Quilter uses colors to bring out the art in traditional patterns

Walking around Barb Taylor’s home her enthusiasm for art in many different mediums becomes apparent. 

Miniature watercolors by Todd Hilemen line the wall of the dining room, behind the couch her mother’s paintings are displayed, in one corner is a framed Marion Lacy photograph of beargrass and scattered in every room is her artwork in the form of quilts. 

“I just think quilts are art,” Taylor said standing in the kitchen of her Kalispell home. “Quilters use the same pattern, but with different fabrics and colors. Their tastes are so different they all look different.” 

Preferring to use traditional patterns for her quilts, Taylor looks at the choice of colors to bring out her creativity. Though purple remains her favorite color and one that makes a frequent appearance, her range in selecting colors has grown over the 25 years she’s been quilting. 

“Art is infinite,” she said. “And at the basic level quilting is art. You put colors together in different ways.” 

As the featured quilter for this year’s Teakettle Quilt Guild show, her quilts will be showcased at the show on Saturday, April 20. Standing beside quilts from bed-sized to miniatures roughly 10 inches by 10 inches in size that she’ll take to display at the show, Taylor says it’s an honor to be selected. 

“It’s something I never would have considered being selected, she said. “There’s so many people and such wonderful quilters.”

Though having sewn clothing for herself and her daughter it wasn’t until retirement that Taylor found the time to learn to quilt. She worked in a bank, for a dental office and for a podiatrist, while she and her husband raised two children. There wasn’t time for quilting and until her children left home the kitchen table was where she set up her sewing machine. 

Then it was a friend who gathered together several women for a crafting group, but what ended up sticking for all of them was quilting. 

Now along with the Teakettle guild, she’s a member of the Flathead Quilters’ Guild, attends quilting retreats and spends most Fridays quilting with a group of friends. And as any good quilter, she has a stash of fabric in her sewing room waiting for the next project. 

“I don’t think I’ll live long enough to use it,” she said with a laugh. 

She has a bookshelf filled with quilting books and keeps watch for new patterns to try. Once she begins a quilting project she finishes it before starting another. 

“I don’t like leaving things undone,” she said. “If I’m interested enough to do it then I want to have it done. I don’t want to be thinking about different fabrics for different projects. I’m a start-to-finish person.” 

Group quilting days and guild meetings offer the opportunity to see what color fabrics others select when making the same quilt. Sometimes quilters will use the same pattern, but select different colors while working on the quilts at the same time. 

“Everybody’s concept for color choices and fabrics is so different,” she said. “I have a friend who likes bright colors and I like batik (more muted colors). I look at other people’s color choices and think I would never do that and then it turns out so well.” 

Being a member of the quilt guilds means being part of groups that have “love and generosity,” says Taylor, when they make quilts to donate. 

“I enjoy seeing their creativity, but it’s amazing to see them come together and make quilts to give away to others,” Taylor said. 

The Teakettle Quilt Guild 2024 Quilt Show is April 20 from 9 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at Glacier Gateway Elementary, 440 Fourth Ave. W., Columbia Falls. Admission is free. 

Features Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or hdesch@dailyinterlake.com.