Country Quilters make quilts with a purpose

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Hillsboro High School will host the Quilts of Highland County Quilt Show Friday and Saturday, July 19 and 20, with one of the quilts to be raffled off to benefit the Hillsboro City Schools “Power Pack” program and the Highland County District Library system.

The two-day event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, July 19 and 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 20, with admission of $5 and raffle tickets on sale for $1 each or six for $5.

A modern day recreation of an old-fashioned crafted blanket called “Spice Embers,” quilted by Lori Gossett, is slated to be raffled off at the close of the show Saturday afternoon.

Club member Nancy Sonner said that the local club putting on the event, the Country Quilters, plans to donate $1,000 to the school’a power pack program and another $1,000 to the library’s four, and soon to be five, branches in support of its summer reading program.

She described the raffle quilt as “a log cabin on point” and said there is a small dedication tag on the back of it in memory of one of the club members, Janet Quigly, who passed away last September.

“The raffle quilt almost glows,” she said. “We’ve never done a fall quilt before with all the fall colors and this particular quilt just has a glow about it.”

In addition to the raffle quilt, she said another one called a charity quilt will be given to a worthy organization such as the Southern Ohio Pregnancy Center or Relay for Life, so that it can be part of their own fundraising activities.

The quilt show began when the club realized there were quilt shows everywhere, but in Highland County it has grown bigger and better, she said, and at this years’ show, a women who prefers to remain anonymous will be displaying her large quilt collection that Sonner described as being from her great-grandmother and containing “remarkable, beautiful family heirlooms.”

“We really don’t have any sponsors, we just kind of do it ourselves,” Sonner said. “We don’t have any corporate sponsors or anything like that. We’re just a group of women and a few guys who started this club about eight or nine years ago.”

As previously reported in The Times-Gazette, the other beneficiary of their efforts, the Power Pack program, is a collaborative effort between Hillsboro Elementary School and Cincinnati’s Freestore Foodbank to ensure that children do not go hungry over the weekend.

Each Friday during the school year, the Freestore Foodbank sends packs of food, known as Power Packs, to the Hillsboro Elementary School to be sent home with students to safeguard that they have something to eat over the weekend.

Each Power Pack contains nearly a dozen food items, which are shelf-stable and kid-friendly.

This years’ quilt show will also feature vendors, demonstrations, scissor sharpening and a silent auction.

“Even if you’re not a big quilt lover, some of them that we’ll have on display will just blow you away,” Sonner said. “The techniques that were used, the history behind them and the hours it took just to create them, will impress anybody.”

She said there is a certain romance and feeling of nostalgia and history when it comes to quilts, describing them as “an art form and something that you literally put yourself into when making one. You really are giving of yourself when you put together a quilt to give to someone.”

Raffle tickets will be on sale at the school the weekend of the event or those wanting to purchase them prior to the show can call Sonner at 937-393-1231.

Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.

Quilted by Lori Gossett and called “Spice Embers,” this is the quilt that will be raffled off at the Quilts of Highland County Quilt Show July 19-20 at Hillsboro High School.
https://www.timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2019/07/web1_Raffle-quilt.jpgQuilted by Lori Gossett and called “Spice Embers,” this is the quilt that will be raffled off at the Quilts of Highland County Quilt Show July 19-20 at Hillsboro High School. Submitted photo
Quilt raffle will benefit school and library

By Tim Colliver

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