When Butterfest approaches, there are many people that are quite busy, organizing their sections of responsibility and endeavors. As well, there are the attendees, who are forecasted to fully enjoy the festivities — from food to rides, music to crafts, and friends catching up at the beer tent.
A cornerstone of Butterfest, quite literally, is the Quilt Show. It is held at the Barney Center, which stands kitty-corner from the fest. The two-day event has a strong showing of quilts, providing cubbyhole-clubhouse headquarters for a gathering of like-minded artist-engineers — the quilters. Every year there is a featured quilter, and this year that honored quilter is Mary Purpus.
Mary Purpus is from Tomah and has been quilting for around eight years. “I have sewn since I was 9-years old. I had never wanted to quilt, and on craft retreats with my sisters I was only scrapbooking … and I wasn’t changing,” Purpus stated. “Then one day, my niece was quilting a prairie star, and said to me, ‘Of all the people I know, you could do this because you will understand how it all goes together. So, I went and bought the pattern. It took me five years, but I got it done.” The quilt is still utilized by Mary to this day.
When Mary was asked to be the featured quilter, she was apprehensive about accepting the honor. “I feel every quilt has a flaw, in my mind, and I was wondering if my quilts were good enough to be featured,” she confessed to the Herald. After some thought, Mary said yes and accepted the honor as featured quilter at Butterfest.
In her third year of quilting, Mary wanted to make a lap quilt for her granddaughter. “I saw the picture of a fox online, but nobody had a pattern for it. I finally found a pattern that I liked, but I had to modify it. So, I sat down and took freezer paper, taped it all together, and on my kitchen table, I traced part of it, making the legs the way I wanted them, and making the paper pieces, so that I could paper piece it together.” In the midst of tracing the fox, Mary had to figure out how to engineer it onto the quilt, as well as creating the background, then finishing the background, to fit with the fox design — that she had to manipulate to create.
“It is a very elaborate process,” stated Purpus. In starting a quilt, Mary says, “I will get a quilt pattern, I will look at it and think, ‘I can do that’ then I will go back and look at it again, along with some of the directions. Then I put it away and come back to it, now thinking of colors and designs.” Those are just the first steps.
Mary explained that the process is incredibly long and can seem daunting at times, but that fruition is attained through dedication, and completing the steps one at a time, without getting intimidated by the mountainous wave of effort that goes with the territory. “You have to know it is going to take time, and that you will step in and step back, many times,” Purpus said.
At home quilting meditation
Purpus says that she will put two to three hours of quilting in, at home, when she sits down in her sewing room. “I’m watching tv and I’m sewing, the iron is going … I am in my own little world. Sure, I have the tv on, but they are reruns, so I do not have to think. If I have a movie I really want to see, then I have to set the project down. You can’t do both.” Purpus described it as being in the zone, and stated that with all the thinking she does, all of her family issues get solved.
The not so good
Because Mary enjoys sewing so much, she says that there are a few activities that are hindered by her passion. “Any spare time [I have] I sew, I do not get up and exercise. I could be outside, where there are people, and I could go for walks. So, it does have its drawbacks.”
On pricing the quilts, Mary says that most often she takes the cost of her materials and then doubles that. “First of all, what would you charge per hour? How many hours are in each quilt? It is hard to put a price on them.” Mary went on to say that it seems people will spend around $150 for a quilt, but $175 can be a buyer blocker. She said that, in a perfect world, quilters would garner quadruple the current asking prices.
Butterfest
On being asked to be the featured quilter at Butterfest, Mary said, “I feel honored being showcased at Butterfest. I have not been quilting as long as some of these women, and people looking may have quilted longer than me as well.”
Purpus says that she focuses on one project at a time. "Focus and get it done — No short cuts; realize that it will take time.”
On what she does when the quilting seems to not go her way, Purpus says, “When it is not going the way you want, never throw it away. I have never had the heart to abandon a quilt. Stick with it and get er’ done.”
No judging, bring your quilts
Mona Kufalk, Chair of the Butterfest Quilt Committee, told the Herald, “We do not judge the quilts. We want to see as many quilts as we can, so we hope no one is reluctant to just show their quilts.” Quilters can enter their quilts into the show, by registering on Friday, June 9th, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the Barney Center, located at 1000 East Montgomery Street, in Sparta.
Starting today, Monday, June 5th, registration is also taking place at Quilt Corner, located at 219 North Water Street, in Sparta. Any Questions, or to enter a quilt in the show, people may call Mona Kufalk, Chair of the Butterfest Quilt Committee, at 608-487 6584.
Every year, the Butterfest Royalty chooses a quilt they like the best, and those quilts receive a ribbon. Kufalk informed the Herald, “Then we have the five categories to enter a quilt into, and those quilts will be voted on by the public viewers, as to which they liked the best. These five categories each receive a ribbon and a gift certificate from Quilt Corner. The five categories are: quilt, wall hanging/quilt, antique, other, and youth.
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