Quilt show attracts over 1,000 visitors throughout the region

More than 1,000 people turned out for the two-day Bollinger County Quilt Show last weekend at Mayfield Event Center in Marble Hill.

Event coordinator Becky Wiginton said between 750 and 1,000 attended Saturday, and 300 to 400 arrived Sunday afternoon.

"It was nonstop people in the building, way more than I anticipated," Wiginton said.

People came from as far away as Arkansas, Kentucky and Illinois to attend the quilt show, which featured 76 quilts on display. Vendors selling crafts and specialty items also were set up in the building.

Not only did Mayfield Event Center experience a big influx of people, so did the town of Marble Hill.

"I had people tell me at church that they had to wait over an hour for a table [Saturday] at restaurants in town," Wiginton said. She also pointed out that sales at her business, Old Lutesville Emporium, more than doubled on Saturday.

Plans are already underway to make the quilt show an annual event.

Madeline Gieselman of Scopus, a member of the Cape Girardeau-based River Heritage Quilters Guild, was impressed with how creatively the quilts were displayed,

"I like the way they're draped over the church pews," she said.

Gieselman took up the art of quilting nearly 40 years ago when she moved from St. Louis to Bollinger County.

"I thought I should be a country girl," she said, "and learn to make quilts."

Eula Reed, owner of Second Time Around, a thrift and consignment store in Marble Hill, submitted her hobo quilt in the show. Reed explained that every block on her quilt was a sign or picture hobos used during the Depression to communicate with each other while traveling across the country by rail. She said the hobos would scratch these signs and pictures into a piece of wood or fence post to indicate what type of person lived nearby.

For instance, the picture of a top hat pointed out that a rich man lived there, and a picture of a cat meant the resident there was a kind-hearted lady. One sign that resembled lines of a barn indicated that hobos could sleep in the hayloft. And another sign, which looked like a chair tilting forward, was a warning to "hit the road fast," Reed said.

All of the signs and pictures on Reed's hobo quilt are illustrated in the book, "Hobo Quilts: 55+ Original Blocks Based on the Secret Language of Riding the Rails," by Debra Henninger, which she brought with her to the Bollinger County Quilt Show.

A lifelong seamstress and avid quilter, Reed got her first sewing machine when she was 10 years old.

As the show came to a close, several quilters were recognized with people's choice awards: blue ribbons and bragging rights.

Karen Griffith of Advance received two awards, overall favorite and best pattern, for her quilt, "Dear Jane." Evelyn Beussink of Jackson received the award for best stitches. And Sandy Hinton of Scott City received the award for best color.