We are excited to talk to the creator of the 2024 Fall Festival quilt banner, Dana Bolyard! 

A longtime Folk School quilting tradition is the creation of the Fall Festival quilt banner. Over the 48-year history of Fall Festival, different community quilters have created a handmade quilt commemorating the event each year. The quilts hang in the Festival Barn during the festival. The yearly banner is a beloved tradition integral to our extraordinary celebration of Appalachian craft, culture, and heritage. 

Dana regularly teaches quilting at the Folk School and Olive’s Porch. She has two classes coming up at the Folk School in 2024: Ghost Town Quilt and Happy Scrappy Quilts! Enjoy our interview below to learn more about the inspiration behind Dana’s Fall Fest creation and her upcoming Folk School classes!

JCCFS: Where are you from and where do you live now?

DB: I’ve lived in many places but have called Cherokee County home for the past 20 years.

JCCFS: Is quilting a tradition in your family? How did you become involved in quilting and sewing?

DB: Quilting is not a tradition in my family. I’ve always had a love of patchwork. It’s been a running theme throughout my life and in 2008, my mother-in-law gave me some fabric and I’ve never looked back since.

JCCFS: Describe your style and what informs your practice.

DB:  I like to make quilts that feel familiar, yet fresh. Traditional but a little different. Full of color and print but cohesive as a whole.

Dana Bolyard, Fall Festival Quilt Banner Designer

Fall Festival Banner in Progress

JCCFS: Have you had a chance to look at the previous Fall Festival quilts? How does it feel to be the next tradition bearer in this long line of makers?

DB: Each fall I walk through the Festival Barn and admire the quilts from years past. When I was asked to create this year’s quilt, I knew that my aesthetic was going to take me in a different direction than most I’ve seen. However, I also knew that I wanted to make a quilt that for anyone who sees it, they will recognize it as something that is familiar and perhaps something that their grandmother would have made. The quilt I made is bright, happy, and scrappy!

JCCFS: Many of the previous Fall Festival banners have been pictorial or illustrative in design embracing landscape, object or people. Can you talk about your departure from this style? 

DB: That departure definitely gave me pause because I wanted to be sure to honor the tradition represented in the long history of Fall Festival quilts. My aesthetic is really about taking traditional quilt blocks and bringing something a little different to them and it felt important to me to do that in this design as well. 

So much thought went into the quilt. I wanted it to have something for everyone that looks at it. I wanted it to feel familiar yet quirky and interesting. I wanted it to be technically superb for quilters examining it with a discerning eye. I wanted the colors to evoke a feeling of “festival,” and I wanted it to be a quilt that anyone who views it would say, “Yep, looks like a quilt to me.” 

Fall Festival Banner 2024

JCCFS: Let’s talk about your next class, Ghost Town Quilt on October 27–November 2 (Halloween Week!). Who is the ideal student for your class? 

DB: This class is perfect for those that love the Halloween season and want to craft a quilt that reflects that. We will be making a neighborhood full of harvest or Halloween themed house blocks ready for trick-or-treaters to arrive at any moment. The class is suitable for confident beginners to experienced quilters that love the season and want to geek out together over the cutest little houses we can make. 

Ghost Town Quilt

Fall Festival 2024 Banner is “Happy Scrappy” quilt!

JCCFS: You are also teaching a second class in 2025: Happy Scrappy Quilts! scheduled for June 22–28. What exactly is a scrappy quilt and does it have a certain aesthetic? I see the pattern you will teach is the “Ohio Star.” Is this the same star featured in the Fall Festival quilt?

DB: A scrappy quilt is one that has dozens and dozens of fabric colors and prints. They are called scrappy because they are made of so many fabrics, often without care of color and style. Scrappy is also a term derived from the fact that quilters tend to acquire lots of little bits of scrap fabric from past projects. A scrappy quilt is a good way to make a dent in that scrap pile. 

My aesthetic is scrappy in nature and I always say “more is more” meaning use more fabric, more color and more prints. 

Yes! This class is using the Fall Festival quilt as our jumping off point for sure! We will be making the same block, the Ohio Star, and will be learning ways to make a scrappy quilt that you love. 

JCCFS: Upcycling, recycling, and reusing discarded or vintage fabric is a theme in your work. What are you drawn to when you are scavenging for fabric?

DB: Color, color, color…. And scale. It is usually the color of something that first catches my eye but the scale of the print is important too. I tend to love small scale prints that don’t get lost in the cutting of pieces for quilts. In other words, if the design on the fabric is big, beautiful cabbage roses, when that fabric is cut into a 2 inch square to be part of a quilt block, that big, beautiful cabbage rose is lost. I love to reuse discarded or vintage fabric for a variety of reasons but when you boil it down it’s the color and scale of print that I’m drawn to. Plus, vintage fabric has the best prints! 

JCCFS: Do you sleep under a quilt? What quilt is on your bed right now?

DB: Absolutely! Currently it’s a lighter weight simple patchwork quilt in a riot of colors. As the cooler nights take over and we move further into Fall, I’ll add layers of additional quilts.

“Happy Scrappy” Quilt by Dana Bolyard

Upcoming Classes with Dana

Ghost Town Quilt

October 27–November 2, 2024
All Levels

It’s All Hallows Eve and the perfect time to make a harvest themed or spooky quilt! Create your own ghost town quilt using a pattern from the instructor. Work with fabric color and pattern to create the perfect “ghost town” while advancing your quilting skills and celebrating the season. Confident beginners to advanced quilters welcome.

Happy Scrappy Quilts!

June 22–28, 2025
All Levels
Experiment with your treasured fabrics to create a scrappy quilt! Explore interactions of color, value, scale, density, and the true meaning of “more is best” when making a happy, scrappy quilt. Learn tips and tricks for making a successful scrappy Ohio Star quilt that pulls all your scraps together beautifully, as well as suggestions for managing scraps in your regular practice. Prepare to be nudged out of your comfort zone and use dozens of fabrics that you never thought went together before!

About Dana

Dana Bolyard is a modern traditional quilter who wrote Imagine Quilts:11 Patterns from Everyday Inspirations and has had her designs appear in numerous compilation books including, Modern Baby, I Love House Blocks, The Big Book of Fat Quarter Quilts, and The Big Book of One Block Quilts, all from Martingale Publishing. You may find examples of her work on her Instagram at @oldredbarnco.

About Fall Festival

Fall Festival Information

Join us for our 48th Annual Fall Festival happening from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 5, and Sunday, October 6, 2024. Learn more on our website and buy your tickets online today!