An auction item will return with a different design for the Weekend For The Fair this Saturday evening at the live auction at the fairgrounds in West Liberty.
The quilt has been worked on since the Muscatine County Fair ended last year.
“Last year, ladies that were entering quilts into the fair were asked to bring a block and we had them pick out the piece of the basic purple fabric and make whatever design they wanted,” Jean Lawrence said. “They brought it to the fair and we displayed all the blocks at the fair and then over the winter Jan Lox put all the blocks together into a quilt.”
West Liberty resident Lawrence quilted everything together on her long-arm quilting machine and Letha Ottaway of West Liberty put the binding all around the edge, she said. The label will be added and it will go to the Weekend For The Fair June 4 to be auctioned off.
The project began in 2010 when a new class was added to the 2010 fair book called the Quilt Division, said Vera Smith.
The new class description was to make a 13-inch quilt block that would become property of the Muscatine County Fair, she said. They would be sewn into quilts to be displayed at the following year’s fair. Then the quilts would be sold by benefit drawing or auctioned off.
“It was decided in 2014 to sell the quilts at the Weekend For The Fair auction,” Smith said. “The funds are used to improve or maintain the quilt area at the fair.”
There are a group of woman that meet at First Church United the third Wednesday of each month to discuss their various quilting projects, Lawrence said. If someone would like to join the group they could bring their lunch at noon or join at 1 p.m. when they start discussing their quilting projects.
“There’s other people that don’t belong to our group that live in Wilton and Muscatine – they donate blocks, too,” she added. “Anybody can come.”
The block assignment for next year is a Bear Claw Pattern, Lawrence said. Instructions are available at the Muscatine County Fair office. Anyone interested in contributing to the quilt for next year can call Kelsey Meyers and have her email the instructions to them or stop by the office.
The finished quilt blocks will need to be brought to this year’s fair and dropped off, Lawrence said. The names of those quilters participating will be added to the quilt blocks.