Breckenridge Texan

Maynard Westlake’s quilt exhibit on display through Nov. 2

Maynard Westlake’s quilt exhibit on display through Nov. 2
October 28
14:14 2021

There are just a few more days left to see Maynard Westlake’s quilt exhibit at the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center. The display of artistic and traditional quilts is scheduled to be up through Tuesday, Nov. 2.

Westlake, who lives in Graham but worked in Breckenridge for many years, has dozens of his quilts on exhibit in both the main gallery and the east gallery. Some of the quilts are elaborate interpretations of Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh’s paintings, while others are based on photos he has taken or seen while traveling with his wife, Virginia Westlake. The exhibit is rounded out with several of his pieced quilts in more traditional patterns, such as variations on the log cabin, star and nine-patch patterns, among others.

Maynard Westlake, with his wife, Virginia, and daughter, Sharon Westlake Barker, attended a meet-and-greet event at the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center and the beginning of his quilt show. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

He was inspired to create the Starry Night quilt from a coffee mug he had at home. Westlake described his quilt-making process, explaining that he starts with an image of the original painting or photograph and then scales it out, sometimes in sections, onto poster board about the size that the final quilt will be.

“Then, I’ll start working on a section at a time,” he said. “Now, finding the material that will fit, well that’s another little project. I don’t dye my own fabric, so I’ve got to search around the quilt shops for things that have the colors that I need and the lines that I need.”

It can be a long process to get everything to look right, he said. “With a lot of these art quilts, I put it together, and if it’s not looking right, I’ll have to take it apart and redo it. I’ve done that quite often, some more than others.”

Although he tries to finish one quilt before he starts on another, sometimes he has two in the works. “I might get an art quilt that I get hung up on and I’ll start another one until I find the right material or whatever, and then I go back,” he said. “But I try to finish one up at a time because I make such a mess in the quilt room that I have to clean up after every quilt.”

Westlake started quilting after he offered to help his wife with some of her quilt projects and his interest just grew from there.

In addition to his work as an accountant, Westlake also served in the U.S. military. When he got out of the service, he played for a year on the basketball team the Boston Shamrocks, which played against a team headed up by Harlem Globetrotter Marques Haynes. He says he traveled about 45,000 miles in six months’ time, playing basketball.

The quilt exhibit will be on display through Tuesday, Nov. 2. The BFAC is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays; it is closed on Sundays and Mondays. The arts center is located at 207 N. Breckenridge Ave. For more information, call 254-559-6602.

A visitor to the fine arts center takes in one of Maynard Westlake’s intricate but more traditional quilt patterns. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Maynard Westlake based this quilt on Claude Monet’s painting Woman in the Garden. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

This quilt is titled “Reflections: Grove of Aspens by Still Waters” and is based on a photo that Maynard Westlake had. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)

Cutline, top photo: Maynard Westlake was inspired by a coffee mug to create his artistic quilt based on Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night painting. The quilt and about 50 others are on exhibit at the Breckenridge Fine Arts Center. (Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)


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