Women’s Studies Quilt Show raises money for scholarships

Brenda Hanes of Stewart Heritage Farm, Alpaca Yarns, presented “Alpaca from Farm to Fashion” at the Women’s Studies Quilt Show.

Handmade quilts depicting sawtooth cats, a pile of pineapples and other colorful designs were unspooled at Wright State University’s second annual Women’s Studies Quilt Show.

Titled “Celebrating Women’s Studies through Quilt Stories,” the show was held Jan. 30-31 in the Student Union Apollo Room.

The show featured 10 quilted wall hangings in a silent auction designed to begin building the Women’s Studies Scholarship Fund.

There were also community engagement opportunities through fiber arts; classes on tatting, a form of handmade lace; and a presentation on alpaca farming and yarn titled “From Farm to Fashion.”

The featured speaker was Lois McFarland, a quilter who talked about the journey of “The Jazz Cat Quilt,” a memorial quilt dedicated to her husband, Charles “Budge” McFarland, a former faculty member.

One attendee said she was surprised at how a single quilt can represent so much history, meaning and passion.

Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary program that places women at the center of inquiry and examines how gender influences personal identities, cultural and artistic expressions, social arrangements, political and economic systems and ways of knowing and understanding the world.

The Bachelor of Arts program in Women’s Studies is organized around feminist thought and women in multicultural and international perspective.