Fine art comes in many forms, even as basic as one stitch at a time. Some say stitching quilts began in ancient Egypt – and it’s as popular today – and right here in the Summerville area where we have a nationally recognized shop, People, Places & Quilts – as it was centuries ago. Thus the Cultural Arts Alliance of Greater Summerville (CAA) chose quilts as the media for its latest art show at Town Hall.

The opening reception for the show will be Thursday, July 21, from 5-8 pm., coordinating with DREAM’s Third Thursday. The show will hang until September 23. Musical background will be provided by banjoist Pat Watts. Refreshments will be served and the public is invited.

If you’d like to enter the quilt show, entry forms with all pertinent information are available at Art Central, 130 Short Central Avenue; The Finishing Touch, corner W Richardson and S. Cedar St. and People, Places and Quilts, 129 W. Richardson Ave., or on the web at http://www.visitsummerville.com/html/culturalarts.html. Entries will be received at Town Hall July 15 and 16. For more information, call 871-7824

All entries must be an original concept of the artist and not copied from another person’s work or quilt pattern. A quilt, for this show, is defined as an artwork in which the primary medium is fabric and the quilt may be hand or machine stitched or a combination of both. Other materials may be utilized as long as the primary medium is stitched fabric.

Writing will be represented at this show with original poetry about quilts framed in a patchwork pattern. Poems written by nine members of the Summerville Writers Guild have been judged and will be exhibited. The following poem is not in the show, but serves as an example of how writers can view this fine art craft. It is written as a tribute to my mother, Mary, and her mother, Clare, called “Heritage Quilting.”

I have two quilts that my mother made

Every stitch sewn by hand,

Plus another that her mother did

Smaller, but just as grand.

Mom was born in 1909

Her mother in 1865.

Farm girls both, they cooked & sewed

To help the family survive.

One of mom’s quilts is cabbage roses

Cross-stitched in red & pink,

I show it on a wrought iron stand

As a generational link.

The second quilt is on a bed

A “Tree of Life” appliqué,

It’s a symbol of our family line

Nudging nostalgia every day.

Grandma’s work is a small lap quilt

Made of geometric patchwork pieces,

Shirts & dresses of husbands and sons,

Of daughters & friends & nieces.

This tiny work of triangles & squares

Is more than a hundred years old,

With florals, prints, stripes & checks

Another family story is told.

Alas and Alack, I do not stitch

Or knit or quilt or sew,

But I watched mother craft her works

Hundreds of hours to make them glow.

Mother lived to be age 92

Quilting till nearly her last day,

Making treasures her descendants now

Love & admire & display.

There are lots of ways to record the past

To express via word, song or fine art,

But a heritage quilt made out of love

Stitches warmth on every heart.

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