Each quilt on display at the Center for the Visual Arts tells a story.

The stories are told through an array of colors, fabrics and techniques based on interpretations of children’s books.

Members of the Denton Quilt Guild picked a children’s book about or featuring quilts and modeled their creation after the quilt in the book.

One quilt represented a map while another represented memories for a woman being put into an assisted living facility, said Deb Dyer, associate director of the Greater Denton Arts Council.

“It is a craft that runs through everyone’s lives,” she said.

The purpose behind the “Storybook Quilts” exhibit was to loan the books and quilts to different children’s groups. The books are aimed at children of various ages, but most are aimed at 7- to 9-year-olds, said Sarah Schermerhorn, chair of the guild’s community outreach committee.

DRC/Al Key

Sarah Schermerhorn poses with her quilt in the “Storybook Quilts” exhibit at the Center for Visual Arts on Thursday.

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Forty-five to 50 quilts were made and will be available for loan.

Schermerhorn said 10 of the storybook quilts weren’t included in the exhibit because of a limited amount of space in the Meadows Gallery at the arts center. Those 10 books and quilts have been loaned out.

The project of pairing books with quilts has been done previously by other quilt guilds, Dyer said. The Denton guild began discussing the project at the beginning of 2008 and started making the storybook quilts this past April, Schermerhorn said, which is when she took over the project.

She said about 15 quilts were already made by April and the rest have been made since then. Each quilt was made by one of the guild’s members.

Schermerhorn said the guild received a grant from the Greater Denton Arts Council that helped buy the majority of the books that are displayed and loaned out with the quilts.

Schermerhorn got her inspiration from Mindy Dwyer’s Quilt of Dreams, a book she originally bought for her granddaughter.

“I thought that would be a good one to make,” she said. The quilt is made of triangles in shades of mostly blue, red and yellow.

Most of the books didn’t offer a pattern, so the quilter had to come up with an interpretation for what it should look like, although many offered a picture representation for the quilt. For example, Schermerhorn said, a picture of the quilt she made was on the inside of the front and back covers.

She said when pictures weren’t available, quilters had to represent what was discussed in the book. For example, Oma’s Quilt by Paulette Bourgeois and Stephane Jorisch has a montage of different pictures in the book, but no pictures of the entire quilt. The quilter had to decide what it would look like.

On the other end of the spectrum, The Christmas Memory Quilt by Kimberly Webb had a pattern, Schermerhorn said.

But for the most part it was “all up to the individual quilt maker,” she said.

Among the quilts are also two coats, including one based on Dolly Parton’s book for children, The Coat of Many Colors.

“It can be more than just a blanket,” Dyer said.

The different types of quilts made were patchwork, applique and embellished, Dyer said.

Schermerhorn said the patchwork quilt is basically fabric sewn together, often scraps of fabric, and is the most common and traditional type of quilt.

Applique is a type of quilting where fabric edges are stitched while turned under, while an embellished quilt is one with buttons, beads and other similar items sewn on.

One of the quilts even has a design painted on, Schermerhorn said.

“A lot of techniques are used,” she said.

The exhibit will be displayed in the Meadows Gallery of the Center for the Visual Arts, 400 E. Hickory St., through Jan. 8. 

The gallery is open from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

The books and quilts are available to loan to libraries, schools, homeschools, churches, day care centers and other children’s groups.   

For more information about checking out the quilts and books, contact Schermerhorn at 940-464-3973 or e-mail sarahbeth100@gmail.com.

RACHEL MELHAFF can be reached at 940-566-6897. Her e-mail address is rmelhaff@dentonrc.com.