Armed with thimbles, needles and thread, Margaret Forgnone and Ruth Gedroic hovered over a wooden frame as they pinned and threaded pieces of fabric together.
Forgnone and Gedroic were demonstrating quilt techniques Saturday at the debut of The Quilting Natural Florida II exhibit at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Gloria Comstock, the exhibit’s coordinator, said the event has been in preparation for more than two years.
The exhibit, in partnership with the Quilters of Alachua County Day Guild, displayed 111 quilts that represented Florida’s wildlife and plants.
”You come to some better understanding of the creativity, the artistic ability and patience to do one of these quilts,” said Doug Noble, assistant director of exhibits and public programs of the museum.
Lyla Lundeen, of Earleton, Fla., has been a quilter for more than 20 years, and it took her about three months to craft her quilt. Under patches of fabric and threading, the quilt contained a message.
"It's really a little protest quilt about not drilling for oil on our coastline as I think the danger of a spill is too large that it would kill off a lot of fish and destroy a lot of the coral reef," Lundeen, 85, said.
The exhibit runs through April 25.
For more information, visit the museum’s Web site at http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/visit/.
