'Shared artistic hobby': Mother-son duo showcases quilts at Springville Museum of Art

SPRINGVILLE — While the art of quilting is often reduced to a "grandma hobby" and seen as less impressive than typical fine art in museums, textile masterpieces often tell a story that continues with each use.

And for Jeri Schille and her son Colton Schille Smith, quilting has brought them closer than ever.

Schille had always been talented at sewing clothes and drapes, but about 13 years ago her neighbors convinced her to try her hand at quilting. Those neighbors became mentors, teaching her the basic techniques of the craft.

Over the years, she has taken on dozens of quilt projects, trying a new technique or more challenging pattern each time. She loves when she reaches a "flow state" while working on a quilt and the tedious, repetitive steps become relaxing.

In 2021, she bought her son a sewing machine for his 31st birthday after he started doing a few sewing projects with his coworker.

Smith has never been one to back down from a challenge, and inadvertently ended up choosing very difficult projects to start out with. When he told his mom he was going to do a quilt — a king-size quilt — she could only laugh and agree to help.

"I wanted to sew a quilt, and I just kind of made up a pattern and sewed it and just watched different tutorials. And if I got stuck, I'd FaceTime her," he said.

Schille was blown away by her son's accomplishment, especially because he quilted the whole thing on his little entry-level sewing machine.

"I just fell in love with quilting," he said. "I like the slow, meditative steps of the same stuff over and over. I really like the design of it, and I really like making stuff for me and my husband to use, and teeny tiny little pieces of fabric coming together into a huge thing."

In the past five years since taking up the hobby, he has made about 20 quilts. Schille said her son's skill at mathematics and his lack of fear in trying new things have contributed greatly to his remarkable growth in the textile medium.

"Colton has an artistic eye and he also makes his own patterns. He will see something and just say, 'I'll just replicate that' or 'I have an idea. I'm just going to make this up,'" she said.

As they both have grown in their quilting skills, the two often FaceTime while at fabric stores and get feedback on designs from each other. Schille said it's been "really fun to share" the hobby so they can lean on each other for advice.

"It's cool to have a common, artistic thing," he said.

After Schille had her quilts in the Springville Museum of Art's annual quilt show two years in a row, Smith got jealous and wanted to join in. Even though he lives in North Carolina now, the Utah art show is open to current and past residents, so he was able to submit a few works.

"I thought it was really cool that my mom had art in an art museum and I wanted that too. So jealousy got the best of me, and I picked two of my favorite quilts and submitted them," he said.

The two are likely the first mother-son duo to have works in the quilt show at the same time.

Schille's quilt is based on the English paper piecing technique, depicting dozens of pink and green flowers made up of hundreds of little hexagons. The project was all done by hand and took her almost 11 years to complete.

Smith has two quilts in the show. The first is one of three colorful mid-century designs he made for his living room, called "Striped Lava Lamp."

The second is based on the traditional postage stamp pattern, utilizing thousands of one-inch squares of scrap fabric to create the large, captivating result. It took him three weeks alone to cut out the squares.

"It's about 6,000 pieces of fabric, and they are mostly scraps from projects that I've done. So it was fun to revisit all my old projects that I've made for myself and for friends," he said.

The duo said it has been special to share this experience with each other. He flew in to visit this weekend and together they walked through the various rooms, being amazed and inspired by the new color combos, techniques and interesting quilting designs.

Smith said that as a gay man, receiving a sewing machine from his mother was a very "validating and genuine gift to get."

"It sparked such a big thing that's a huge part of my life now. It's the main hobby I have and the biggest thing I do and I never would have done it (without her)," he said.

Not many men are quilters, Schille said, but she loves that her son has taken up the craft. Her grandfather was a carpenter who, after he retired, tried out lots of different hobbies, including quilting from old clothing scraps from Schille's mother.

"He made one for me, and I still have it. It's super fun because I can look at it and remember, 'Oh, this swatch is from this outfit my mom made.' It was a very unusual thing for a grandfather to do," she said. "There's something to be said, too, for making something that stays."

While many of the quilts in the show are made by older people, Schille Smith said he was pleasantly surprised at how many younger artists participated. Many quilts are also modern takes on traditional patterns, and he's loved seeing how the art medium has changed and evolved over time.

"It's cool to see how many people are appreciating something that is more typically associated with like a grandma hobby," he said.

The Springville Museum of Art's 52nd Annual Utah Quilt Show, which has about 145 quilts on display, closes on Sept. 26.

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