‘Quilting a Friendship’ on display through July 9

Quilting friends Doris Matson and Marilyn Van Norden both moved to Yuma in the 2000s and joined the Yuma Quilt Guild shortly thereafter. These friends will display their quilts at The Orphanage through July 9. The show will be called “Quilting a Friendship.”

Van Norden made her first quilt in the late 1980s. It was a sampler quilt made in a class at the local fabric store. “There weren’t rotary cutters and rulers when I started. Quilters used templates made from the backs of cereal boxes. Each piece was traced onto the fabric, cut out and then sewn together by machine or hand sewn,” she says. Due to family and career responsibilities, she didn’t make another quilt for several years.

Picking the fabric and colors has become Van Norden’s favorite thing about quilting. She would rather pick her own fabric than buy a kit where someone else has already made those choices. She also enjoys going to quilt retreats where she makes new friends and gets new ideas.

Matson’s quilting journey began in Pueblo in 1992, where she took classes and workshops from the local quilt shop and instructions from friends. To learn as much as she could from other quilters, she joined a local quilt guild wherever she lived. When she lived in Smithville, Missouri, there was not a local quilt guild, so she started one with women in her church and the local area. The guild, called Town and Country Quilters, is still meeting today.

Matson retired in 2006 and enjoys making quilts full time. Her favorite quilt pattern is the Log Cabin block because “you can set the blocks together in several different arrangements to give you completely different looking quilts.” She loves to do embroidery, applique and English paper-piecing. Doris’ other hobby is basket weaving; she enjoys creating baskets for family and friends.

This year’s quilt show, “Quilting a Friendship,” runs through Sunday, July 9, at The Orphanage. Hours of the exhibition are Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m., Sundays, 1-4 p.m., closed Mondays. 

The Orphanage is in downtown Yuma at 300 S. Main St. For more information about this exhibit or future shows, contact Richard Birnie at 970-630-3360, or visit The Orphanage website at www.orphanageyuma.com.