Stitches in Time Quilt Show opens in Cleveland, Tennessee

Quilts from the 2018 Stitches in Time Quilt Show hang in an exhibition hall at the Museum Center at Five Points. Submissions into the show increased this year, with more than 100 on display. (Photo from Museum Center at Five Points)

More than 100 of the best quilts in the region go on view Thursday, Jan. 31, as the Museum Center at Five Points in Cleveland, Tennessee, opens its annual Stitches in Time Quilt Show.

Lindsay Overby- Shirkey, curator of collections, says a couple of judging categories were changed this year to better reflect the submissions that typically come in for the show.

"We revamped the categories to better serve the current number of quilts we receive and to forgo any confusion with sizing and requirements," she says.

"For example, we used to have separate categories for hand-quilted bed quilts and machine-quilted bed quilts. Last year, we only received three hand-quilted bed quilts, and there was confusion as to how much of the quilt had to be hand-quilted to be placed in that category. We now only have a bed quilts category."

Overby-Shirkey says judge Kay Papenfuss can "take into account the amount of effort and care that goes into hand-quilting and takes this into consideration when judging hand-quilted quilts alongside machine- quilted ones."

Other categories include antique quilts, art quilts, wall hangings and quilts fashioned by novices, youths or groups.

The show has been extended to allow more time for visitors to see it, and more classes are being offered to generate new interest in the show and in quilting as an art.

"Our quilt show always generates excitement from our local quilting community," Overby-Shirkey says. "We have regulars who enter every year and those who just discovered it and are bringing their quilts to be judged for the first time."

Several featured quilters will have their works in lobby displays that change out during the run of the show.

An awards ceremony is scheduled for Thursday night with the opening of the show. A Quilts of Valor service day and quilt presentation to a local veteran is scheduled Saturday, Feb. 2. The exhibition ends Thursday, Feb. 28.