For local artist Annette Grigsby, quilting is not just a craft to make something to keep us warm on cold winter nights. It’s also an art she values.

Grigsby was honored last week at the Little Rock office of Sen. Mark Pryor, where her artistry will hang for six months as part of the exhibit “A Celebration of Arkansas Artists.” Her quilt “Pieces of Our Lives” was honored earlier this year by the Governor’s Mansion Association during a reception hosted by Ark. Gov. Mike Beebe.

“I’m so happy it’s going to be hanging in the senator’s office for six months,” Grigsby said.

“Pieces of Our Lives” is a series of vignettes depicting critical times in the nation’s history, moving from the days when Buffalo roamed freely across Montana (“Only the buffalo, the sky and the water,” said Grigsby) through the days went European-American settlers went West and met with Native Americans and on to more modern times when farms sprang up across the country and cities were built.

“It’s a progression of what was happening in the settling of the country,” said Grigsby. Her work is one of a few dozen chosen to be displayed in Pryor’s Arkansas office, winners selected from all over the state.

“For people who do the type of thing I do, you’re actually making a picture,” she said. Her quilt was created using fabric and thread, and then the pieces were quilted together to make the whole.

“It’s a different type of art form but real neat,” Grigsby said. She believes quilting is now getting more recognition for its artistic merit.

“It’s no longer just a craft. It’s also recognized as an art form,” she said. Working on creating quilts that can also be seen as art has been her focus for years, she said.

“Pieces of Our Lives” has been shown locally and also competed in a quilting festival on the West Coast. This piece was finished in 2006.

She believes the quilt’s vignettes depict scenes that have a wide appeal.

“It speaks to everybody on some level about something or another,” said Grigsby.