Story co-written/produced with Charles Gadie
There are 21 quilts displayed in the Mountain Heritage Center’s main room, each with a story behind it. Whether it’s a story on the pattern, the fabric or the maker, each quilt is original.
Generally, a quilt is made up of a decorative top, a warm filler called batting or wadding, and a practical backing. To join these layers, quilting stitches are used, sometimes yarn or string ties.
Peter Koch, the Education Associate of the Mountain Heritage Center, says that quilting is an art form found all around the world, not just in North Carolina.
“Quilting is actually a worldwide tradition. The idea of essentially saving cloth and creating layers with it to create warmth and in many cases create beauty is found in a lot of different places around the world. Here in America, and especially North Carolina, it really took off after the civil war,” Koch said.
Quilting has been a hobby and interest of many individuals that allows them to explore their creativity and artistic abilities while also creating an item that provides several purposes.
Quilts can be used for warmth and decoration, and can also be made for fun to give as a gift to others. They are made to showcase the many different designs, patterns and techniques used to create beautiful quilts.
They are just like pictures or paintings. They can tell stories and give the viewer a sense of the creator’s culture or creativity.
The Director of the Mountain Heritage Center, Pam Meister, finds all of the details within the quilts fascinating.
“Something I find that’s really exciting about all quilts, is that if you spend time with them, you’ll learn things about their makers. From their choices of fabric, from the stitches they make in the quilt, from the colors that they’re comfortable having around them. So, quilts really do tell stories,” Meister said.
Quilts made in the mountains were not always products of necessity. For example, crazy quilts allowed the maker to demonstrate her skill in elaborate embroidery and decorative designs. They were meant to show the makers creative expression rather than provide warmth.
Meister details one of these quilts.
Some quilts in western North Carolina fulfilled more utilitarian roles and were made of handspun fabrics scraps of warm clothing or household textiles. One of these was made by a woman named Eliza Cantrell Peek Wike.
Her quilt is featured here by Koch.
Quilting bees
A Quilting Bee is a gathering of quilters that would join together to make large quilts or work individually on their own works.
These group meetings were not regular occurrences. Many quilting bees had other responsibilities that didn’t allow them to meet regularly. Things that hindered these meetings included home responsibilities, work, distances needed to travel and a small number of large gathering places available. Even with these barriers, many quilt gatherings did take place in mountain counties.
Oftentimes, the top layer of quilts would be constructed at home. Then they would be brought to the bee for the three layers to be quilted together.
Koch says it is difficult to determine when quilting bees began but it seems they were very informal, such as gathering of friends or family to work on quilts.
“Quilting bees fit into the idea that collaborative work, when it can be arranged, has always been a thing for rural people in the mountains, a fall gathering to shuck corn, slaughter hogs, or cook molasses,” Koch said.
Koch says the center has had over 340 visitors to the exhibit, which began in mid-March.
The center has had three school groups visit with more scheduled in the coming months.
There will also be a few camps and adult groups that visit the exhibit in the summer. One of those camps will be a collaboration between the Mountain Heritage Center and Jackson County 4-H. That will be in late July.
Those groups will have the chance to create quilt pillows based on the exhibit.
On August 26, the exhibit will be put into storage to make way for the next exhibit. Koch says the bigger panels with some of the broad themes will be advertised for use by other museums that want a quilt exhibit of their own.
Koch also says that the Center wishes to use the other panels in a smaller quilt exhibit at such venues as the Jackson County Public Library.
The next exhibit that will find a home at the center is a nationally touring exhibit called Away From Home. The exhibit explores Native American Boarding School stories from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s.
Koch says the exhibit will fit into WCU’s theme for the year, mental health.
