Not your average quilt show

(by Christine Bryant, Eastside Editor - June 11, 2009)

Ask any of the organizers and visitors of the Sacred Threads Quilt Exhibit, and they’ll tell you the exhibit is not your average quilt show.

It instead is an exhibit offering quilters a venue to express their own spiritual journeys.

“There was no safe or welcoming venue for quilters who saw their works as an expression of their own spiritual journey,” said Nancy Becker, Pickerington resident and one of the exhibit’s committee members. “Often the meaning behind these works was missed or misunderstood because the artists did not have the opportunity to share their sources of inspiration with the viewer.”

In 1999, Reynoldsburg art quilter Vikki Pignatelli gathered together a small group of volunteers with the vision of developing a new type of quilt exhibit.

Her inspiration stemmed from a local book called “With Sacred Threads.” The book, written by Susan Towner-Larsen and Barbara Brewer Davis, celebrates using quilting as an art and form of expression.

“The organizing committee members wanted to create a dignified exhibit of artwork that would touch all those who viewed it on both spiritual and personal levels,” Becker said. “They wanted to share the experiences of quilters whose stories would be a source of healing and strength for others by allowing the artist to submit a statement, which would be exhibited with the artwork that described the meaning or inspiration for the piece.”

This year’s exhibit, which will run from June 17-28, will feature 200 quilts made by 178 quilters in 38 states and three Canadian provinces. The event, which will feature local quilters as well, will take place at Reynoldsburg High School, 6699 E. Livingston Ave.

A special exhibit of 16 quilts made by inmates of the Ohio Women’s Reformatory in Marysville also will be on display. Most of the women never have quilted before, but were encouraged in their project by Prison Chaplain Jamie Burns, Becker said.

Although the exhibit is biennial, all the quilts featured are new in each show with no repeats, Becker said.

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