Local quilter wins creation made for ‘Quilters’ musical

 

GOSHEN, Ind. – During limited down times from rehearsals for the “Quilters” musical in May, Goshen College theater and music students and faculty also made a quilt of their own. Raffle tickets were sold during the performances on May 18, 19 and 20, and on the final night the winner was drawn and announced: Anne Raftree, a new resident of Goshen’s Greencroft Retirement Community from southern Oregon, who is a long-time quilter herself.

On May 23, Professor of Music Debra Brubaker, Professor of Theater Doug Liechty Caskey and Technical Director Jerry Peters presented the quilt to Raftree at her home. Raftree, who had a quilt in process at the time and many hanging on the walls of her new home, already had a place chosen to hang her special prize. “I enjoyed the play so much and am thrilled to have something to display and remember the women in the cast by,” she said. “As a quilter, any quilt is wonderful, but one that has extra meaning is even more special. And what a great idea it was to have them put this together and get into their roles.”

Raftree said she was particularly excited to enter the raffle upon hearing what the money raised would support. The money from the raffle – $474 in all – is being donated to support women quilters in Mongolia. Local quilter and Mennonite Mission Network employee Carol Honderich spoke to the student performers when they were beginning the three and a half week class that resulted in the musical performance about her love for the craft and about a mission trip she was just about to take to the New Way Life Quilting Center in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia with three other women friends. They taught the art of quilting to women who are interested in starting home businesses and earning money.

Liechty Caskey is quite pleased with the good home the quilt made by the cast has found. “We did not know who Anne was when she won. But in meeting with her and talking with her, it became clear that she is such an appropriate winner of the quilt and she has a vested interest in more than the quilt,” he said. “Getting to know her through this is the beginning of a connection with her. We are glad she is a new resident of Goshen and we are looking forward to seeing her at many more cultural events in the years to come.”

 

Under the direction of Brubaker and Liechty Caskey, a cast of seven female students presented the stories, dances and songs of pioneer women that led to the creation of their quilts. The musical drama by Molly Newman and Barbara Damashek is based on the book “The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art” by Patricia Cooper and Norma Bradley Allen.

 

In the end, the characters assembled their various patches into one glorious, brilliantly colorful quilt. And life imitated art. “I introduced the making of quilt patches so that the cast and crew could get their hands and fingers around what it feels like to put together fabric and make a quilt,” said Brubaker. “There are many reference to needles, stitches, fabric, etc., in the musical and I wanted the women to ‘own’ these ideas and concepts.”

 

Initially, Brubaker, a quilter herself, brought fabric from home for the students to just work on a simple nine-patch pattern that she would sew together on a machine. “But several of the students indicated an interest in hand-piecing their patches. So that’s what most of the students did,” Brubaker said. “After the initial teaching session, the students worked on their patches during down times in rehearsal, which were infrequent.”

 

But the quilt started to take form and was larger than initially planned. “I realized that the number of patches we were producing was growing rapidly, and that’s when the idea for an entire quilt emerged,” Brubaker said. The quilt that 15 different people put squares into – including the directors, choreographer, accompanist and technical director – and which 25 people quilted, ended up with 29 patches and measuring 70 by 80 inches. In addition, the students enjoyed the new hobby so much that most of them made an additional patch to take home for themselves as a keepsake of this experience. 

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.