Community Corner
Quilting 'Puts Me in Another World'
Today's rags could produce tomorrow's treasures—as well as an avenue toward relaxation for Mom.
Combine old-world skill with new-world technology and fabrics both old and new and what do you get? A whole lot of fun and family folk art—all in the form of a quilt.
Marie Wigley of Powder Springs spends her spare time making memories for her family. The mom of a newly grown daughter says she picked up quilting in the last few years as a pressure valve release.
“It’s relaxing,” Wigley confides. “It puts me in another world. I leave everything else behind—all my worries, all my cares—when I’m working on a quilting project.”
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She’s worked on several, in fact. “I’ve made a good 20 or more quilts,” she says. “My favorite is the memory quilt I made for my daughter.”
Tracey Morgan, owner of Kiwi Quilts on Hopeland Industrial Drive in Powder Springs, says quilting is “cool because you can share it."
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"A quilt will last for years," she explains. "It can be passed down from generation to generation. You can take the material from something worn but sentimental and create something else with lasting beauty.”
Morgan has been a quilter for nearly six years and has owned her current business for a year and a half at the Hopeland location. She offers various classes to quilters and would-be quilters, along with fabrics, patterns and accessories.
Shirley Shanks got into quilting unexpectedly.
“I was ferrying people to crafting classes at my church,” she says, “and one day, the class was on quilting. I found I had an eye for fabric, and that was that. Once you get bit by the fabric bug, you never get rid of it. It’s a disease.”
In Shanks case, it’s a disease that will benefit her grandkids for years to come.
Shanks and Morgan are members of the Cherokee Rose Quilters Guild in Lithia Springs. There’s also an East Cobb Quilters' Guild that meets at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Marietta.
Collecting quilts can be as much of a hobby as making them, according to Gloria Hildebrand, co-owner of the . “I’m an avid quilt collector,” she admits.
The front of her store has several fine samples on display. “We have quite a few customers who are quilters,” Hildebrand adds. “Everybody has a quilt somebody has made and passed down. It’s folk art.”