Quarters For the Quilt launched in La Grange
By Jane Michaels jmichaels@pioneerlocal.com February 8, 2012 5:18PM
Jean Ann McCarthy with Salt Creek Quilters Guild and Peggy Nordentoft with Salt Creek Quilters Guild help to hold a quilt made for the village's 100th anniversary in 1979, which needs to be repaired and restored. The La Grange Public Library is launching
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Updated: March 17, 2012 8:03AM
Plans are under way to showcase a tucked-away treasure at the La Grange Public Library commemorating the village’s centennial in 1979.
To mark the 100th anniversary, a dedicated committee researched and hand-stitched a quilt featuring 14 historic homes and the library, Village Hall, a clock tower, Lyons Township High School and the First Congregational Church of La Grange.
The cream-colored historical gem was seen and touched by many visitors over the years while hanging in the library until the old building at 10 W. Cossitt Ave. closed in 2005. The new structure opened on the same site in 2006.
“It’s in need of repair and cleaning and should be hung behind glass,” said Nicole Zimmermann, marketing and pubic relations coordinator for the library and on a committee to restore the quilt.
“We have received quite a few inquiries ‘where’s the quilt,’” Zimmermann said. “We started looking into the cost a year ago to bring it out again. It probably will cost $3,000 to bring it out in good condition.”
Library representatives are partnering with members of the La Grange Area Historical Society and the Salt Creek Quilters Guild on the effort dubbed Quarters for the Quilt. The library has put signs up and has a collection bin at the main desk.
Rather than a thermometer to mark the progress of fund-raising efforts, the library plans to post quilt squares, each representing $250, to show how spare change adds up.
“People have a fond feeling for it,” Zimmermann said. It’s a real community thing many people will be excited about.”
Artist Edie Emmenegger of LaGrange Park is eager to see the quilt again, because she designed it while finishing up a degree in fine arts.
“I was approached and agreed to design the patterns for the houses,” Emmenegger said. “I remember driving around with Jan Baumgartner from the library and looking at some of the more interesting houses in La Grange.”
Emmenegger said she took photos and made sketches of the homes.
“It was a bit of a challenge simplifying the homes enough for a pattern for sewing, knowing it would be turned into fabric,” she said. “The women who sewed the squares chose the colors and fabrics trying to get as close to the real house as possible.”
As a result of her involvement and her mother’s willingness to quilt a square, the Emmenegger family’s Victorian home at 129 6th Ave. was among those featured on the quilt, she said. Her mom, Barb Emmenegger, 93, who lives in Western Springs, also will enjoy seeing the quilt.
To highlight the village’s annual Pet Parade, a panel with silhouettes of dogs and children was stitched at the bottom center of the quilt, 7.5 x 9 feet.
“One year, we were on a float with the quilt in the Pet Parade,” Emmenegger recalled. “After watching the parade most of my life, it was fun to be in it and show off the quilt.”
A sunny yellow home at 222 S. Spring featured in the upper right section of the quilt has risen to further prominence, noted Peggy Nordentoft, a neighbor and member of the Salt Creek Quilters Guild.
“My kids called it the Knight Rider house,” Nordentoft said. “It’s where David Hasselhoff lived.”
Although Nordentoft didn’t work on the centennial quilt, she appreciates the craftsmanship and attention to detail.
“Buildings are really hard to do in appliqué, to get the right perspective,” Nordentoft said.
Library director Jeannie Dilger-Hill said the quilt was appraised at $1,500 in the 1990s. But pulling together a unique visual history of La Grange is priceless, she said.
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