Tiny But Mighty

Ozark Quilt Fair To Feature Itty Bitty Exhibit

File Photo Raevin Allen of Goshen looks at a tie quilt on display last year during the Ozark Quilt Fair at the Shiloh Museum in Springdale. The 37th annual event, which includes a variety of handmade quilts from local quilt makers, an indoor quilt exhibit by the Itty Bitty Quilt Committee and live music by Working Class Grass, is Saturday at the museum.
File Photo Raevin Allen of Goshen looks at a tie quilt on display last year during the Ozark Quilt Fair at the Shiloh Museum in Springdale. The 37th annual event, which includes a variety of handmade quilts from local quilt makers, an indoor quilt exhibit by the Itty Bitty Quilt Committee and live music by Working Class Grass, is Saturday at the museum.

The smaller the square, the faster the quilt's completion, right? Not necessarily.

"The smaller you get, the more precise you have to be," said April Rusch, a member of the Itty Bitty Quilt Committee. "I can spend the same amount of time, depending on how intricate the pattern is."

The committee will display more than 50 small quilts in an indoor exhibit Saturday during the 37th annual Ozark Quilt Fair at the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale.

Members try to keep the total perimeter at 80 inches for their small decorative quilts, but the group isn't terribly strict, said Rusch, also a museum board member.

"There's one that's a log cabin," she said of the quilts in the upcoming exhibit. "The pieces are very small, but the pattern is more traditional. ... People get real creative. Some do applique. All are different shapes, sizes and colors."

The Itty Bitty Quilt Committee meets on the second Saturday of each month at Northwest Technical Institute in Springdale.

"We get together and work on various things," Rusch said. "There are no dues. We aren't associated with any guild."

However, many members are individually associated with other guilds, such as Q.U.I.L.T.

The Ozark Quilt Fair falls on the committee's regular meeting day. The group's display at the fair allows members to meet without missing the fair. And "it might bring people inside the museum," Rusch said.

While the small quilts add color and texture to the museum's interior, full-size quilts will hang on clotheslines among the trees, making fabric pathways on the museum's one-acre site.

"The beautiful quilts will be out on the grounds in the sunshine and the breeze," said Carolyn Reno, collections manager at Shiloh Museum. "It's a nice way to kick off the fall season."

The fair will feature both antique and contemporary quilts from local quilters. Each artist will will sit next to her work to answer any questions viewers may have or tell the stories behind the antique quilts, Reno said.

Viewers will get a chance to vote on their favorites in both categories. Contemporary quilts are the ones made by a present-day quilters. The antique ones were made years ago, but there is no hard and fast time frame in which they had to be made, Reno said.

The quilts will be for show and for sale.

The appeal of quilts and quilting varies as much as the quilts themselves, Reno said.

"It could be the way the fabric is arranged, the colors, the workmanship, the design. Some people don't really want to take the time to make their own quilt but appreciate the skills of others. Then there are those who like to work with their hands, textiles and design."

Working Class Grass, other artists who enjoy working with their hands, will provide bluegrass music during the fair.

"It's an extra nice element to the whole affair," Reno said.

NAN Life on 09/10/2014

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