Tom's Life Bits

Inspired by Amy Martin's Obama campaign poster, “Manifest Hope,” the quilt “Hope In Cotton” was made by the Piecemeal Quilters Bee of Wake County members: Julianne Walther, Sharleen Klas, Tina Schwager, Lori Rice, Shirley Hendrix, Sandy Fitzpatrick, Ann Young and Carol Franks. It measures 22.5 x 34.25 inches and is made from cotton fabric, cotton and polyester threads.

By Vickie Jean DeHamer, Staff Writer
It all started when Julianne Walther briefly considered stealing a poster.

Well, not really — the 37-year-old Cary mother of four is a law-abiding citizen, but she did want to take the poster home the minute she saw it.

She was at her neighborhood’s Democratic turf headquarters last fall to give her husband Justin, who was volunteering there, something he forgot when she spotted it: Amy Martin’s “Manifest Hope” poster, taped to a door.

As one of Barack Obama’s official campaign posters, it showed a woman holding her child up under the word, “Hope” amidst fluttering butterflies, themselves symbols of change and possibility.

Walther thought it would be the perfect image for her upcoming quilting bee project, but she needed a copy of it and her deadline to come up with an idea for the group was only about a week away.

Couldn’t she just borrow it to make a copy?

“My husband said, ‘Well, it’s their poster,’” she recalled.

Luckily, all Walther had to do was ask and she was able to take it home. Her next task was finding out who the artist was in order to get permission to reproduce the artwork.

It’s only fitting that she located Martin’s name and contact information via the Internet on election night.

“I e-mailed her and she gave me the go ahead that night,” the Democrat recalled of the exciting evening, watching Obama’s numbers rise and getting such an immediate reply from Martin, a 33-year-old graphic artist from Los Angeles.

That’s just the beginning to the curious story of how a quilt from Cary made its way to Washington, D.C. this month for one of the most historically significant inaugurations in U.S. history.

Little quilt that could

While Walther was busy organizing her eight-member quilting bee to collaborate on pieces for the quilt, Martin was contacting the promoter of the Manifest Hope Art Series, which features Obama-inspired art and last toured in Denver during the Democratic National Convention. She told him about Walther’s plan to recreate her political poster in quilt form.

You could say he took an interest — four months later, the completed quilt, “Hope In Cotton,” is set to hang Jan. 17-19 at Irvine Academy in Washington D.C. as part of Obama’s inaugural art show.

“I was so excited,” gushed Walther, recalling the promoter’s e-mail inviting her to Fed-Ex the quilt to be part of the show. “He was so excited, because the art symbolized women, and women made the quilt, and we took on such a ‘crafty’ project.”

She giggled.

“We don’t call it ‘crafty,’” she clarified, referring to the skills necessary to execute such an intricate piece, which took her quilting bee a month to complete, with each member doing a portion and Walther sewing the finished pieces together.

“Some of the colors don’t match exactly,” she said of the compilation. “But that’s what makes it interesting.”

Born to stitch

“I’ve been sewing since I could reach the pedal,” Walther said, who took up quilting 12 years ago.

Her first love was making clothes, but she became frustrated because they didn’t always drape the way she’d imagined.

She saw “How to Make An American Quilt,” and even though the movie wasn’t exactly about quilting, the idea stuck.

“I thought, I know how big the bed is and how a quilt lies flat,” she said, and decided to give it a try.

Her first piece was a “really ugly sampler,” one she has kept to this day because it’s considered somewhat traditional in her quilting circles to remember a first quilt with good humor.

She joined the Capital Quilter’s Guild of Raleigh, which has 360 members and meets once a month for lectures and to organize charity work, donating quilts to local intensive care units and nursing homes, including some international charities.

Walther is awed that her quilts have traveled to help comfort people in other countries.

“I thought, wow, there’s one of my quilts being washed in a river in Africa,” she said.

Babies, business and blue ribbons

After her last child was born four years ago, Walther launched, “Patchwork Memories,” a home business where she sews cherished T-shirts and photos into quilts and teddy bears.

She estimates she’s made more than 700 quilts since and her business is thriving. She also enters her work in competitions, including the N.C. State Fair, and has an impressive wall of winning ribbons.

But she mostly enjoys the stress relief quilting offers and the flexibility the business affords her as a mother to Harrison, 8, identical twins Drew and Bryce, 6, and Avery, 4.

“If I’m having a stressed-out day, I want to quilt at night,” she said. “You know how you mow a lawn and really like the way it looks when it’s done? It’s kind of like that… it’s very methodical.”

The quilting also helps her indulge her taste for reality television, which she plays during her marathon quilting sessions.

“My husband hates those shows,” she laughed.

Obama can have it for free

As far as the big day goes, Walther won’t be attending the inauguration or art exhibit, despite her VIP invitation, which she gave away to neighbors.

“I’d have liked to go if I was single,” she said, explaining that she’d rather avoid the bustling scene and the challenge of managing her small children there.

She said she’s not sure if Obama himself will ever lay eyes on the quilt, but she gave strict instructions to the promoter that it’s not for sale — unless, of course, the president-elect wants it.

He can have it for free.

“Maybe it could hang in one of the girls’ rooms,” she joked.

Most likely, the quilt will be returned after the exhibit at the end of January.

Walther plans to submit it to a festival in Virginia and will consider re-creating it for her customers if anyone expresses an interest.

A truly American quilt

Walther’s quilting has brought her many delights: relaxation, a successful business and now an inadvertant role in history.

To her, turning a hobby into a business, then into a charity and now into a political passion — it all makes perfect sense.

“Quilting helps root us in our Americanism,” she said, pointing out her grandmother’s quilt, which she keeps in her living room. “People like to have a connection with the past.”

Or in her case, to our future president.

For information about Patchwork Memories, call Julianne Walther at 656-1506 or visit patchworkmemories.com.

Bio

Julianne Walther

• If she’s not quilting, she’s: playing with kids, helping with homework or volunteering at the kids’ school — and definitely not cooking!

• Pets: “One black cat I rarely see named Shalim. He lives across the street — he found their cat door and likes to eat over there.”

• Last read: “Junie B. Jones has a Peep in Her Pocket” by Barbara Park.

• Favorite charity: “Wrap A Smile” program of Rotoplast International, which helps fund cleft palate surgeries to children. (Daughter Avery was born with a cleft palate, which was repaired successfully.)

• Perfect day: “Any day in Mexico with my husband.”