Decade of Jeep Fest T-shirts made into a quilt
Sandy Olanyk is certainly no stranger when it comes to wielding a needle and thread.
The 73-year-old Evans City resident has been sewing since she was 10 years old.
“Good ol' 4-H,” she explained.
So it was no surprise that when the organizers of the annual Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival wanted to create a visual representation of the event — and settled on a T-shirt quilt to do it — Olanyk volunteered.
The end result is a colorful creation that measures about 15 feet long and is more than 6 feet wide.
The quilt incorporates portions of 33 T-shirts associated with the festival during its 10-year existence.
The quilt will be on display at the festival's history exhibit during the three-day event, which gets underway Friday at Cooper's Lake Campground near Slippery Rock.Olanyk said the quilt concept was conceived after a man who was part of the festival group died, and his wife brought in some festival T-shirts that they had collected over the years.“She wanted them put to good use,” Olanyk recalled, “and guys started talking and decided they needed a quilt. I said, 'I do that: I make T-shirt quilts.'”So Olanyk set about figuratively weaving those shirts and some others into a quilt, a project that took her nearly three weeks to complete.While that sounds quick, Olanyk said she usually takes her time while working her quilt magic.“It's a long day, bent over a table,” she said. “I usually try to work on them for about three hours, take a break and then do another hour or so, to give my back a break.”
Olanyk had the quilt completed more than a year ago when some of the group members thought it would be a good idea to incorporate some of the newer T-shirts into the design.“I said, 'Are you kidding me?'” Olanyk said. So she had to go about “unsewing” — a term she prefers to “ripping,” which she finds too violent to associate with quilting — the quilt, adding the new T-shirts and then figuring out a way to put it all back together.“It was an interesting challenge,” she said.She still was putting some of the finishing touches on it last week. But when she showed her work at a recent organizational meeting, those who saw it were most impressed.“She had a vision for what she wanted to create, and it came out beautifully,” said Patti Jo Lambert, the festival director. “Sandy is very humble. She doesn't like to talk about all of the wonderful things she does. But she is somebody who is very detailed and very organized. She has fantastic ability as a quilter.”Lambert said the quilt is particularly special for those who have been involved in the festival during its decade-long run. Some of the T-shirt designs were used by volunteers over the years, and others were sold in a T-shirt booth at the festival.“I've been involved all 10 years, and it brings back memories of what went on each year,” Lambert said. “Did it rain all that weekend? Was it beautiful that weekend? It also shows how our lives have evolved and how the things we've put on the shirts have changed.“It's a really great way to look back on the last 10 years and be grateful for the success we've had and the memories we've created for families when they come to Bantam.”
Bill Ringeisen, who manages the festival's history rxhibit, got his first look at the revised quilt and liked what he saw.“It's awesome,” Ringeisen said. “She did a fantastic job.”Although Olanyk has been sewing for some six decades and had some relatives who had been involved in quilting, she didn't get into it herself until about 10 years ago.A former junior high and high school teacher in New Castle, Olanyk said she needed to find something to do after she retired more than a decade ago.And when she saw some quilts she liked, she thought, “I know how to sew — maybe I can do that. I tried it and thought, 'Oh, this is cool.'”
