Featured quilter loves to sew 'every single day'

The signs of addiction are evident throughout Sally Glutting’s home.

Mounds of unused fabric, stacked by color and stuffed into shelf cubicles.

A wall hanging depicting a “Quilt Diva” adorned with a necklace cleverly made of tiny thread spools.

A sign on the sewing room door declaring “Warning: Quilt Pox, very contagious to adults; no known cure.”

And then there are the quilts in every room, hanging on walls, adorning beds and covering various pieces of furniture.

One would expect nothing less from the Flathead Quilt Guild’s featured quilter for the upcoming quilt show.

“I believe quilts can be anywhere,” Glutting said. “Walls, beds, even outside. It softens the spaces. It creates a warmth.”

If quilting is warmth, then Glutting’s home, and her artistic talent, are red-hot.

She readily admits she’s in a “serious relationship with her sewing machine,” and “an enthusiastic saver of fabrics, fibers and threads.”

Glutting’s talent has been amassed over a lifetime.

As an eighth-grader growing up outside of Chicago, she bartered baby-sitting for sewing lessons. She sewed her own prom dresses and has made most of her own clothing for much of her life.

The quilting bug bit in 1981 while she was working on her master’s in Special Education at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. A quilt store had just opened there and she took a class. There was no turning back after that.

Glutting joined the Flathead Quilt Guild when she and her husband, Steve, moved to Kalispell in 1983. The family moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, for six years — where Glutting continued to hone her quilting skills — and returned to Kalispell in 1996. She has been a faithful guild member ever since.

After a 40-year career as a Special Education teacher and a kindergarten teacher at Edgerton School for the latter part of her career, Glutting retired from teaching two years ago. She wasted no time in starting her own small business, One Loose Thread.

The Montana ARTrepreneur Program taught her how to create a business around her art, which includes not only quilting but also beading and fiber arts.

“It segued into a whole new chapter,” she said.

Glutting’s quilting has run the gamut of styles and techniques. She started out with traditional patterns. Her first quilt was a baby quilt for her firstborn son. The Gluttings have two grown sons, Neal and Nate, two daughters-in-law both named Emily, and two grandchildren.

She went through “an Amish phase” at one point. In recent years her quilting has gravitated toward art pieces that often depict landscapes.

“I don’t mind patterns, but I also like being able to take my own design and translate it into a quilt,” Glutting said. “I’ve found trying different techniques more rewarding than doing patterns, though I still do traditional quilts.”

After her sons were grown and gone, Glutting transformed their upstairs bedrooms into a quilting kingdom, with a dedicated room for beading and fiber arts.

She’s a hard-core crafter.

“One time I was sewing on beads while floating the river. I wouldn’t recommend that,” she recalled with a laugh. “My kids, family and friends are used to seeing me with a project in my hands.”

Quilting is incorporated into family vacations, as is fishing.

This year, Glutting is the president of the Flathead Quilt Guild, a group that is 120 members strong.

“We’re seeing more new people. It’s cool to keep it going with younger women,” she said, adding that younger quilters are designing their own fabrics and patterns. “Quilting has never been static. Modern quilting takes traditional patterns and interprets them in new ways.”

Glutting has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, showing pieces at shows such as the Sisters Quilt Show in Oregon and the Houston International Quilt Show. Her work has been featured in several publications.

She is currently the featured artist at the Purple Pomegranate in Whitefish, and she worked with the Hockaday Museum of Art on a current exhibit called “Piecing Together a Changing Planet: Climate Change in America’s National Parks.”

Glutting has taught many quilting classes through the years but is taking a break from much of that now so she can sew “every single day.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.