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Independence, MO —
On a visit to England in 2000, longtime Independence quilter Alta Short and husband, Ken, visited a topiary garden, marveling at the artistry of cutting and trimming trees and shrubs into various figurines.
So inspired by its beauty, she used the garden as inspiration for a large quilt she made there while visiting two quilting friends during her three-week stay. While enrolled in a quilting class with her English hosts, she made a 86-by-86-inch quilt, entitled “English Topiary Garden.”
“Everything was done by me except the quilting,” says Alta, who, as featured quilter, will display her colorful quilt at the 36th annual Independence Piece Makers Quilt Show over the Labor Day weekend at the Roger T. Sermon Community Center, Noland and Truman roads. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1; noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 2; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 3.
The garden trees are repeated in the border, which Alta attached to the quilt when she returned home from her visit. So that the quilt would look more like a garden, Alta used pink, green, yellow, purple, violet and orange colors for maximum effect.
“I did all the intricate work,” she says, “and Brenda Butcher put the quilt together using a long-arm sewing machine.”
Alta will be showing different quilt sizes in the show, including a wallhanging she entered some 25 years ago in the Hoffman Quilt Challenge, using a pattern she designed herself. Her entry and 49 others were judged winners in the competition and were displayed across the country.
Being selected is an honor, she says, explaining she had to travel to Overbrook, Kan., to purchase the special Hoffman Challenge material needed for the wallhanging, as no shops in the Greater Kansas City area carried it.
“Now, I didn’t win any money, but I do have the honor that my (entry) was (among) the first 50 selected. … I am really proud of it.”
An active member in numerous quilting organizations, Alta has her grandmother, Mary Smith Davis, to thank for her lifelong love of and infatuation with quilting.
“My grandmother was a quilter, so I learned to piece blocks with her help when I was little,” she recalls, noting she made a quilt for both of her daughters and she still has them.
It wasn’t until Alta earned her master’s degree in education in 1979 that she decided to return to her first love – quilting.
On a visit to England in 2000, longtime Independence quilter Alta Short and husband, Ken, visited a topiary garden, marveling at the artistry of cutting and trimming trees and shrubs into various figurines.
So inspired by its beauty, she used the garden as inspiration for a large quilt she made there while visiting two quilting friends during her three-week stay. While enrolled in a quilting class with her English hosts, she made a 86-by-86-inch quilt, entitled “English Topiary Garden.”
“Everything was done by me except the quilting,” says Alta, who, as featured quilter, will display her colorful quilt at the 36th annual Independence Piece Makers Quilt Show over the Labor Day weekend at the Roger T. Sermon Community Center, Noland and Truman roads. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 1; noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 2; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 3.
The garden trees are repeated in the border, which Alta attached to the quilt when she returned home from her visit. So that the quilt would look more like a garden, Alta used pink, green, yellow, purple, violet and orange colors for maximum effect.
“I did all the intricate work,” she says, “and Brenda Butcher put the quilt together using a long-arm sewing machine.”
Alta will be showing different quilt sizes in the show, including a wallhanging she entered some 25 years ago in the Hoffman Quilt Challenge, using a pattern she designed herself. Her entry and 49 others were judged winners in the competition and were displayed across the country.
Being selected is an honor, she says, explaining she had to travel to Overbrook, Kan., to purchase the special Hoffman Challenge material needed for the wallhanging, as no shops in the Greater Kansas City area carried it.
“Now, I didn’t win any money, but I do have the honor that my (entry) was (among) the first 50 selected. … I am really proud of it.”
An active member in numerous quilting organizations, Alta has her grandmother, Mary Smith Davis, to thank for her lifelong love of and infatuation with quilting.
“My grandmother was a quilter, so I learned to piece blocks with her help when I was little,” she recalls, noting she made a quilt for both of her daughters and she still has them.
It wasn’t until Alta earned her master’s degree in education in 1979 that she decided to return to her first love – quilting.
“I took a class called ‘Quilt as You Go.’ It was taught by (the late) Donna Stranton at Truman High School,” she recalls, explaining, she really needed to learn how to put a block together the way good quilters do.
Since completing that class some 33 years ago, Alta spends hours upon hours quilting. After all, she admits, “I am a ‘fabricholic’ ... and it relaxes me. I quilt upstairs and now I use the sewing machine. I don’t do handstitching.”
Since breaking her right wrist in May, Alta can add quilting to the list of things she can’t do for now.
Alta, who taught kindergarten at Sibley, Courtney and Elm Grove schools for 20 years, doesn’t know how much longer she’ll be incapacitated. But she’s sure she’ll be able to resume quilting once she can operate her rotary cutter.
“I have a cutter that I use to put my thumb and finger on, and it has a bar on the side. But I don’t think I am ready to do that yet,” she confesses. “This arm really hurts me.”
Alta’s broken wrist, though, isn’t the only infliction that has put her on the sidelines. Six years ago, she suffered a stroke and was put out of commission for about a year.
“I use to love appliqué – and I could do good appliqué – but I can’t do it now (because of the stroke),” she says. “I was in therapy six months and they had to use shock on my muscles to lift up my fingers when I first had (the stroke).”
Once, Alta would spend a lot of time on her passion. But not since breaking her wrist. She remembers quilting all day and into the night somedays, while listening to the radio and to DVDs and VCR tapes. But that was then. She hasn’t done any quilting since breaking her wrist.
Says Alta: “We grew up with radios, so I listen as much as I look.”
Referring to herself as a perfectionist, Alta says she is a stickler for matching quilt corners. And furthermore, she’s been known to tear up a few corners to get them just right. After all, she won’t take less than perfect.
As for colors, she likes them, too. That’s another one of her pluses, she says, as is her love of material.
“I have a good eye for colors. I think my quilts are attractive. I don’t know if I am outstanding, but, anyway, I like them.”
As for material, that’s what motivates her.
“I have enough material (stored in plastic tubs) that I could quilt for 100 years and not use it all,” Alta says. But she is not a hoarder. She gives material to quilters in need and to quilters on Indian reservations.
If you have a quilt or quilts you’d like to display at the Piece Makers Quilt Show, bring them to the Sermon Center from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 30, or from 10 a.m. to noon, Friday, Aug. 31. There is no entry fee. Quilts can be retrieved Monday evening.
Visitors to the free show will have the opportunity to vote for their favorite quilts. Viewers’ choice ribbons will be placed on quilts Sunday in six categories.
Vendors offering quilting-related supplies and material will be on hand throughout the three days.
For more information about the show, sponsored by the Independence Parks and Recreation Department, call 816-325-7370.
