WIllaim S. Hart Hall in Hart Park became a homey, artistic exhibition hall when the Santa Clarita Valley Quilt Guild set up their second quilting and fabric arts exhibition.
Linda Buesching, first vice president of the guild who was in charge of the event, said that while traditionally quilt guilds only have exhibition shows every two years, the guild decided to host another show this year due to the interest shown in the event by Santa Clarita Councilwoman Laurene Weste.
“I met her a couple of weeks after the first show and I told her that guilds only do them every other year, but she told me that she was looking forward to the next year’s show,” Buesching said. “The city has been very generous to us with grants, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t host the event.”
Approximately half of the guild’s 102 members submitted a piece for the exhibition. Buesching’s main goal for the event was to raise community awareness of the artistry involved in quilting. Buesching added that due to a conversation with a close friends who were too intimidated to join a quilting organization due to the level of expertise of its members, she asked those interested in submitting quilts to send imperfect quilts to demonstrate how attainable the skill of quilting really is.
Aside from the exhibited works, the show featured a small boutique section, some quilts for sale and some that would be raffled off, a sewing machine vendor and other fabric works like crochet, needlepoint, lace work and mola.
Lifelong quilter Sylvia Kerschner found out about the exhibition from a flier she received at the Cowboy Festival. She said that though this exhibition was smaller than others she had been to she found that she appreciated it more.
“The small quilt shows are nice because you can spend more time with each quilt and you can get close up to see the details, which you can’t do a lot of the time at bigger shows,” Kerschner said. “My grandmother made quilts so I wanted to be like her. Quilting is just another form of art. It’s painting with cloth.”
Buesching said she thinks people like homemade quilts due to the history behind them. It is possible to buy a quilt at a store, but since most artisan quilts are made from old clothing and scraps, there is more meaning behind them.
“Quilters do it for love,” Buesching said. “We have displayed several quilts that if you ask the maker to buy it they’ll say no way, but they’ll give it away or donate it in a heartbeat. It’s a very emotional thing. Quilts have gone from being purely functional that our grandparents made to works of art that people hang on their walls.”
