Quilter takes time to create fabric florals
SANDPOINT — When it comes to creating colorful works of quilt art, Leslie Schubarth takes her own, sweet time.
Selected as this season’s featured quilter for the upcoming Panhandle Piecemakers Quilt Guild show on Aug. 9-10, at Sandpoint Community Hall, Schubarth specializes in fashioning intricate handwork for the blocks of fabric that make up her quilts.
The technique is known as back-basting appliqué — a needle-centric school of quilt making that has been going on since long before the sewing machine was invented. For this artist, the approach becomes a form of meditation and relaxation. Another big plus, she said, is that the medium is completely portable.
Schubarth will be teaching the finer points of back-basting technique at the quilt show in an attempt to pull in more proponents.
“I want to encourage people to give it a try,” she said. “A lot of them are afraid of the handwork involved.
“Maybe some of them think it’s too slow,” she added. “But this world needs to slow down a little bit.”
Her great-grandmother was a quilter, which could have been what planted the seed that didn’t take root until many years later.
“Back then, I was raising kids, so I didn’t have the time,” said Schubarth. “As they started leaving the nest, I got to pursue quilting in earnest.”
She and her husband, Steve, moved to the area about 10 years ago. Now working from her studio in a log home perched on a hilltop overlooking Dufort Road, the quilter has been a member of the guild since arriving in Bonner County. The camaraderie she found gave her an instant network that felt more like family than acquaintances.
“Quilters are known for their friendliness,” Schubarth said. “I met the ladies here and the rest is history.”
The guild, she pointed out, boasts a wealth of different styles, from the very traditional to cutting-edge art quilts.
For her work, the quilter takes inspiration from her gardens, where the flowers spark new ideas and new directions.
“I learn from flowers,” she said. “I love to look at them and try to put them into quilts.
“My kids tease me,” she continued. “If we find a field of flowers, I’ll be down on my knees counting the number of petals.”
Such attention to detail has guided the quilter’s path and given her an eye for detail. Where once she fashioned her fabric blocks with simple outlines of flowers, she now uses appliqué to craft three-dimensional floral arrangements.
“I’m working on smaller and smaller designs and using many layers in a flower to paint with fabric,” she said.
Back-basting requires multiple stages of work and tends to leave “bits and pieces of quilt everywhere,” the artist said. All of that rolls up into an enormous amount of time invested in each quilt.
“It probably takes me hundreds and hundreds of hours to finish a bed-sized quilt,” said Schubarth. “But we don’t count the time, because we’re sitting and enjoying it.”
The featured quilter will have 10 pieces in the guild event, from wall hangings to bed-size, including four new works she completed for the show.
Her partner in creativity is Fonda Sarff — a local long-arm quilter who does the final stitching on the pieces.
“To me, Fonda brings it to life,” said Schubarth. “I take a top that I’ve created and she adds her artwork to it by putting designs on top of my design and filling in the negative space.”
Being chosen as the featured quilter for the Aug. 9-10 show — a distinction that is handed out only every two years — puts Leslie Schubarth in good company, joining previous quilters such as JoAnn Simms and Gina Siembeda who have earned the distinction in past years.
“It’s humbling, because we have so many talented women in our guild who are much better quilters than I am,” she said. “But it gives me a chance to share one of my passions and demonstrate what I love to do.”
The Panhandle Piecemakers Quilt Guild has grown to more than 50 members and welcomes interested newcomers to attend its meetings and workshops.
For more information, visit them at: www.facebook.com/PanhandlePiecemakers.