Quilt show offers inspiration

MANASSAS, Va. -- Isabelle Raines always knew she’d be a quilter one day, but the time for quilting kind of snuck up on her.

“I always said when I was younger, ‘When I’m an old lady, I’m going to make a quilt,’” the 67-year-old Raines said. “I was talking to my daughter and I said ‘I guess it’s time.’ ”

Raines, who visited the quilt show sponsored by the Cabin Branch Quilters and Stone House Quilters Guild at the Prince William County Fairgrounds on Sunday, said she came to get ideas and consider the possibilities.

There were plenty of boths at the show featuring round, square, rectangular and oval quilts with geometric, asymmetric and fanciful designs in all colors available in fabric.

“It’s amazing to see what people have done,” said Raines, who retired as a payroll accountant from Verizon about a year ago.

Raines recently completed her first quilt in quilting class and bought plans for her next one at the show.

Raines figures she’ll have her new quilt with a Christmas tree motif done in time for the holidays.

Nick Czapla came to the fairgrounds with his wife to look at quilts bearing butterflies, slogans and optical illusions, along with more traditional motifs.

He said his wife accompanies him to sports memorabilia shows, so it’s the least he can do to go with her to quilt shows.

He said he's learned to admire the “artistic effort and time” it takes to make a quilt.

“I appreciate them more and more as I come to them,” Czapla said of the quilt shows.

Thomas R. Hannon of Meadowbrook Woods in the Manassas area puts the time he spends at quilt shows to use.

His mother was a quilter and his wife also quilts.

He’s a woodworker, so he combined the two disciplines and started making framed art using natural wood veneers fashioned into geometric designs commonly associated with quilts.

“It occurred to me that I could make quilts from wood,” Hannon said. “My inspiration is quilt books.”

So he tried it, and met with some success.

He started hanging the results of his work at home. Then his wife said they had enough hanging around the house and told him he should try selling the pieces at quilt shows.

It worked.

“People bought them up, so I made more,” said Hannon, who works with more than 40 species of natural wood for an astonishing palette of colors.

“They keep me busy. I always have to replace my stock after the shows,” the patents examiner said of the quilters who buy his work. He sells one-square-inch pieces for $12 and charges up to $165 for a 16-x 12-inch piece.

Hannon said the same thing that drives quilters probably drives him as well.

“Everything has to be exact, squared and perfect. That appeals to me,” he said.

June Henkel, a Cabin Branch quilter who has been working with fabric for about 25 years, said she enjoys the satisfaction of taking “flat fabric and turning it into something pretty.”

Mary Kerr, a quilt appraiser and member of the Cabin Branch Quilters, said she enjoys seeing people who come in for inspiration.

“I love seeing people get excited about creating something new,” she said. “We’re seeing some great stuff.”

For more information about quilting visit stonehousequilters.org or cabinbranchquilters.org. They’re accepting new members.

Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.