Submitted by Diane Martin –
OAKHURST – The Sierra Mountain Quilters Association (SMQA) will host their 2019 Quilt Show, “A Needle Pulling Thread,” on Saturday and Sunday, May 18 and 19, at the Oakhurst Community Center.
There will be quilts created by local quilters and fiber artists, and vendors from throughout the region will have a variety of wares and goodies for sale.
This year’s Featured Quilter for the SMQA quilt show is Colette Wear. Attendees are in for a big treat as Colette is a masterful quilter, applique expert and genuine artist.
Colette has resided in Mariposa with her husband George for 27 years. Colette and George have four adult children, two boys and two girls. Formerly residents of San Jose, Calif., they both worked for IBM and moved to Mariposa after falling in love with the area while visiting a friend’s ranch.
As a Mariposa resident, Colette is very active in sewing and quilting activities in her home town as well as the Sierra Mountain Quilters Association.
Colette also belongs to the Mariposa Piece Makers, a very active quilting club that meets once a month in Mariposa on the second Saturday of each month. She also belongs to the Sierra Sewing group that meets in Mariposa at the Senior Center.
She participates in many projects that benefit the community such as sewing quilts for CASA kids, patriotic quilts for Rotary, and quilts for the Children’s Hospital. This is along with all the community-benefitting projects she participates in with SMQA!
A lifelong artist and seamstress, Colette decided to try making her first quilt for her 14-year-old granddaughter. It sounded like a fun project as it was called “Quilt in a Day.” Before rotary cutters, this involved ripping the fabric into strips and sewing them into log cabin squares. As Colette had been sewing since she was nine years old, making a quilt came easy.
In fact, she became very interested in sewing as a child when her mother was sewing clothing for a life-sized doll. Colette was fascinated. When her mother took a break to make lunch, she decided that she could do some sewing herself.
In the unsupervised process, she sewed through her finger. Her mother had to carefully remove the needle with pliers! Yikes! But that didn’t deter her. Her mother immediately decided to show her how to safely sew and she has been sewing ever since.
Several years passed between Colette’s first quilt and her return to quilting. Following her retirement to Mariposa, she visited Bear Paw Quilt Shop in Oakhurst, where she saw a Chicken quilt. She says that it was Donna Hennings’ encouragement and mentoring, that inspired her to quilt again. Donna is one of her quilting “heroes.”
Colette has had many quilting experiences and adventures. She didn’t know much about applique but decided to take an applique trip with friends. Unknowingly, she selected a very complicated pattern. It involved needle-turning applique, which proved to be one of her most challenging projects in quilting.
Following that experience, she decided to learn other methods and has become masterful with the starch and reversed applique methods. Another quilting adventure of Colette’s was her quilting cruise to Hawaii with Pearl Pereira, an applique expert.
Four days at sea coming and going to Hawaii allowed lots of time for learning reverse quilting on Hawaiian quilt blocks. Some folks got a bit seasick, but not Colette! She met many new friends and learned from one of her favorite and most inspiring quilt instructors. Since then, she often uses Pearl Pereira’s beautiful, artistic patterns.
At the SMQA quilt show on May 18 and 19, Colette will display some of her latest projects including her biggest challenge: an applique flower quilt designed by Pereira. The quilt involves intricate applique, advanced embroidery techniques, and machine quilting. Colette will be there to display her amazing quilts, many of which are award winners.
Opportunity quilt to be raffled at 2019 Quilt Show – photo courtesy SMQA
There will be a raffle drawing on Sunday, May 19 at the Quilt Show for this beautiful “Opportunity Quilt.” One does not need to be present to win. The prices for raffle tickets are:
- 1 ticket – $1
- 6 tickets – $5
- 30 tickets – $20
Hours for the Quilt Show will be Saturday, May 18, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, May 19, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is just $8 and children are free.
The Oakhurst Community Center is located at 39800 Road 425B.
Visit www.sierramountainquilters.org for more information. You can also email sierramountainquilters@gmail.com or phone Sally Walker at 559-683-5316.
