First Friday Art Walk – May 2024

We are excited to feature talented quilt artist, Sylvia Levings, who became interested in quilting at a young age when she threaded needles for her grandmother’s quilting group at church. Over the years, after studying sewing in school and making clothing for her family, she became more active in quilting, creating lots of unique designs.

A big influence on Sylvia’s approach to design was Olive Ubel, her daughter’s junior high art teacher. Frustrated that she couldn’t paint like her Great Grandmother Thinnes, Sylvia took art lessons from Olive to learn to create depth by shading. She also used other techniques such as quilting around images to make them puff out and appliqueing by hand. When there wasn’t a printed image on material available, appliqueing by hand was a way to create the quilt picture.

She has taught quilting at Shawnee County Parks and Recreation and at East Topeka Senior Center. Sylvia’s work may be familiar to regular visitors to area craft shows and the Downtown Farmers market and the newly formed Breadbasket Farmers Market in the Furniture Mall parking lot on Wanamaker, where she has sold her work for a number or years.

Artist Image Gallery