MORRISONVILLE — Ice rinks are pretty chilly for spectators, but Sandra Thornton had a solution for that.

"I thought, 'I've got to make me a quilt that I can wrap up in," she said, laughing.

The quilt she sewed features a hockey player in a red Beekmantown uniform and the number 32 her grandson Shamus Foster wore. She machine appliquéd the figure on a machine-pieced background of varied shades of white.

"The hockey player was no problem," Thornton said. "It was to get the ice background — that was the interesting part."

But she relishes the challenge of selecting fabrics for her quilts, weighing the look of one shade against another, deliberating over how the project will look as a whole.

"It takes me longer to pick out the fabrics than to do the quilt," she joked.

QUILT SHOW
Thornton took up quilting 10 years ago, after retiring from her job as a court clerk. Her first project was a Christmas-themed wall hanging that took a lot longer than she'd expected. The little doors on the Advent calendar were more open than closed when she opted to take a shortcut, mounting the pieced hanging on sticky board and matting it.

"Every Christmas, I say, 'I wish I would have waited and quilted it,'" she said.

A novice, she didn't yet understand that quilting is about more than turning out a finished project.

"Just slow down and enjoy it," Thornton said. "That took me quite a few years to catch on to."

When she first joined the Champlain Valley Quilters' Guild of New York and began her first project, even the definition of quilt eluded her.

"I thought a quilt went on a bed," she said. "I did not realize a quilt is three layers stitched together."

The guild's bi-annual show, coming up Saturday and Sunday, will showcase all kinds of quilts, with categories that include "Other" for projects beyond bed quilts and wall hangings such as table runners, Christmas tree skirts and wearables (quilted clothing).

Entries total 483, all from guild members. Ten of those belong to Thornton, including her hockey quilt.

FLEXIBILITY
She has also entered a quilt made in the Baltimore Album styles that includes a block with an intricate appliquéd sailing ship.

"That's the (block) I'm proudest of — that one took a little time," she said.

The flowers appliquéd below the ship — as is the fruit in the fruit-basket block — are done in a technique called broidery perth. Thornton cut out flowers and fruit from printed fabric then appliquéd it in place.

"I never could have found a fruit basket like that," she said. "It gives you more flexibility in your design."

It took her about two years to complete the Baltimore Album quilt, which she made for a friend who is a tour guide in the Baltimore area.

"After the show, she gets it," Thornton said.

Another of her entries is a quilt she made mostly on the road.

"When I first retired, we did a lot of traveling," she said. "I don't just sit in the car — I have to have something to do."

She folded fabric into flowers, origami-style, tacking them with thread to hold them in place. Then, at home, she assembled the quilt.

Thornton personalized another of her quilts as a graduation gift that her daughter gave a nephew, reminding him of childhood delights such as chocolate chip cookies and camping. She included awards he'd won running track, too.

"All different things in his life," she said.

SHOW AND TELL
Often, Thornton has her projects quilted by sewing machine.

"But I always have a hand-quilting project on the go," she said.

And she's never at a loss for a new endeavor.

"I have a huge pattern collection," she said, laughing. "I can't resist patterns."

The Quilt Guild is a great motivator, she said. The monthly meetings always include a program of some kind — a guest speaker, maybe, or mini class in some technique.

And then there's show and tell.

"People bring in their finished projects — that's really fun.

"A lot of times you think, 'I want to do something like that.'"

And just sharing back and forth, she said, "you do come up with a lot of ideas and solve a lot of problems."

At the show, vendors will have wares on display and free demonstrations will take place. Fourteen guest judges and four vendors (who aren't guild members) will award ribbons.

There's also the Challenge Award, given to the entrant who best creates a quilt on a specified theme and using a certain fabric.

That's where originality really shines, Thornton said.

"When you look at the entries," she said, "they're really surprising."

E-mail Suzanne Moore at: moore@pressrepublican.com