Jelly rolls and layer cakes, fat quarters and charms. Dot Varland keeps them tucked away in dresser drawers.

Debbie Vivrette has them organized in plastic tubs.

Liz Holmgren’s garage shelves are stacked with them, along with books, magazines, color-coordinated lengths of fabric and all the notions and tools that modern quilters find essential for pursuing their craft.

All three St. Helena women are members of the Napa Valley Quilters Guild, which is holding a “Wine, Women and Quilts” show from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21, at Justin-Siena High School.

The day-long event will include more than 200 quilts as well as wearable art, a vendors mall, a country store, door prizes, a trunk show by quilting author and teacher Laura Nownes, and two raffles — one for a queen-sized opportunity quilt made by guild members; the other for a portable Janome Platinum 760 sewing machine.

Charms and cakes

There have been subtle and not-so-subtle changes in the centuries-old practice of applying needle and thread to layers of fabric and batting to create warm clothing and bedding.

Relatively recent additions to the quilter’s lingo include “fat quarters” (a half-yard of fabric cut in half lengthwise and bundled according to color), jelly rolls (usually 2-1/2 inch strips the width of the fabric); layer cakes (bundles of 10-inch fabric squares), or charms (5-inch squares).

What hasn’t changed is the quilter’s habit of putting her personal stamp on each project, either through intricate stitches, blocks of color or intriguing designs.

And like the needlewomen who came before them, Holmgren, Varland and Vivrette delight in creating something both beautiful and useful.

Holmgren often incorporates fabric from second-hand clothing and looks on quilting as “an easy, wonderful way to play with color.”

Varland enjoys the creativity and knowing that her grandchildren carry around the quilts their grandmother made for them.

Vivrette finds the process “soothing,” as long as she can put away a project if it becomes frustrating.

“I like the colors and the textures but ... you can also make a nice, warm blanky. How wonderful to be able to wrap yourself in hugs and the thought that somebody has made something especially for you.”

Vivrette’s interest grew out of a Napa Valley College class she took at the upper campus more than a decade ago. Last year a design she created of patchwork hens poking their heads through chicken wire earned a Silver Thimble award at the Napa County Fair. A bright swirl of color she calls “Fourth of July” will be in this month’s guild show.

Varland comes from a family of quilters — her grandmother quilted, her mother quilted and now her 15-year-old granddaughter, Cassie, is taking up needle and thread.

“I started because I have two boys and I couldn’t make clothes for them so I made quilts,” Varland said. “They are 47 and 43 and I’m still making quilts for them, and for my grandchildren.”

“There is something about quilts,” agreed Holmgren. She laughed as she considered the reason she’s been quilting for more than 50 years. “When you wrap yourself in your first quilt, you’re hooked.”

Sitting around Varland’s dining room table with its view of the sunlit garden beyond, the three fell into an easy conversational rhythm that matched the lifting and lowering of needles.

Vivrette was hand-stitching the background of a full-sized quilt with flower baskets, rambling vines and gamboling rabbits in a design combining applique and patchwork called “Rabbit Patch.” It’s a project she started more than 15 months ago.

Holmgren was working on a complicated cathedral windows pattern on a white background with curved and turned outer edges and jewel-toned interiors.

It was Varland, Holmgren’s quilting buddy, who mentioned that when it comes to long-term projects, Holmgren has one that takes the prize — a handsome, not-quite-completed patchwork quilt started nearly 20 years ago. The quilt is a sampler of traditional patchwork patterns (among them flower basket, flying geese, bear paw, bow tie) that over the years has traveled with the quilter and her husband on almost all of their summer excursions. So far it has been to 48 of the 50 states.

“It’s good for me,” Holmgren said. “It gets me to sit down and it keeps my fingers nimble.”

But it’s not the only project she has in the works. She is currently making a quilt for her husband out of his collection of T-shirts — each with slogans, some saucier than others — given to him by former students.

Varland’s current project is an anniversary quilt for her son and daughter-in-law that incorporates material from old clothes and leftover scraps from the children’s quilts, interspersed with old family photos printed on fabric.

The projects she most enjoys, however, are those for new babies made from individual blocks created by family members and assembled and quilted by Varland. She’s had to do double duty.

“We have two sets of twins,” she said, “6-year-olds and 5-year-olds. The 6-year-olds want to sew now, to use my sewing machine, but I keep telling them, ‘You have to be 8.’”

On the lookout

Although the women have a favorite quilting store in Napa where they stock up on supplies and fabric, they are always on the lookout for more.

Holmgren recalled a surprise find, a small fabric store operating out of a cliffside home in Albion, south of Mendocino. Vivrette was visiting a friend in Pennsylvania when she came across a shop on the ground level of a Lancaster County barn in the heart of Amish country. And this week Varland will be on the alert for the unusual as she attends a quilt show in Montana.

Vivrette, who belongs to the guild as well as an informal group of quilters that meets weekly, said it’s an unwritten rule that travelers return with “fat quarters.”

“This way we have fabric from all over,” she said.

Fabric, as well as books and magazines brought in by those weeding out overflowing shelves to make room for more, can be found at the guild’s monthly meetings at Napa’s Senior Center on Jefferson Street. The guild’s after-meeting “trunk shows” also provide opportunities for showing off finished projects.

In addition, the guild has a “quilts to share” program that follows in the tradition of community-minded needlewomen of the past. Throughout the year, tied quilts of various sizes are assembled by members using donated, precut fabrics.

“We bring them home, put them together and take them back,” Varland said. “Once the quilt top has a backing we tie it at a meeting.”

Last year guild members made nearly 300 quilts to give to local hospitals, police and fire departments.

“I think we live in a quilters’ Mecca,” she said.