WELLINGTON – Stained glass and quilts are both assembled from bits and pieces of medium like a box of colorful crayons.On Saturday, Aug. 5, they all came together during the 2022 Wild & Free on 83 Quilt Show. This year’s show had 168 entries and over 275 guests in attendance.
Surrounded by the beautiful stained glass of the First United Methodist Church, this year’s show featured the “Thinking Outside the (Crayon) Box: Community Quilting Challenge” where community members were challenged to blindly draw two crayons at random from a basket. No matter which colors were drawn, those participating would have to make a project with the two colors as the inspiration.
Pat Barnett, of Wellington, drew citrus orange and cool blue crayons. With her chosen colors she found an adorable kitten panel that matched her crayons. To add an extra touch to her quilt, she cut varying sized circles in fabric, sewed them on one layer at a time starting with the larger circle and finally sewed about one-fourth inch or more from the edge of each circle. After the quilt is washed the edges of the fabric will be frayed. This technique created yarn balls to match the kitten.
There is a saying, “Oh my darlin’ it’s true... beautiful things have dents and scratches, too.”Our Community Quilt Challenge 2023 will be “Recycle and Reuse Me: Turning Yesterday’s Old Things into Tomorrow’s New Treasures.”
This year’s quilt show also raised money for local rainbows and rays of sunshine, Clive Downing and Kaydence Mixon, to support their medical expenses because the only thing more beautiful than a stained glass window or colors in a box of crayons is the beautiful smiles that these two little angels add to our community.
Donations for Clive can be made to the Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) at COTAforClive. com. Donations for Kaydence can be made at Pilgrim Bank or via Venmo @Natasha-Mixon-5 or @ JMix5oh.
