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Art Quilt Celebrates the Beauty of Nature in Montreat
In July 2008, Montreat Conference Center commissioned the Rev. Dr. Martha Jane Petersen, a retired Presbyterian minister, artist, writer, and retreat leader, to create an art quilt. The 5½ by 8 foot quilt, now on display in the upper lobby of the conference center’s Assembly Inn, was unveiled a year later, on July 30, 2009.
“In its earliest planning stages,” explained Petersen, “there was no defining theme for the quilt.” The conference center was looking for something that would capture the special and unique ministry of what many have called “a place set apart.” Petersen, armed with that information plus dimensions for the finished piece, began searching for ideas and gathering fabrics from shops and quilt shows in Marietta, GA; Wytheville, VA; Asheville, NC; and Black Mountain, NC. She studied designs in quilting books and talked to other quilters. She was about to leave for a major quilting show in Texas, when a close friend and neighbor, Roberta Martin, stopped her, “You don’t need to go [to Texas],” she advised. “That quilt’s already inside you.”
“I make quilts intuitively,” Petersen agreed, and so, through a process of trial and error, the artist began incorporating bits of upholstery from furnishings in the Assembly Inn lobby with rhododendron leaves, slivers of mica, and sticks that she gathered from the trails and streams surrounding the conference center. Finally, in the early spring of 2009, when she saw a birds’ nest design in a quilting book, she knew she had found her theme. “It spoke to me,” she said.“A bigger challenge than designing proved to be putting the quilt together,” Petersen continued. With advice and support from numerous people, however, the quilt began to take shape. “I’m especially grateful to Marti Cummins, Norma Bradley, Ann Vincent, Jane Reeves, Mary Logan, Shirely Heim, and Roma Wimberley.” Petersen explained that, when she had difficulty stitching the pieces together, she went to trusted experts like Norma Bradley, who suggested using fusible web and “…straightened me out.” Petersen added, “It was a God-send.” Incorporated in the quilt are various natural images and objects along with symbols representing Montreat. In addition, Petersen used commercial and hand-painted or stamped cottons, ethnic fabrics, dryer sheets, and cheesecloth. The pieces are held together using machine and hand-stitching, hand-tying, adhering with fusible web, and glue.
Other pieces by the artist have been incorporated into worship, conferences, and meetings at the conference center. Petersen’s works were also featured in the 2008-09 Presbyterian Planning Calendar and in a 2008 Advent devotional published by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Although she has shown her art quilts in a number of shows, Petersen does not sell them. “They are part of my ministry to share the Gospel visually, not just verbally,” she said. “It is my hope,” she continued, “that viewers experience something of joy, wonder, and a connection with our Creator God.”
The three-panel art quilt entitled “Mountain Retreat,” now hangs above the landing leading to the upper lobby at Montreat Conference Center’s Assembly Inn.