Local Artist Celebrated with ‘Quilt Reflections’ and High Tea
Caroline Earhart
Caroline Earhart’s journey to quilt-making had its beginnings when she and her husband Jon moved to Scotland in 1990 for a two-year work assignment. Flash forward 20 years, and she’s now the featured artist at the Quilt Reflections Quilt Show on Saturday, August 6, hosted by the Castro Valley United Methodist Church Women in Faith.
The Castro Valley resident will have many of her innovative quilts on display. In addition to the show, High Tea will be served.
Earhart’s friend and fellow artist Robin Rees tells the Forum that although Earhart had always enjoyed sewing her own clothes, she had never been a bit interested in learning to quilt.
“During the couple’s first week in Scotland, Caroline says she saw a flyer in a store window advertising a beginner’s class in quilting,” Rees told the Forum. “Nevertheless, she signed up for the class hoping she might make some friends in Scotland. And in fact, in the first class, she met the two ladies who would become her closest Scottish friends. That class set her off on a life-long love of quilting—and taught her that quilters make wonderful friends.”
After Caroline signed up for the class, she remembered she hadn’t brought her sewing machine to Scotland, Rees added. No problem, she found a treadle machine in a classified ad in the paper and made her first several quilts on that treadle sewing machine. Caroline’s mother, both grandmothers, and some of her great-grandmothers were talented quilters, so Caroline can’t figure out why it took her so long to learn too.
Her quilt-making interests are very diverse, but in recent years, Earhart has concentrated on making Legacy Quilts, which are deeply personal quilts that tell a story about herself, her family, or her friends. For instance, she made one quilt entitled “My Family’s Road to California” which portrays her original immigrant ancestors arriving on the East coast in the 1700s, then traveling to California during the Gold Rush. Another quilt, “Liberty Tree”, focuses on her multiple Revolutionary War ancestors. After her parents’ deaths, she made a quilt called “Save the Last Dance” portraying them as paper dolls, dressed in clothes made from her parents’ own clothing with several mementos of their lives attached to the quilt. Caroline also loves to make quilts made from her own hand-dyed or sun-printed fabric. Many of her quilts will be exhibited at this show.
Earhart has two children and five grandchildren. She made sure that the three grandchildren who live in Castro Valley are all accomplished quilters. All three have exhibited their prize-winning quilts at the county and state fairs. She is grateful that she learned to sew as a child, even if she did have to travel to another country before learning to quilt. And she is anxious to pass the torch to the next generation.
Caroline has been an active member of the Amador Valley Quilters guild for more than twenty years. She especially enjoys making quilts for their Community Quilts programs, where quilts are distributed year-round to organizations for foster children, women’s shelters, and other charities. More than anything she values the fellowship and friendship she enjoys with other quilters.
The Quilt Reflections Quilt Show will be held at Castro Valley United Methodist Church on Wisteria Street on Saturday, August 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. High Tea will be served from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.
