Cape May Weekend Show Combines Quilts, Decoys

By BARBARA METZLER CAPE MAY — Admittedly, antique quilts and duck decoys are not as famous a combination as Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, but, according to Katherine Bennett, one of the coordinators of the mid-Altantic Center for the Arts’ third annual Quilt and Decoy Show, the two art objects were combined for similar reasons. One keeps the women interested; the other occupies the men. “We’ve had only quilts in the first show,” said Bennett. “We got a lot of women there, but the men would just sort

of sit on the sidelines. So the second year we added the decoys as an attraction for men." The quilts and decoys to be displayed this weekend at Cape May’s Convention Hall will be arrahged in vignettes using antique furniture borrowed from local residents. A special order of seven dozen geraniums will add to the festive flair of the event. ONE OF THE MANY special quilts on display will be a quilt which illustrates the history of Cape May, made by North Cape May resident Dorothy Doan, for the nation's Bicentennial. Beginning with the Kechemcche Indians and the landing of Henry Hudson, the quilt details important events of Cape May history such as the Great Fire of 1878, and a turn of the century car race between Henry Ford and Louis Chevrolet near Cape May’s Christian Admiral. “Henry Ford was so poor then, he had to borrow money from someone here in Cape May in order to go home,” Doan said. "The story has it that instead of paying him back, he gave him stock in his new company. So that man should be pretty wealthy now.” Doan said that she puts a lot of research into her “story" uilts. For this particular quilt, she also used illustrations rom a children’s coloring book drawn by former MAC artist-in-residence Helen Dilday. The “story” or picture quilts, are special to Doan because of their original desing. She added, "Patchwork is boring! ” During her lifetime she has made over 10 full-size quilts, including a "Let’s Visit the Zoo" animal quilt complete with fox and rabbit tails', velvet cat and furry orangutan. SHE HAS USED her quilts for tablecloths and slip covers as well as bedspreads. A different quilt pattern covers each of the chair seats in the house. In addition, there are quilted placemats, quilted dolls and quilted p '" ows But after every large quilting project is completed, she added, she vows never to do it again “After every one I say, ‘This is the nicest, and I’ll never do • \ another one again. It’s too much sa* v work.’ Then I get an idea and it obsesses me until I do it.” Doan learned quilting from her grandmothep, who she described iPdge 22 Please)

Inside: Cookin' The Catch Asparagus at Its Peak Warren Lund: An Interview

Special Section of the Herald and Lantern May 25, 1983