The Horry County Museum will host a free program by quilter Kathleen Stuart on March 10^th on Wholecloth Quilts. When it comes to “traditional” quilts, Kathy prefers to make wholecloth quilts using the traditional medallion style, however, she likes to use luxe fabrics such as silk dupioni or sateen and often incorporates machine embroidery. Kathy also likes to use fabric paints on her wholecloth quilts and Swarovski crystals.

Originally from Regina, Saskatchewan, Kathy now lives in North Carolina so that she can enjoy the warmer weather. She has been interested in every aspect of fiber since the age of four, having tried almost every technique including knitting, crochet, needlepoint, tatting, macramé and quilting, although she didn’t begin to quilt until 2001.

Kathy began to compete in quilt shows and found that her style of quilting didn’t fit into any of the categories….people just don’t do wholecloth anymore. Because of this her work was put into the “other” category, which she realized was a good thing. It has allowed her to try new things and stretch the idea of what a wholecloth quilt can be by adding more paint and beading, while still maintaining the traditional aspects of this type of quilt.

Kathy has won many awards for her work including Best of Show for her machine quilting at Machine Quilters Showcase. Her work has been featured in magazines, newspapers and video presentations, one of which was a vidcast by B. McCaffery of the Houston Quilt Show. At the Asheville Quilt Show, she was asked to do a short video for the series “Go Tell It At The Quilt Show” for the Quilt Alliance, a group that documents, preserves and shares the stories of quilters and their quilts.

The program will begin at 10:00 am at the Horry County Museum, located at 805 Main Street, Conway SC. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 843-915-5320 or email hcgmuseum@horrycounty.org. To view a full list of programs, visit our website at www.horrycountymuseum.org.