The Traditions and Treasures Quilt Show Comes to Canton

The Traditions and Treasures Quilt Show was held this weekend at the Blue Hills Regional Technical School and featured contemporary and traditional quilts from local crafters as well as The Supper Quilt which has traveled the world.

“We have about 165 quilts that our guild members have made,” Canton resident and Show Chair Jane McClennan said of the event sponsored by the Rhododendron Needlers’ Quilt Guild. “The Guild’s goal is to advance the education and appreciation of quilts. We give scholarships and donate to the local library, but mostly we’re about educating our members with guest speakers…teaching us knew things.”

“We also have the Supper Quilt which came from Texas and has traveled the United States and the world," she said. "This is the 32nd state that it’s been to and the only time it will be in Massachusetts; it’s very epic, it has over 51,000 pieces.”

Don Locke, a retired dentist from the outskirts of Dallas, Texas, created the project over 1,200 hours in 2 ½ years, and finished in 1999 when he was 67 years old. According to the website, the Supper Quilt measures 15.25 feet wide and 5.6 feet high, and is made from 51,816 half-inch squares and 350 different fabrics.

This is Locke’s second quilt; the first followed a similar creative process from a photo of him and his wife Marilyn. When the first quilt was finished (at the age of 64), he knew immediately he wanted to quilt ‘The Last Supper’ (1495-1497) by Leonardo da Vinci.

“I didn’t know it would leave the house so this just blows my mind,” said Locke of the reaction he has received worldwide, as several people milled about the quilt and sat nearby gazing at the 15 by 5 foot creation.

He said he does not charge to show the quilt but asks only for travel expenses for him and his wife. “The shows we do are half quilt-related and half church-related events…It’s kind of our witness program but we don’t make a big deal out of it; it speaks for itself.”

He said he moved his bed into his studio where he would quilt in the evening hours after a full day’s work as a dentist, or he would work on it before bed, or sometimes he would wake at 3 a.m. and work on it then.

“I knew where he was for 2 ½ years,” said his wife Marilyn, an avid quilter. “I’ve been quilting longer than he has; I taught him everything he knows.”

“I got into her stash of fabric," Locke recalled.

Locke said he started his process by making a copy of The Last Supper, scanned it into a computer, enlarged it several times (eventually each pixel became a piece of cloth), altered the colors a bit, first created columns of small half-inch squares, then sewed those columns together to make the larger quilt.

According to the website, Joy Press of Godley, Texas, hand-dyed the fabric used for the back of the quilt, and Linda Taylor of Melissa, Texas, machine-quilted the top.

The Lockes are spending their retirement years traveling with the quilt. They have been to several different countries and hope to be in all 50 United States.

“I think it’s outstanding,” said visitor Mary Craveiro of Warren, R.I., who hopes Locke will travel to her Rhode Island quilt show next year. “I heard someone ask if the pope has seen it; he hasn’t, but I would hope that he could.”

There were 165 quilts on display at the show representing many towns from Braintree to Cumberland, Rhode Island, including Easton, Mansfield, Norton, Norwood, Stoughton, and Westwood.

“I’m here because I just appreciate it [quilting], I’m a quilter myself,” said Debbie Roblis who quilts with Emma’s Quilt Cupboard in Franklin. “Plus, I wanted to see Dr. Locke’s The Last Supper.”

For more information on the quilt, visit http://www.thesupper.net/