In Bethany Krawiec’s case, an early interest in knitting, sewing and crocheting helped, but the kicker involved a close involvement with the Mennonite community where quilting is an integral part of the culture.

While living in the northern Philadelphia area, her daughter attended a Mennonite pre-school where Krawiec taught knitting classes. The school used the sale of quilts made in-house as one way to raise funds. The next time they buckled down to make a batch of quilts to sell, they recruited Krawiec to help out. She’s been hooked ever since.

“It’s cheaper than a therapist,” she said.

Quilts are made of three layers, Krawiec explained, beginning with a plain fabric backing that is often comprised of large pieces of leftover fabrics and articles of clothing. The middle section, called the batting, “gives you the warmth and fullness of the quilt.” The third section, known as the quilt top, is the decorative part.

“I typically piece a lot of fabrics together to make a decorative top,” she said.

Shortly after Krawiec caught the quilting bug, she got her husband, Wesley, to make her a quilting frame that she still uses after some 35 years. She describes it as “four boards, four C clamps and some uprights.”

In time, Krawiec entered a quilt in a small contest as part of a promotion for a store that sold quilting supplies, taking first place and winning a $25 gift certificate from the store. After some thought, she decided against using the word “many” but settled on “several” to describe the number of times her quilts have won awards since then.

Krawiec has six of them on display at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts as part of an exhibit that runs through Feb. 9.

Krawiec explained that her quilts tend to be among the most distinctive in any given exhibit. Her shapes are not always perfectly squares or rectangular. Her patterns are anything but traditional, and she often has unconventional objects sewn onto the tops such as buttons or, in one case, a huge insect model.

On another quilt not entered in the show, she added a rusty color to the fabric by including a rusty piece of metal sewn onto it.

Krawiec attributes her nontraditional approach to having a dearth of traditional family influences growing up, such as a grandmother to teach her how it was supposed to be done. As for her mother, well, “Mom could sew, but she never did a quilt.”

Krawiec’s materials are often heavy in nature derived from articles of clothing bought in thrift shops or due for a date with the local dump.

“I feel guilty about taking a good item of clothing and cutting it up, so I’m more apt to use something like a pair of jeans with holes in them. I like to use corduroy, too. As for the patterns, I’m more apt to modify them in some way or be totally original,” she said.

Krawiec refers to these type materials as “repurposed fabrics.”

“One time I made one using men’s ties,” she said. “That one was not a big quilt.”

And yet Krawiec insists that her quilts are made more so for practical use rather than for display in art exhibits.

“Quilting is not always thought of as an art,” she said. “I don’t consider myself an artist but a quilter. There’s a branch of quilting known as art quilts. But the quilts that I make are meant to be used on beds.”

Krawiec may not consider herself a geologist, either, but she and her husband have advanced degrees in geology from Rice University where they met, she a master’s degree and he a doctorate. They spent their professional lives teaching the sciences at boarding schools for boys mostly in the Pittsburgh area. Krawiec explained that the lifestyle of a boarding school teacher is a rather unconventional one.

“We loved it,” she said. “We always lived in a dorm where we were responsible for eight or so boys who lived down the hall. We also ate most of our meals in the dorm.”

As for the subjects she taught, they were always some branch of the sciences, but in more specific terms, she said, “I taught whatever the men couldn’t teach.”

A native of Ithaca, Krawiec and her husband moved to Upper Jay in 2005 after they retired. She was introduced to the North Country through canoeing at an early age, but since settling down in this area she has also taken up cross-country skiing “to get through the winter” and hiking.

“I’ve done 25 of the 46 High Peaks,” she said.

For those who like staying warm at night in spite of recent arctic temperatures, instead of cranking up the heat, maybe a nice quilt is all that’s needed.