Quilters' stories on display at Harrison library

Harrison resident Vicki Frantz didn’t discover her passion for quilting until well into adulthood.

As a caregiver in 2018 for her terminally ill mother, Frantz spent most of her days sitting by her mom’s bedside.

“My mom was an avid quilter for many years and her sewing machine was set up in her dining room, so I thought I’d give it a try,” said Frantz, a teacher at Mary Queen of Apostles in New Kensington. “I finished my first quilt weeks before my mom passed. She did get to see it and approved.”

Now an avid seamstress, Frantz has entered her first quilt show at the Community Library of Allegheny Valley in Natrona Heights, Harrison.

More than 40 entries are on display at the Broadview Boulevard facility.

Voting is available online and in person through Feb. 28. Winners will be announced March 1.

Julia Strzesieski, the library’s adult programming specialist, said the blankets fill the space with a bright pop of color and highlight each quilter’s creativity.

Frantz’s entry is an Underground Railroad sampler for which she used Civil War reproduction fabric she found in her mother’s home.

The specialty fabric is a replica of cloth that would have been used during the 1860s.

Each square tells a story with unique symbols abolitionists used to help runaway slaves escape to the North.

“I decided to make this one since our family has always been interested in the Civil War,” Frantz said. “I later found out that my mom had started a similar quilt years before, and I had chosen the same fabrics that she used for her quilt blocks.

“I have created many quilts since, but this Underground sampler will always hold a special place in my heart.”

For Harrison resident Megan Vance, her interest in quilting was sparked after the birth of her first grandchild in 2014.

A sewer since taking a home economics class in middle school, Vance wanted to progress to the storytelling provided by quilting.

“I thought it was way above my pay grade, but I wanted to learn,” Vance said.

“It’s the creative part that I love so much — how you can use material to create beauty.”

Vance has two entries in this year’s library show. One is a vintage baby quilt she believes was crafted by her great-grandmother in the early 1900s.

“It may have been my mom’s when she was an infant. My sister had it on her quilt rack, and I asked her if I could borrow it. I liked how this little nine-patch quilt had been hand-quilted with little X’s over every square.”

Vance’s second entry is her re-creation of the family heirloom. Slightly different, with blue florals and pink cloth, it has same X’s over a nine-patch pattern.

These days, Vance’s hobby has taken over her dining room thanks to a Christmas gift of a large sewing machine from her husband. Having become “smitten” with quilting, Vance now uses her talent to create teddy bears and pillows for Heritage Hospice in New Kensington.

“I consider a good day to be one when I have made some kind of progress toward a quilting project or done some charity sewing,” she said.

New to the area, Harrison couple Bert and Lynn Sickler said the library exhibit piqued their interest. They entered four quilts into the contest.

An avid quilter, Lynn is behind three of the submissions — a blue-and-white lap quilt; a hand-sewn, full-sized brown-and-gold quilt; and a king-sized Ohio Star quilt.

Since retiring, crafting has become a full-time hobby, Lynn said.

The couple’s fourth entry, a baby quilt, holds a special meaning for the couple. It was created over several generations by Bert’s family.

“The burgundy and ivory patches for the top were pieced together from fabric scraps by my maternal great-great-grandmother, Lydia Craven Sauters, in the 1850s,” Bert said.

His great-grandmother, Etta Allmon Sauters, sewed the patches together and applied the backing. She didn’t have the chance to start the quilting before she passed away.

“My grandmother, Mildred Sauters Gibbs, began quilting the top in the fall of 1938, presumably intending to use it for her youngest child, but didn’t get to finish it before he was born early in 1939,” he said.

“It was The Depression, and things were different then. You set things aside. You didn’t rush out and buy all the materials you needed.”

His grandmother later completed the project in the spring of 1954 as a gift to Bert’s mother just before he was born.

“I received this baby quilt after my mother passed away, as her belongings were distributed and shared among my brothers and sisters,” he said. “The fact that my mother had used it for me and saved it, it’s cherished.”