Patty Hawkins was a nervous wreck when she packed her children into a box, and shipped them from Estes Park, Colo., to Brigham City.
Her "children" are 15 quilts she gave birth to, and Hawkins was very relieved when she received word from the Brigham City Museum-Gallery that they had arrived safely.
"I got teary-eyed and emotional," she said. "I can't stand that my quilts are there, and I'm not."
The quilts are here for the Quilt Invitational, opening Saturday at the Brigham City Museum-Gallery. They'll be on display through Aug. 18, when Hawkins will pick them up.
For Hawkins, in a way, the trip to Brigham City will be a homecoming. She lived in the town for seven years, in the 1960s and '70s, when her husband worked for Thiokol.
"Two of our three kids were born there," she said. "We have wonderful memories of a sweet, little town."
Passion
Hawkins started quilting about 25 years ago, after working for 15 years with watercolor art.
"When I discovered quilting, I was really blown away," she said.
That discovery happened when she saw art quilts in a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution.
"I said to my husband, 'I can do this -- this is like a big canvas,' " she remembers.
She took lessons, and made quilts using traditional patterns. Then her quilting group challenged themselves to do art quilts -- not from patterns, but their own imaginations.
"That really resonated with me," she said.
Labor of love
For several years, Hawkins created art quilts depicting mountain scenes.
Then she started dyeing her own fabrics.
"I was scared to death, because I was making so much fabric and didn't know how I was going to feature it," she said. "Then, luck of luck, my son purchased an office building."
Hawkins decided to check out the ladies restroom.
"I said to my son, 'Do you know how fascinating that floor tile is?' "
The patterns and colors inspired a new series of quilts.
She was also inspired by time spent in San Francisco.
"I was taking photos of skyscrapers, when they reflected into neighboring buildings," she said, describing the images as window scribbles, which she interpreted in quilts for seven years.
Nine years ago, she moved to Estes Park, near Rocky Mountain National Park.
"I couldn't do those window scribbles, as much as I love them, because they related too much to the city," she said. "I had about six months of playing around with triangles, and crazy patchwork, trying to figure out where I wanted to go, when wham -- aspen just hit me in the face."
She's been creating quilts featuring aspen trunks and golden leaves ever since. The tree bark fabric is colored by Hawkins, using Japanese shibori pole wrap dyeing techniques.
Fruits of her labor
Hawkins's quilts have been accepted into six Quilt Nationals, a biennial show considered by many to be the premier quilt show in the country. They've also been displayed in the Museum of American Folk Art in New York City.
Her passion for quilting started when she saw art quilts in a Smithsonian exhibit, and she's come full circle -- her own quilts have been displayed in the Smithsonian Museum, in Washington, D.C.
PREVIEW
l WHAT: Quilt Invitational
l WHEN: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 1-5 p.m. Saturdays, Saturday-Aug. 18
l WHERE: Brigham City Museum-Gallery, 24 N. 300 West
l ADMISSION: Free; 435-723-6769
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