Point Reyes Light - December 4, 2003
Muir Beach quilters still crafty after 30 years
By Victoria Schlesinger
Gift shoppers and community supporters will revel in the holiday spirit this weekend at the 31st Muir Beach Holiday Arts Fair at the Muir Beach Community Center. Local artisans will sell their holiday treats and handmade crafts to raise funds for the Muir Beach Community Center.
Six years ago the Muir Beach Quilters, who organize the fair, expanded and stepped up the event’s regional profile. This year’s local and juried artisans will sell homemade jams, cakes and breads, pottery, silk paintings, and weavings to raise money to purchase a glass covering over the Community Center’s deck.
Highlight of the year
Active year-round, in October, the Muir Beach Quilters received a $5,000 Neighborhood Achievement Award from the Marin Community Foundation.
The money, which comes from the Buck Trust, is awarded semi-annually to small local groups dedicated to "improving their neighborhoods through creative means."
But the group still touts the upcoming fair as their "marquee event."
"People really like this fair, there’s something about the smallness of it," Kathy Seward, who more than three decades ago helped start the quilting group, told The Light this week.
Among the fair’s most famous and coveted items are quilts sewn by its organizers. Typically the fair’s raffle includes a bed-sized quilt created by the group, but this year the women will sell numerous smaller throw quilts and pieces for decoration, ranging from the traditional to the avant garde.
At the urbane end of the scale "Art Quilts," with designs inspired by expressionist painters such as Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, and Piet Mettler, will also be featured.
Impressionist quilts
"Impressionist paintings are popular; the style translates easily to quilting," Judith Yamamoto, also a founding member of the group, told The Light this week.
In addition to the "Art Quilts" the group will sell more traditional and Amish-square-style quilts.
While the women call themselves the Muir Beach Quilters, sewing is only part of what they do during their weekly Wednesday meetings in the Community Center.
"Between stitches we’re solving the world’s problems," Anna Tom, one of the group’s newest members, said with a laugh. "We talk about politics, science, personal matters... it’s a community of women."
The group’s seven members range in age from 35 to "about twice that" Tom told The Light.
"There’s a wonderful wealth of experience there," she said.
The group picks up new ideas at regional quilting fairs and exhibits where they get a chance to meet other quilters. Yamamoto said she suspects many quilting groups are an opportunity for women to come together and share. "Maybe constructing something as a group helps," she said.
The idea for a Muir Beach Community Center brought the women together originally. Seward explained that it was during a holiday party when five pregnant women stood in the party house’s crowded, narrow kitchen that they realized they needed a place large enough for them to meet.
Built community center
Though the women had limited quilting experience, they formed the group and began to raise money for the center’s construction. In addition to sewing, hosting dinners and parties, the women obtained federal money from Housing and Urban Development. Muir Beach, now the site of many posh second homes for Bay Area residents, was "once a low-income area" Seward said.
Be that as it may, the group’s fair still raises about $5,000 annually to assist the center.
In recent years the quilters funded construction of the building’s 10-foot-tall brick fireplace and hearth, a free lending library, and children’s room.
The fair will take place 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Muir Beach Community Center on Seacape Drive. Admission is free and a shuttle service from the Muir Beach parking lot will be available. Those wanting more information can call Kathy Seward at 383-6762.