Artists' quilts are on display at Mt. San Jacinto College | Inland News | PE.

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And what better way to do so than to spend five days in a workshop with Nancy Crow, a leader of the art quilt movement whose exhibit of quilts opens at the Fuller Craft Museum today. Crow is a legend among quilters, but many people who have little interest in quilts also have seen her work, since it graces two book covers by poet and author Maya Angelou. Art quilts differ from traditional quilts in that they are intended to hang on walls, rather than adorn beds. Crow’s quilts are part of the collections of The Museum of Arts & Design and The Museum of American Folk Art in New York City, the Smithsonian Institution, and other art institutions.

Apply that old adage to the Blackfoot Trading Post east of Bonner, where Dean Souders can be found amid 2,000 bolts of polychromatic fabric, and prepare to be transported to a dazzling galaxy brimming with Montana-themed constellations. Souders discovered that the dexterity and coordination required to run an acetylene torch is remarkably similar to the finesse of quilting. The hand-guided sewing machine head has handles and a laser pointer, which Souders uses to guide the needle along various patterns. But quilting is their bread and butter, Souders says, and in a quilt-crazy state like Montana, you’ve got to have a niche to stand out. He’s collected the secondhand items over the years, and since an entire corner of the shop is currently empty, Souders figures he’ll put them up for sale.

THE VILLAGES — As each quilt was pulled out of a bright blue suitcase, a chorus of oohs and aahs could be heard in the Fox Grove Room at Saddlebrook Recreation Center. On Tuesday morning, the Friendship Star Quilters group hosted a trunk show and invited the Laurel Manor Quilters along for the fun. Friendship Star member Beth Landas of the Village of Amelia shared her work with women from the two groups. Hanley said the group often hosts trunk shows for members to have a show-and-tell of their work. Members of both quilting groups raved about Landas’ designs and work, and many brought cameras to snap pictures of samples passed around the room.