Mountain Village Quilt Guild kicks off annual show at Copper Village

The Mountain Village Quilt Guild put their heads, hands, and hearts together to create a piece of art so extraordinary and colorful that it could only be named one thing, the “Crayon Block Challenge” quilt. 

The quilt guild kicked off the event, as they do every year, with a tea party in the gallery at Copper Village Museum and Arts Center complete with white fabric tablecloths and fancy tea cups and saucers. Colorful quilts wallpapered the space enveloping the members as they drank their tea and took in the beauty in every direction. But the star of the show, the Crayon Block Challenge quilt, is the first sight to welcome spectators as they walk down the ramp leading into the gallery. 

The quilt got its colorful name when the guild was challenged by selecting two crayons from a box of 96 and utilizing the randomly selected colors to create a specific block pattern throughout the piece. Afterward, the 20 individual squares were pieced together, sewn, and finished with the quilting and binding.

In previous years the challenge blocks were used to make table runners, but this year they decided to go big and went with a larger, wall-hanging quilt.

Annually, the group of talented ladies join forces to create a quilt with the intention of donating it to a deserving recipient. This year Copper Village itself – which has hosted the quilt guild for a number of years – was bestowed with the honor. The new center director, Erin Swift, was both humbled and grateful to accept the gift and has plans for its future.

“To get a quilt like this at a store you’re talking $300 standard, but with the amount of detail, and so many hands [to make it], it could go for twice that,” Swift said.

A one-of-a-kind piece of art like this is, in a word, priceless. However, funds raised from the sale of the quilt will go directly to the Copper Village for upgrades including new lighting, paint, floors, and boards throughout the gallery.

The quilt will be on display in the gallery through February and March before it is raffled off to one lucky winner. Tickets are available for purchase at the Copper Village Museum and Arts Center in the Old City Hall building at 401 E. Commercial Ave.

The guild is 32 members strong, but there’s plenty of room for new people. They meet the first Thursday of every month at the Copper Village from noon to 1 p.m. There are quilting retreats, demonstrations, show and tells, closed and open sew, and classes offered to members. There is a $5 cost for the open sew for the day. They encourage everyone to come. 

For information or questions call Susan Bivins at (707) 357-3839 or Copper Village Museum and Art Center at (406) 563-2422.