By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Some have called quilting a dying art, but a group of young women are reviving it for the 21st century with inspiration from Pinterest and patterns found through Google. A number of these women belong to a local Facebook group called Clarksville Crunchy Ladies whose members tend to that support handmade goods and environmental sustainability.
Julianna Merwin, a 32-year-old mom of three, is a member of Clarksville Crunchy Ladies and has been quilting since as far back as she can remember. Her grandmother taught her everything she knew. In her Fort Campbell home are scads of quilts, including those she has made, as well as those received from her mother and grandmother.
But with modern technology, she has learned new aspects of quilting that her grandmother could have never imagined.
“The technology is there,” Merwin says. “You can go on Pinterest or Google all of these websites.”
The tops of most quilts are constructed by sewing together smaller units called “blocks” into a layout. Merwin says if a modern quilter has a picture of a certain quilt block she wants to make, she can look on the internet and figure out how to create it.
Another aspect of modernity is the sheer availability of quilting products.
Merwin says, “You can go to Hobby Lobby and get buttons in the shape of flowers, cupcakes, flowers, lizards and pumpkins. You can go on Etsy, Amazon, Google. I have never been able to not find something.”
A teddy bear Merwin’s grandmother pieced together from a family quilt from 1860. “This bear is my prized possession,” Merwin says./Karen Parr-Moody
Merwin used a modern quilting technique to create this frog prince with button eyes./Karen Parr-Moody
Quilting was once an art of practicality; it still has its practical aspects, but today it is more artful than ever.
“I don’t think in the 1800s they quilted as much for beauty as for utilitarian reasons,” Merwin says. “For the masses, (materials) were flour sacks, sugar sacks, worn-out clothes.”
Today’s modern colors and fabrics lend themselves to hip quilt layouts, allowing quilters to take liberties with this traditional art.
For one quilt Merwin made – one featuring various frog motifs – she employed a type of hand stitching that was traditionally called “redwork.” But she used green thread, for the frog theme, instead of the traditional red thread. With modernity comes creativity – especially for those, like Merwin, who love the art of quilting.
For those who would like to start quilting, there are several area stores that cater to the craft. They are Quilt and Sew at Golden Threads in Trenton, Kentucky, Kentucky Star Quilt Shop in Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Granny B’s Quilt Shop in Dickson, Tennessee.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.