HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Stage 9 in Hutchinson is using local talent to make a giant quilt as a prop for its upcoming show Quilters, that will take the stage in June.
"This is Sarah's, the lead character's legacy quilt," said Kris Anschutz with Stage 9. "She sends out material to her daughters and patterns. They are supposed to make these blocks. It's based around 16 blocks."
Quilters is an all-woman ensemble show which tells of the great perils and joys experienced by pioneer women and girls telling their stories through quilts. The cast consists of women varying in ages from late 20s to 60s playing a variety of roles, both female and male. Deb Nikkel is designing the quilt for the production.
"We're going to use what's called Civil War fabrics, so they are from that era," Nikkel said. "Most of the women at that time would not have enough money to go buy fabric that all matches or coordinates or whatever, so we're going to be doing a scrap quilt, like you would make from left over pieces of clothing, or scraps from other things you have.
Karna Lackey from Sew in 2 Quilts is going to help, as well.
"Normal quilt blocks are, I would say, 12 inches square, 15, 18, Deb has designed the quilt and for the production, we're going to make them a 24-inch quilt block, so we basically have to take the block itself and kind of redraw it and come up with new measurements. There's a lot of patterns out there for these blocks, but very few of them are at 24 inches wide, so it's going to take a little time to do that and then we have to cut out all the fabric and we've got a group of our customers that are going to come help us sew all the blocks up."
The intent after the production is to sell chances to win the quilt to raise money for Stage 9. The production is scheduled for the first two weekends in June.
In order for everything to happen on time, Stage 9 is needing volunteers to meet to help on Saturdays starting right away, as they need assistance with the costumes, props, set and marketing. Volunteers meet each Saturday at 10 a.m. at Stage 9.
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