These two Kerrville residents actually came from much further away to take a close look at the Best of Show quilt “Fright Night ... the Cast is Ready” by Mary Ann Hildebrand. (From left) Jean Kusch is originally from Cambridge, England, while Joyce Roddick is from Bristol, England. — Standard-Radio Post/Richard Zowie
By Richard Zowie —
“This is an addiction,” said Fredericksburg’s Ann Bryk, referring to her passion for quilting. “The collecting fabric, magazines and books. It’s all worth collecting, since there’s the possibility of many quilts.”
Bryk got her fill of quilts at the Vereins Quilt Guild’s eighth biennial show, which was last weekend at Fredericksburg United Methodist Church. She entered four quilts and received three honors: a second-place, third-place and honorable mention.
“I have made many quilts in my lifetime,” Bryk said. “Some have been given away, and some are stacked on my bed.”
For Bryk and others, part of the fun of the biennial show was the search for new fabrics and patterns to sort through and work with. Sometimes in quilting, a fabric or pattern one person casually discards sometimes is exactly what someone else has been looking for.
Quilting can be a labor of love, as Betty Blackwell spent about five months on her “Where Eagles Soar” quilt, which spanned 7.4 feet by eight feet.
“I started out with traditional blocks, and they just talked to me and said, ‘It’s America,’” Blackwell said of her inspiration. “I had the squares of the eagles that I bought two to three years ago and thought they’d work.”
Blackwell considers doing quilts to be her “therapy.” Her quilt, done in memory of her husband, Duane, won an honorable mention in the Special Occasion Quilt category.
Among the other quilts was one depicting the planets in the solar system (which included Pluto, demoted to “dwarf planet” status in 2006). Another was a map of Fredericksburg, featuring various landmarks and the roads that lead to it and from it.
The show also served as a chance for beginners to learn the craft. Rhonda Reinesch of Cedar Park and Sherilea Brown sat at a table in intense concentration as they slowly stitched.