Folks around here might get a warm, cozy feeling when someone mentions the name of Watt & Shand. It's kind of like curling up in a quilt, all safe and familiar.

At the Lancaster Arts Hotel this Friday — First Friday — when downtown Lancaster showcases its many art galleries, those who remember Penn Square's beloved department store can take comfort in the work of artist Sue Reno, who has preserved images of the big retailer in an exhibit titled "Transformation: The Watt & Shand Series."

The display melds the old and the new, marrying classic Lancaster County quilt craftsmanship with high-tech digital prints depicting the rise, fall and rise again of the Watt & Shand building, the facade of which has been incorporated into the Marriott hotel and adjoining Lancaster County Convention Center downtown. Reno, who lives in West Hempfield Township, sums up her work as "pushing the tradition."

Pushing, but also paying tribute. "People miss it," Reno said of the old store. It's not unusual, she said, for art patrons to look upon her works and point out a particular window in her renditions. "'This is where I bought shoes,'" Reno said, quoting visitors. "'This is where my aunt worked.' They know the exact window."

Reno isn't surprised. Long after Watt & Shand closed its doors, its reputation remains. This was the place where generations of brides registered their weddings and where Santa Claus arrived via firetruck to hold court at Christmas. Before the age of malls, Watt & Shand was the real deal, the place to shop.

"You could count on the quality of the goods," she said. "That carries into the building" — a building that, at one point, was a gutted shell enclosed by scaffolding. Reno, in her work, captures that point in time, circa 2008, when the façade of the 1900-era Watt & Shand building was open to the sky, propped up by 21st-century technology. She was fascinated by the juxtaposition. "I thought it was the most amazing thing."

The Lancaster Arts Hotel gallery, with its exposed brick walls, provides a vintage atmosphere for Reno's artwork. But getting images of Watt & Shand onto fabric is strictly 2010. She started her project in January of last year, and finished in February of this year.

"There's a year of my life in this room," she said.

"Transformation: The Watt & Shand Series," quilted works by Sue Reno, runs through April 15 at the gallery at Lancaster Arts Hotel, 300 Harrisburg Ave. For more information, call 299-3000 or visit artshotelgallery.com.