Quilter uses 50 shades of green …and brown

Pahrump’s Shadow Mountain Quilters, consisting of 141 members, successfully launched the 19th annual Quilt and Fiber Arts Show this past weekend.

The show, sponsored by the Pahrump Arts Council, featured a variety of vendors and exhibitors who cashed in on the well-attended show.

Half-time Pahrump resident Sally Folmar took home a variety of top awards including best in show for her quilt titled “Amazon Star.” The paper-pieced prize-winning quilt took her several months to make.

Folmar is fairly new to quilting. She began quilting in 2000, approached, she said, with a life-long hatred of sewing.

She laughs at herself now, as that hatred has turned into a love for quilt making. To prove it, she boasts seven different sewing machines, evidence of her addictive passion.

Part of her passion is derived from the selection, or “auditioning,” of fabric for a selected pattern. She raves about the textures, intricate patterns and shades of fabric. She describes her method for selecting a flower basket pattern she constructed for an applique’ block to be used in a quilt.

She chooses the colors subjectively. The common denominator in each block is the the color of the basket, brown, and the color of the flower stems and leaves, green. There are at least fifty different shades of each color, she said, and within the color schemes there are a variety of patterns. “She looks for fabrics that have dimension, character, movement and depth.

The appliqué block will be used to create a quilt which she said will take her at least three years to make. The pattern, though not very complex, took three days to cut.

There are several varieties of quilts, including appliqué, paper-piecing, standard-piecing and patchwork. She prefers to make quilts that are challenging, rather than selection by type. Each quilt, she said, is also named, often inspired by the pattern and chosen once the quilt is complete.

Quilting is considered an art form. She puzzles out the colors, and though she never thought of herself as an artist, sees leaves, bird wings or blades of grass in whimsical pieces of fabric.

Her most-loved quilt, she tells, was not one that she loved. It is the very first flannel quilt that she made for her husband. “He’s worn a hole in it and now it’s the cat’s quilt. But it was well used and got lots of love,” she said. In order to be gifted with one of her quilts, she said, “You have to be quilt-worthy.” She intends on making each of her six grandsons a quilt as a wedding gift. “I want my quilts to be passed down from generation to generation. You have to appreciate the work and love that goes into making a quilt,” she said.

Folmar, like other members of the Shadow Mountain Quilters, have joined the local guild because they want to share their knowledge as well as their love of quilting. The guild is offering a free quilting class on March 12 at their weekly meeting held at the Bob Ruud Community Center, located at the intersection of Highway 160 and Basin Road, from 9 a.m to 1 p.m.

For more information about Shadow Mountain Quilters, visit sponsor website Pahrump Arts Council website at www.pvpac.org/local-arts-groups/shadow-mountain-quilters.