A “Fall Festival” with the Fiber Artists!
Minnetrista’s recent Fall Family Adventure Day was full of fun activities for the entire family. This included three special speakers visiting the Bob Ross Quilts exhibit in the upstairs art galleries of the Oakhurst House. Ann, Cyndia, and Kevin are three of the quilt artists whose creations are currently on display within the exhibit. During Family Adventure Day, they shared their expertise with visiting families, telling stories about their Cherrywood Challenge artworks and about the joys of quilting, crafting, and more!
The Bob Ross Quilts exhibit is open at Minnetrista until November 6!
On display at Minnetrista since March, the Bob Ross Quilts exhibition features hundreds of unique quilt squares created for the “Cherrywood Challenge.” Since 2014, Cherrywood Fabrics – a hand-dying fabric business based in Brainerd, Minnesota – has hosted an annual art “challenge,” inviting quilters to create a special piece of textile art reflecting each year’s unique theme. In 2019, the Challenge took inspiration from the art and legacy of Bob Ross and his PBS series, “The Joy of Painting,” filmed here on the Minnetrista campus from 1983-1988, inside in the Lucius L. Ball House. Exploring the worlds within these artworks uncovers many happy little trees, animal friends, and pearls of wisdom from Bob himself. Additionally, the opportunity to speak with the artists on Family Adventure Day brought these fiber pictures to life!
Cherrywood’s “Bob Ross” Challenge attracted the talents of fiber artists from far and wide, from across the United States and around the world. In total, 200 finalists combined their skills with a needle and sewing machine with their memories and experiences, producing original fiber masterpieces. Visiting quilter Ann Currie-Vicario (who came all the way from Texas!) described how she used her home state as inspiration to create an quilt square that stood out from the crowd. She explained:
“[With] Bob Ross you think of the forest and the trees and the lake. And I thought, my gosh, everybody is going to do that, how can I be different? And so then I thought, why do the forest when I could do the desert? The little blue coyote was my happy little accident. That’s my squirrel – my blue coyote!”
Ann on Family Adventure Day with her quilt square, titled “My Happy Little Blue Coyote”
For Hoosier quilter Cyndia Gerner, a member of the Quilters Guild of Indianapolis since 1990, planning her design for the “Bob Ross” Challenge brought up memories of afternoons spent watching “The Joy of Painting” with her young children, surrounded by Indiana pastures. She said:
“When my kids were little…I had a house full of toddlers and…it’s a little bedlam at that point. They would watch Sesame Street on Public Television in the morning and we’d have lunch then [I’d] try to get them quieted down so at least the two youngest could take a nap. Well, Bob Ross was on and I liked to watch him for art, but my kids would also sit down quietly and watch him! His voice would kind of put them in a little trance and nap time was much easier after that. ”
Cyndia’s quilt square features a representation of Bob himself, his iconic mountains and happy little trees reflected in his sunglasses. Interestingly, Cyndia’s own knowledge of art inspired a little “Easter Egg” within Bob’s pose on her piece. She explained, “I did an interpretation of American Gothic. [Bob] is standing but instead of with a pitchfork, he’s got his fan brush!”
American Gothic by Grant Food is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. See it here: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/6565/american-gothic
The colorful and playful quilt designs throughout the exhibit speak to the vibrancy of this historic craft tradition, one that in recent decades has found new popularity among people who find satisfaction and joy in handwork. Kevin Latiolais, who came to Family Adventure Day from Kentucky, knew there was no going back when he stumbled into quilting. An art major in school, he said that when he started doing art quilting, “it was like my painting skills met fabric.” In his prize-winning piece, titled “A Happy Little Place,” he wanted to produce a scene similar to Bob’s landscapes and did so by “trying to get the thread to match [Bob’s] brush strokes. It was [basically] putting what I knew with painting to thread.”
Kevin on Family Adventure Day with his quilt square, titled
“A Happy Little Place”
While the connection to Bob Ross made the 2019 Cherrywood Challenge a natural fit for display at Minnetrista, many of the artists in the show had participated in previous Challenges and were already looking forward to the next one!
For example, Ann remembered seeing quilts from the first two Challenges, “Wicked” and “The Lion King,” at a quilt show and being inspired to participate. Kevin fondly remembered his work in “The Lion King” Challenge and also in 2017’s “Van Gogh” Challenge, selections of which were exhibited in France. Since 2019’s “Bob Ross” Challenge, new themes have included: Princess “Diana,” “Graffiti,” and the recently announced 2023 theme – “Monarch” butterflies. Cherrywood is accepting art quilt submissions for the Monarch Challenge through June 15, 2023, head to their website to find out more!
Go to the Cherrywood Fabrics website to find out more about their next Challenge:
https://cherrywoodfabrics.com/pages/monarch-cherrywood-challenge
Bob Ross Quilts is open another three weeks at Minnetrista, closing on November 6. However, the lessons learned from the show and from the talented artists whose work fills the Oakhurst galleries will stay with us. We’re so grateful to have had Ann, Cyndia, and Kevin visit Minnetrista and share their stories and crafting wisdom with Family Adventure Day explorers. Their advice to any curious crafters interested in picking up quilting embody Bob Ross’s spirit and legacy, which lives on today at Minnetrista and beyond.
“There’s three things I would advise. First, check your local area for quilt guilds, fabric guilds or local art centers. Second, don’t be afraid to jump in, we all started out as a beginner. You wade in and you learn and you keep learning as you go. Third, [find] a quilt shop close by, they would be more than happy to teach you classes and sell you fabric! ”
“Don’t be afraid of making a mistake...Don’t be afraid of it! Make the mistake. That’s the way you’re going to learn the best. Find a guild that’s going to help you and teach you things. Go on YouTube and learn things. But make the mistakes yourself. Pick up the fabric, cut it, and sew it! ”
“It’s not your grandma’s quilting anymore…the fabrics are different, the threads are different. There’s paints, there’s beads, there are all sorts of fiber arts and it’s really exciting to see how different [they are] from the past. [But] the past is a good thing too, because you can [learn from] and change up those traditional patterns…It’s addictive! ”
