A quilt themed around the nuances of time is the Janome America Best of Show winner at the American Quilter’s Society Fall Paducah QuiltWeek.
Kathy Wylie of Whitney, Ontario, Canada said her quilt titled ‘For Such A Time As This’ features a large medallion divided into 12 sections symbolic of a clock and months in a year.
“So what I’ve done is for each hour of the clock, I’m also portraying each month of the year. And so I’ve done that with different flowers, like birth flowers and with birth stones in each hour of the clock. So if you really look back and analyze it, you’ll see there’s a lot of things that have something to do with time,” she said.
She said in designing her quilt, she thought about the journey through life and how things happen for a reason. Also, she said, it’s about time spent doing the things we like. “It’s the time that we put into making our art but it’s also the time that we spend thinking about what we’re trying to communicate and what we’re trying to show other people what we’re doing.”
The quilt involves hand appliqué and turned edge appliqué and was then machine-quilted on her domestic sewing machine, according to Wylie. She said she worked on the quilt for 3.5. years and most of that time involved hand stitching. Machine quilting took around 200 hours.
Wylie said she has won ribbons at past Paducah QuiltWeek contests, but this is her first time visiting the city and enjoyed the downtown atmosphere.
QuiltWeek, Wylie said, is an opportunity to share what she does with a broader audience. “Quilters spend a lot of time on their own, working on what we’re making. So it’s really special to get a chance to share what we’re doing and for people to see what you’ve done.” She said this particular show is unique in that the format allowed people to vote and feel involved in the judging process.
Wylie said she is honored to receive the award. “You dream, but you can’t dare to dream this big. And when it actually happens it’s like a dream come true. What can I say? It’s overwhelming!”
As for what’s next for Wylie, she hopes to have a series of birth flower blocks ready soon and will then start her next creative project.
Wylie won $20,000. AQS awarded in total $121,250 in prizes to Paducah QuiltWeek contest winners determined by public voting. The contest included entries from 42 states and 13 countries.
QuiltWeek continues through Saturday at the Schroeder Expo Center in Paducah. This is the second year of the fall contest. Spring Paducah AQS QuiltWeek begins April 24, 2019.