Tell Me A Story: A Quilting Exhibit

Quilting isn’t just a craft, it’s a passion. It is not just sewing, or choosing fabric, or even the process of piecing them all together. It transcends the act of sewing. Quilting is a response to a time and place. It is a record of what an artist created for a particular time using her talent to fit the pieces of her life into a handmade quilt.

From the 1800s until today, each quilt in this exhibit has a story to tell of the spirit of the time and the women who made them. Whether the quilts were made from scraps to keep the family warm, from coats of the men in war, with patriots colors of centennials or bi-centennials, from velvets of Victorian times, from feed sacks of the 1930s, each quilter had a passion for making that particular quilt.

In the exhibit is a “Friendship quilt” put together in November and December, 1934, by cousins, friends and neighbors in the Eureka area. Each quilt block is embroidered with a name, birth date and a detailed designed of each person involved. More miraculous than the beautiful shape the quilt is in, is the fact that it was found by Mrs. Margot Sieracki of Joliet, Ill., who discovered the quilt in a trash receptacle last year. She cleaned it, repaired it, and sent it to Sue Gates, Director of the Dacotah Prairie Museum who passed it on to the Eureka Pioneer Museum for the citizens to enjoy a part of Eureka history.

Another quilt included in the exhibit is the wedding quilt of the Kotilas from Frederick. The quilt was made in Finland and features the blue and white of the Finnish flag. It was brought to Frederick and presented to the couple on their wedding day 67 years ago. They are still residents of the area, still enjoying their wedding quilt.

Marlene Coon returned to the Groton area after many years raising a family in Rapid City to care for her elderly mother afflicted with Alzheimer’s. During this time, she attempted a life long dream to paint when she designed the blocks for a quilt, hand-painting each on denim. Her second quilt is the last one to be completed by herself and her mother before her mother’s death. Even though her memory skills were nearly depleted, Marlene relates, her mother was able to quilt almost to the end of her life.

This exhibit contained exquisite quilts created in the last 100 years and the stories of their history and why their makers chose to quilt as they did. Those visiting the exhibit shared some of the passion stitched into these pieces of our past.

The Presidential Quilt was made by Bev Padgett of Aberdeen and includes U.S. Presidents from Washington to Reagan.   The quilt was donated to the museum in 2000.

For information on past exhibits in the Lamont Gallery, please click here