Quilt guild has tour homes lined up

COLUMBUS - Members of the Fat Quarter's Quilt Guild of Columbus have their plans for this year's annual “Bounty of Quilts Tour of Homes” all sewn up.

The tour homes are located on Whitetail Lake, Wagner Lake and Lake Oconee. A map locating the houses on the tour is provided with the tickets.

Proceeds of the tour in previous years have benefited local charities and nonprofit organizations and paid for various educational opportunities for its members and the community at large about the art of quilting.

“The guild today has 24 members from the Columbus area with some members coming from as far away as Stromsburg, Schuyler and Monroe,” guild member Fredlyn Weinand said.

Weinand got started with quilting about four years ago when her youngest child was a senior in high school.

“I've been sewing a long time, and I knew I wanted something to keep busy with when the kids were gone from home,” Weinand said. “It's also a great way to socialize and get to know people with similar interests. It's been a lot of fun these past four years.”

At the beginning of each year guild members choose an annual project that will progress month by month through the year.

Last year's project was a Charm Quilt. Each of the quilters brought fabric squared to share, which, when distributed, resulted in each quilter having enough of the exact same materials to make a quilt. From there, the women took the materials and created their own unique quilts.

“The neat thing about this was that we each had the exact same materials to work with and no two quilts were the same at the end,” Weinand said. “Each quilter chose their own patterns to use, and each finished project was unique.”

She said the quilts produced by the guild are all identified on the back with a simple fabric label so that the history of the quilt and the guild will be maintained through the years.

Weinand said members create many projects in addition to the quilts, including table toppers, table runners and hand appliqu�s.

Guild members also donate their time at the Nebraska State Fair each year to work as “White Glovers” at the quilt display held at the Devaney Center.

“When quilts are on display like that the public is not allowed to touch them so our job is to handle the quilts with the gloves on and explain how the quilt was made and try to answer questions the visitors might have,” Weinand said.

The group also participates every other year in decorating a tree for the annual Festival of Trees held at the Columbus Public Library. Work is already in progress to make the three dimensional star shaped ornaments for this year's Christmas project.

A few times each year the guild holds a sewing day pot luck at a local church.

“It's a nice casual laid back time for us to get together and work on whatever projects we want to bring,” said guild member Fredlyn Weinand.

Guild members also make quilts to give to local and area families who've experienced house fires. Weinand said the donated quilts are always well received, and 11 quilts were donated in the past year.