In the Gallery: October

QUILTS REFLECT FALL'S HAPPY COLORS

From Tuesday, September 28 until Friday, October 29, the Library's Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery will host the exquisite HAPPILY COLORED QUILTS of Catherine Stevenson Beemer, formerly of Crawfordsville. The Jewelry of Joanne Kuhn Titolo and the Pottery of Susan Lopez will remain in the Display Cases for a second month. Catherine frequently describes herself as a frustrated artist. In her senior year at Crawfordsville High School, she took a basic drawing class and that was enough to hook her. Growing up she participated in Montgomery County 4-H clubs, sewing flat pieces to dresses. For ever so long, she wanted to be a dress designer, something that frightened her poor mother to the point of sending her to Purdue for an extensive evaluation of abilities and aptitudes. For Catherine, quilting married her curiosity about design, her love of color and her intellectual connections around geometry. She has been quilting since 1995 and officially joined Durham Orange Quilt Guild in 1996. Quilting had to be fit into her busy Montessori teaching career, but holidays and summers found her at her sewing machine. She has availed herself of workshops taught by Kaffe Fassett, Kaye England, Hollis Chatelain, Sharon Craig, Sherry Woods, Judith Dales, Anne Weaver, Jude Spade, Barbara Webster, Amy Stewart-Winsor, Bobbie Eklow, Margaret Miller and many others. Catherine has entered quilts in her local guild shows, NC Symposium, AQS in Nashville, TN, Greensboro's Quilt Show, Asheville Quilt Show, and NC State Fair. This is her first solo show. Liturgical quilts at her church, not in this show, have been an interest of hers. Working with Children to make collaborative quilts has provided opportunities for whimsy. If she had to declare a category for her quilts, it would include bright colors, foundation piecing and a leaning toward art quilts. Now that she is retired, Catherine feels her quilting career has just begun. See you in the Gallery; do come often and stay long enjoying our inside fall colors.