By Katie Aguilar SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) – Although quilts are mostly used as bedding, this event gives them a different purpose. Quilting by the Lake, a program of the Schweinfurth Art Center, began its annual quilting conference on July 14 at the Onondaga Community College.
Part of the conference includes a quilt show, where several quilt artworks are displayed for the public to view. There are abstract quilts with different patterns and then there are the quilts with nature or people.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were just some of the public figures on the more modern quilts showcased at this exhibit. Davana Robedee, the program director, says that it’s important for people to understand that quilting is a type of art and is also very complex.
“You have the piecing, which creates imagery or patterns,” said Robedee. “Then you have the quilting which is the line drawings over the top that can create the depth, color and complicate the image.”
Carol Boyer of Syracuse has gone to the conference for several years now and is a passionate quilter herself. Boyer believes fiber is an integral part of our lives and no longer calls her pieces “quilts”.
“I call them sound absorbers,” said Boyer. “After you have one for every bed and two or three extra what do you do? You don’t want to stop creating them. So I make them for the wall now, they work very well for me that way.”
The Quilting by the Lake conference will continue until July 26.
