Lower Township Library Features Town Bank Artist

VILLAS – The Lower Township Library, 2600 Bayshore Rd., will feature fabric collages by fiber artist Mary Stewart during the month of July.
Mary Stewart is a fiber artist who has been sewing since she was ten years old. Mary “enjoys the challenge of taking two dimensional raw materials and creating three dimensional pieces. Sewing really is a sculptural art, but it’s also like painting to me. My fabric stash is my paint box. Each piece is unique and I work largely without patterns, letting the texture and hand of the fabric dictate what it will become.” In addition to wearable art, Mary is now working on pieced and quilted fabric collages. Mary is a member of the Cape May Artists’ Cooperative Gallery and lives in Town Bank with her husband and two entertaining cats. Her work can be seen at the West End Garage, 484 West Perry St., Cape May.
Mary’s fabric collages are inspired by crazy quilts. The term “crazy quilting” is often used to refer to the textile art of crazy patchwork, a specific kind of patchwork lacking repeating motifs. In comparison to standard quilts, crazy quilts are far more likely to use exotic pieces of fabric, such as velvet, satin, brocade, or silk, and embellishments such as buttons, lace, ribbons, beads, or embroidery. Crazy quilting as a textile art is extremely creative and free-flowing by nature and crazy quilters will often learn as much about specific embellishments as they will about crazy quilting itself. These fabric collages were created using the basic technique of crazy quilting and the scraps and embellishments accumulated over a life time of sewing.
The Lower Township Library is a branch of the Cape May County Library system. Located at 2600 Bayshore Rd. in the Villas section of the Township, the library is open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Tuesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
For information call 609-886-8999.