Quilt event displays the enduring freshness of a traditional genre
Photo by Rachel Pressley
The Western North Carolina Quilters Guild’s spring show, held once every two years, bestows ribbons in multiple categories – traditional, modern, art, miniature, and special techniques among them. But only one quilt is named Best of Show.
In 2022, that honor was given to Natalie Rockley’s art quilt Caring for Brother, a striking figurative piece. Using a 1950 photograph taken by her father in Afghanistan — where Rockley lived the first five years of her life — the artist told a story through a combination of machine quilting, embroidery, and appliqué. It’s part of her body of work intended to focus attention on the Afghan people. “I am using quilts to keep the Afghan people in the public’s eye,” she says.
Attendees at A Garden of Quilts Show 2024 will see an incredible breadth of technique and expression on more than 200 quilts displayed. Among those will be the third in Rockley’s series: I Have a Name portrays an Afghan mother and daughter. “In Afghanistan, under the Taliban, women officially have no name,” she explains. “On ID cards, marriage certificates, gravestones, their children’s birth certificates, they are just referred to as ‘daughter of,’ ‘wife of,’ ‘mother of.’ Only the man’s name is used.”
On this quilt, the women are covered head to toe in burqas, standing in front of a wall with the Hindu Kush mountains behind them. On two arches are the names — in Farsi and English — of 20 women.
Her other quilts celebrate the sea, the seasons, and other aspects of nature. But these works are either pure abstractions or only vaguely figurative: “Poetry of the Sea” is silkscreened in the astonishing tones of coral reefs, but the jaunty patterning suggests folk art, not a beachscape.
Rockley, who grew up in France, moved to the United States in 1975 when her husband accepted a teaching position at Oklahoma State University. She coordinated a program for international spouses, and one of the classes offered was quilting. “I knew nothing about it, but I would go in and watch and was amazed at how the same pattern would be reproduced in so many different colors and fabrics, and I understood how culture was represented in quilting.”
But it wasn’t until she moved to Hendersonville 15 years ago — in part to help care for her grandchildren — that she immersed herself in the craft, joining the WNC Quilters Guild, attending meetings, demonstrations, classes and workshops, and seeking instruction online and in books
“Little by little, I honed my skills, and then, because I wanted to make my own patterns, a couple years ago, I went into art quilting.”
The Guild has long been active in community-outreach efforts; this year, proceeds from the sales of tickets for the “Opportunity Quilt” go to a scholarship for a high-school student who will be studying fiber arts.
“Three of the Guild’s founders are still active,” notes show co-chair and longtime guild member Linda Lou Harris, who’s been quilting for nearly 50 years. “But we also encourage young people to join and help pass this on.”
The Western North Carolina Quilters Guild presents their show A Garden of Quilts on Friday, May 17 (10am-5pm) and Saturday, May 18 (10am-4pm), at the Bonclarken Conference Center (500 Pine Drive, Flat Rock). $5 per day general admission. For more information, see westernncquilters.org.