Quilt Festival Opens Sunday

Once sought out as a source of comfort, quilts in recent years have come to be viewed as woven works of art – collectibles for some, investments for others.

And in August, about a dozen people with quilts in hand will be treated to a rather rare opportunity as part of the 2011 Atlanta Quilt Festival at Hammonds House Museum, 503 Peeples St.

The festival's opening reception, "A Legacy of Quilting: Look What Big Mama Started," is noon to 4 p.m. Sun., July 31, at the South Fulton Arts Center, 4645 Butner Rd.

During the August festival, the state’s only certified quilt appraiser will help them discover just how much their work of art is worth.

In 30-minute sessions, Holly Anderson will assess modern and antique quilts, each for $45, said Overtis Brantley with the Clara Ford Foundation, one of the sponsors of the annual event that will begin Sunday and end Aug. 13.

Taking pictures and examining the conditions of the quilt, Anderson will in two weeks send each person an official documentation that will include the size, description, age and condition of the quilt along with its market value, Brantley said.

Quilting, the stitching together of layers of padding and fabric, may date back as far as ancient Egypt. Quilts are distinguished by their three parts: the top, the cotton stuffing in the middle that makes it comfortable and warm and the back, which holds it all together.

Brantley, a self-taught quilter, received eight of her grandmother’s quilts.

“Almost everybody’s grandmother quilted. Then we viewed it more as utilitarian rather than as art.”

But that changed when quilts from Gee’s Bend, a poor tenant community in Alabama, were put on display in museums across the United States.

“That’s the first time you viewed quilts as art rather than something to just keep you warm,” Brantley said.

At the time when her grandmother, Clara Ford, was stitching, the quilts were more “folky,” made without patterns, Brantley said.

“From that humble beginning, it’s an amazing thing what African Americans are doing with the art form,” Brantley said.

This is the third year of the festival, which will begin with an event Sunday at the Fulton County Arts Center at 4645 Butler Road. The event will include a quilting demonstration, book fair, silent auction and activities for children, Brantley said.

 Then on Aug. 6, guest quilter Juanita Yeager will host a master quilting workshop that will include a lecture and a showing of her quilts at the Arts Center for $65, according to the Hammonds House Museum.

There will also be a quilting class for beginners starting simultaneously with the appraisal at 10 a.m. on Aug. 13.

Registration and a sewing machine are required for the class, which will be taught by Nina Moore.