Quilter stitches heirlooms for family
Blanche Garrett, featured quilter for the 28th annual Flathead Quilters Guild show this weekend, practices her craft for the joy of making memories for her family - not ribbons or recognition.
"I'd like to have all my daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to have one - I've got three greatgrands to go," Garrett said. "It's something they'll have when I'm gone."
For her display at the show Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Flathead County Fairgrounds, she has rounded up her quilt gifts as well as a few she kept, including one spread over her dining room table.
The piece incorporates a hearts-and-cornet pattern with antique doilies from small to large that Garrett hand-appliqued on to the quilt.
"My grandmother made them," she said.
Garrett said her grandmother used the doilies on special occasions to set off dinner, salad and bread plates as well as butter dishes on top of a tablecloth.
Inspiration struck one day that she could incorporate the doilies into a quilt that her whole family now covets.
"All three of my girls say, 'That's mine someday, mother,'" she said. "It's very sentimental - it goes back generations."
Her favorite quilt, based on a Mountain Delectable pattern with columbine flowers, actually gave her fits during construction.
"I started in the right corner," she said. "By the time I got to the left corner, it didn't match up."
Garrett asked her friend and quilting mentor Shirley Barrett for help.
The two ripped and ripped, then finally re-sewed what became her all-time favorite.
"It's more exciting than most quilts," she said. "I like the colors and the design. It's got a little bit of everything - appliques, embroidery, machine sewing and quilting."
When she makes a gift quilt, Garrett lets the recipient choose the colors, which she lives with as she cuts and stitches it together over about three months. She pointed out one quilt with material featuring tiny flowers that she actually disliked.
It reminded her of the flour sacks her mother used to make her dresses and pantaloons during the Great Depression.
"I don't like anything that looks like Depression days," she said. "I lived through those days and there was nothing to celebrate."
Garrett grew up in Kila with seven brothers. She spent 33 years selling real estate while raising her three daughters with her now late husband, Monte.
When her daughters were young, Garrett sewed all the clothes for their dolls at Christmas time. She didn't touch a sewing machine again for about 30 years. Then she got introduced to quilting through a friend she helped get into real estate.
"A guy in the office was having a baby and she suggested making a baby quilt," Garrett recalled.
She was about 60 at the time but not too old to get hooked on a new hobby. Garrett joined the Flathead Quilters Guild in about 1990 where she met her guru, Barrett.
"She's a champion quilter," Garrett said. "She's entered national quilt shows."
The two work on patterns together and also have great fun on jaunts searching for quilt materials from Eureka to Polson. Garrett also sews with a weekly "Tuesday group" of 12 to 16 quilters who get meet from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
"It's a group of ladies from the guild," she said. "We take hand work and visit and have lunch in the Presbyterian church basement."
At home, Garrett enjoys getting up early and sewing before the phone starts ringing. She quilts the most during the winter when other activities, such as making pickles and sauerkraut, don't compete for her time.
"I enjoy sewing," Garrett said. "I don't like to sit still."
She helps out with the guild's quilt show every year.
Now 82, Garrett laughed as she speculated that her fellow guild members chose her as the featured quilter for fear she might not be around a lot longer.
"It's not because I'm that good. I feel so many other people are qualified above me," she said. "But I accepted and I'll try to do a good job."
Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com