On a quiet street in Carrboro, just beyond Rumors Chapel Hill, tennis courts and a baseball field surround the Hargraves Community Center, a space for social gatherings, sports, and for the past eight years, quilt making.
David Lyles has been quilting, self-trained, for most of his life. In 2017, he brought his talent to the community center, where he began to teach classes.
“Thursdays, always on a Thursday, and it’s from 10 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon,” Lyles said, when explaining his class routine.
Lyles said that he usually gets around 13 students to “drop-in” each week and for three hours, he teaches different quilting techniques and creative ways to use them.
On a sunny Saturday morning, Lyles and his students had the opportunity to show off their work. The main room of the community center was reserved for their quilt show, which would last three days, and included both graduated and current students’ work.
Lyles drifted around the room, ready to answer questions and explain pieces to visitors.
“These two outfits here was quilt tops, okay? And what I did was tuck them and made a garment item to show you all the different things you can do with a quilt top,” Lyles explained.
A quilt top is the top pattern of a quilt, made from scraps of fabric.
Lyles said that the quilt top is only one part of a full quilt; the full process of quilting is stitching the batting, lining and the quilt top together.