CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The annual Stitches in Time quilt show scheduled to begin in January at the Museum Center at Five Points will include a new challenge for area quilters.

The 2009 quilt challenge is to use vintage fabric in a new quilted piece, museum Director Lisa Lutts said.

“It can be a quilt or a wall hanging or a garment or accessory, but it must have a recognizable amount of vintage fabric,” Ms. Lutts said.

Announcements are being made now to give quilters more time to plan their creations, she said.

The annual quilt show is scheduled to run from Jan. 22, 2009, through March 7. Quilts entered in the challenge will be judged at the same time as those brought in for the show. Prizes of $100, $75 and $50 will be awarded for the top three challenge winners.

Ms. Lutts said quilters may use any method of piecing and quilting including strip piecing, paper piecing, appliqué, free motion or hand embroidery.

Entries may come from individuals, groups or quilt guilds.

The quilter should attach an identifying label and a brief narrative indicating how the vintage piece was used. If more than one person was involved in the creation, the label should state that.

Ms. Lutts said there are many places to find vintage fabrics, including stores of old clothes or antique stores. Estate and yard sales and consignment or resale stores may have old textiles, as well.

Phyllis Callaway is a member of the Cherokee Blossoms guild chapter of the Tennessee Valley Quilters Association. Mrs. Callaway said the museum is sending information on the challenge to quilting guilds in a multistate area, but she hopes news articles will lure quilters who do not belong to a guild to enter the event.

“I found some quilt blocks my great-grandmother had in a trunk,” Mrs. Callaway said. She said quilters may find partial quilts or other material in thrift stores, flea markets and even garage sales.

Ms. Lutts said there are usually about 90 quilts on display at the main show, with many of them coming from Bradley County. But she said the quilt challenge brings more interest to the show.

The topic for the 2008 Quilt Challenge was miniature quilts on the topic of the Tennessee Valley in the Depression, she said.

Along with the challenge, the quilt show includes plans for education programs every Saturday and weekly displays of special quilts, Ms. Lutts said.

Ms. Lutts said that unlike the McMinn Living Heritage Museum in Athens, Tenn., the Museum Center at Five Points doesn’t have a sponsored quilters guild. The Athens museum also has a well-known annual quilt show.

But Ms. Lutts said there are several independent quilt guilds in Cleveland along with the Cherokee Blossoms.

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