been quilting for about seven years. She took a basic quilting

course through an adult education class in Brookfield.

"When I took the class, I was immediately hooked," she said.

She enters about four shows a year. She has made several bed quilts and wall

hangings but is now more interested in art quilts.

Her quilted wall hanging, "All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go," is made with

materials from men's ties and fabric sweepings from a shirt factory with

suiting fabric on the ends.

"It is a traditional bowtie pattern," Mrs Ryan said, with black sashing used

between the squares.

"I was fascinated by the different designs I could make by cutting the

fabric," she said. "They all make a different pattern. There is a lot of eye

movement because of that. It was a lot of fun to make.

"And it does have someplace to go. It goes to shows," she said. The quilt

received a lot of attention from men during the Vermont show, she said. The

fabrics reminded them of a particular shirt or tie they have worn.

The quilt won Mrs Ryan a Best in Show for quilting at the Bridgewater Fair

last weekend. It also received a blue ribbon from the Connecticut Country Fair

Association and will be judged against others in the spring.

Quilting is the process of putting together three layers, a top, batting for

the middle, and the back. Most tops are done in patchwork or applique.

"Older quilts that are well done are valuable. A lot of people like to collect

them," Mrs Ryan said.

Neither woman sells her quilts.

Mrs Fraser said she doesn't sell her quilts "because I don't do enough of

them." She produces one quilt a year. She enters 10-15 shows a year.

"A quilt has a short show life," she explained. "They must have been completed

during the previous 12 months."

When entering several shows, "You have to be careful in timing," Mrs Fraser

said, to make sure a quilt will be back in time to be sent to the next show.

The quilts are sent two to three weeks prior to the show for judging and may

be on exhibit for several weeks.

Quilting can be an expensive hobby or not, according to how you do it, both

women agree.

"For art quilts I buy quarter-yard pieces of what I like," Mrs Fraser said.

"Because I use small pieces, I use unusual fabrics from anywhere. "That's how

people did it in the past," she said. "No scrap is too small for me."

Mrs Fraser also hand dyes fabric. "It's not as expensive, and I have more

control over colors," she noted.

Their equipment consists of quilting needles, quilting thread, a thimble and

scissors. A quilting frame or ordinary hoop can be used.

Both women do hand quilting and try to spend some time each night working on a

quilt. "I like to try to do a little every day. It makes you a happier

person," Mrs Ryan said.

Mrs Fraser and Mrs Ryan will submit quilts to the Pennsylvania National Quilt

Extravaganza in Fort Washington in September and plan on attending the show

together as they did in Vermont.

They are members of the Newtown Scrapbaggers club that meets once a month in

the library and in members' homes.

Mrs Ryan said she would like to see the Scrapbaggers sponsor a local quilt

show with a Newtown theme.

"I'd like to see them do something on Mary Hawley. It seems there would be

something interesting to do about her," Mrs Ryan said. "If they did that, I

would definitely come up with something."