By Meagan Ducic
The eighth annual Airing of the Quilts will take place on Huntsville’s historic downtown square May 2.
The display will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m and admission is free.
For years, quilters and quilt lovers alike have come from hundreds of miles away to take part in the event that sets Huntsville apart from many surrounding cities.
Eloise McGalliard of Madisonville has been quilting for 14 years and is the sitting president of the Tall Pines Quilt Guild.
The guild, which stretches over a number of nearby cities, currently has approximately 120 members and seems to be growing steadily, according to McGalliard.
Growing up in a family rich with quilters, she has grown to fully appreciate the craft and has done what she can to keep her deep family traditions going through her own unique work.
“My mother is a quilter and she’s 92 years old,” McGalliard said. “I remember going to quilting bees when I was just 4 or 5 years old. I love working with my hands and I love the art of quilting.”
With the quilt show coming up, constant coordination from all angles of the community is required to make it work.
“We really need city involvement, the cooperation of the downtown merchants and the Chamber,” McGalliard said. “It takes about a year to put it together; we start up again in June or July.”
Bedias member Debbie Goldstein has been quilting for about four years and also understands what it takes to put on a show of this magnitude.
“It takes a lot of people, people willing to come and give their time to do it,” Goldstein said. “People don’t realize that as soon as you put one to bed you’re working on the next one.”
Goldstein has three sisters who share her passion for quilting; one lives in Tennessee, one in Kingwood and another has recently moved the Bedias with plans of joining the guild during the coming year’s membership drive.
“Quilting is a lost art than the baby boomers have found,” Goldstein said. “It’s growing by leaps and bounds. “
Echoing her belief in the future of quilting is Tall Pines Quilt Guild member Dorothy Crowson of Bedias.
“I think we will continue to grow and get together, we enjoy getting together,” Crowson said. “It seems like the art of quilting itself is growing; we even have two or three college members and even one in junior high or high school from Madisonville.
“There are also students who come and visit the guild meetings from SHSU art classes to see how we put together the quilts.”
Each year, the guild invites a celebrity quilter to the event.
This year’s featured guest will be Carol Daok, a highly published quilting teacher. She will hold a class the Friday before the event and another on Monday, as well as speak after the guild meeting Monday night.
In addition to a celebrity guest, the airing will feature challenge quilts and a silent auction of miniature quilts.
According to McGalliard, at the first of the year, a guild member chooses a theme and a fabric and issues a challenge to the rest of the guild to create a quilt representing their own interpretation of the task.
Both events will be held in the Old Town Theatre on the square.
The event is sponsored by the Tall Pines Quilt Guild, with the cooperation of the Huntsville Arts Commission, Walker County, the Huntsville-Walker County Chamber of Commerce, the City of Huntsville and the Huntsville business community.
For more information, call Toni Bruner at (936) 295-5892.
