HELENE AT THE ASHEVILLE QUILT SHOW (Cheri)

Mark and I drove through a section of Helene-damaged Western North Carolina this week.

We probably shouldn't have traveled that road, as short portions of it were open only to locals, but we didn't know when we began our travel through that region.  (Online maps didn't indicate it.)

The rocks you see at the front of this picture - a portion of the river that feeds Lake Lure - are probably the size of small cars.  The vertical rock on the left was apparently split by rocks of that size careening downhill during Hurricane Helene.

It's been nearly 11 months since Helene, and much of the area that we traveled is still non-operable.  Sure, it's a "tourist" area, but for the people who live there, it's a huge hole rent through their lives.

The Asheville Quilt Guild's 2024 show was scheduled for the weekend that Helene wreaked its havoc on the area.  The quilts were hung, and vendors were ready to sell when they realized that they had to leave everything and just go!

A large number of this year's 300 quilts focused on Helene's impacts on their makers.  This quilt won first place in that category:

The maker was offering it for sale for $1,000 (to benefit relief efforts), which seems too little by a large multiple.  I can only hope that the person who purchases it donates it to a museum.

The workmanship is outstanding, so skillfully melding photography on fabric with piecing, such as the yellow house.

The stairway bears embroidery which says, from bottom to top:

Cell, internet, and electricity are restored
Soup kitchens and volunteers arrive

Many roads are repaired, made passable
supply depots are established

Public comfort stations arrive
Potable water is restored

FEMA and state aid arrives,
providing grants
and other assistance

Local and state workers
keep cleaning debris

Army Corp of Engineers start
rebuilding roads
and restoring waterways

FEMA establishes tiny house communities

Many businesses rebuild and reopen

Tourism recovers

Most of these quilts addressed personal feelings; this quilter used the quilt to reflect her own journal:

I didn't expect to see traditional grace and beauty in this section, but this quilt achieved it within the theme:

The background fabric on the quilt above is actually wide strips that are woven together before being quilted down.  The leaves are large appliqued sections, melded together with netting.

We were able to talk with the artist who created this quilt, which honors the iHeart radio station(s) that devoted 24/7 coverage to the area residents' needs.  Each of the flippable hexagons covers a picture of an on-air personality, and a section of the station's coverage plays when it is opened!

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