For anyone who thinks that quilts are just something to keep you warm in the winter, prepare to be surprised at the June 17 Table Talk. Join the Friends of the Library and the Hitching Lot Farmers’ Market to hear quilter extraordinaire Julia Graber of Brooksville discuss the art of contemporary quilting at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library.
Graber’s works have been displayed both at Columbus Arts Council exhibits and around the United States. “I enjoy the challenge of taking an old familiar quilt block and turning it into a new and innovative quilt or fiber art,” she noted on her blog.
For the last nine years, Graber has been a finalist in the National Quilt Museum’s international “New Quilt from an Old Favorite” contest, placing twice in the top five. Her 2013 entry “Only a Lily” — based on the traditional Carolina Lily block — won first place.
According to the Museum’s website, “Quilts are selected for their excellence in design and techniques, their innovations, and their contributions to an exhibit showing the wide range of designs and styles the selected traditional pattern can inspire.”
In addition to those honors, she has won numerous awards and ribbons for her exquisite quilts in other shows and contests. Just recently, one of her quilts was chosen as the cover of the 2016 “QuiltArt” weekly engagement calendar.
As a fiber artist, Graber enjoys the transformation which takes place when an image from a photograph, nature, or her imagination becomes tactile as she recreates it with fabric and thread. “My work is representational and often minimizes detail,” she adds.
Her family, grandmother, and aunts made quilts and provided encouragement and inspiration. In recent years, four generations of these women get together for a week to 10 days to sew, quilt, talk and laugh.
“I have one of Julia’s small works,” said Friends member Jo Shumake. “It’s an expressive, simple holiday pine which I enjoy displaying at Christmas.”
Table Talks will be presented on Wednesdays in June at library at 314 Seventh St. N. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. for those wishing to bring their lunch and socialize before the program begins at noon. The Friends will serve iced tea.
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