Quilt Show focuses on circles

SACKETS HARBOR — It's not the average quilting bee. The Quilt Show and Competition, sponsored by the Great Lakes Seaway Trail, will be on display Saturday and Sunday, but these aren't the quilts you can wrap yourself up in with a good book.

This year's theme for the 10th annual quilt show is "Circles and Wheels." The Seaway Trails Foundation came up with the theme to emphasize that the trail is open to wheeled vehicles, not just a footpath as the signs might suggest.

"The trail is for skaters, bikes, cars," Seaway Trail President Teresa C. Mitchell said. "The challenge is to come up with a concept of wheels and circles that relate to the byway."

Some quilters are submitting traditional quilts with circular patterns and shapes, while others are creating pictures.

"It's just as much art as it is quilting," she said. "It's amazing how passionate the people are that come and who create the quilts."

Louise J. Furber, Phelps, said the design for her quilt was inspired by a common autumn sight she and her husband see along the trail.

"We always drive along the byway in the fall and all you see are pumpkins, everywhere," she said.

Mrs. Furber said it took her about five months to complete the process of sketching, acquiring the fabric and finally sewing all the pieces together.

"I let the fabrics talk to me," she said. "I've probably hit every quilt store from here to as far as you can go."

She said her final swatch, which completed her wall hanging that will be on display at the Quilt Show, came from a store she visited in Florida while on vacation.

Children can enjoy the show because "each quilt comes with a story that will be posted next to it," she said. "Parents or grandparents can read them aloud to children and talk to them about what they are looking at."

Ms. Mitchell said there will be many quilting vendors on site selling different colors, textures and sizes of fabrics.

Another landscape quilt on display in the Seaway Trail building is of the French castle at Fort Niagara. The quilt offers a view of the castle from a wood-framed window of a log cabin.

Kimberly M. Young, Rochester, said that for her, the castle is one of the oldest and most impressive buildings along the byway. She is a relatively new quilter but said she had a vision.

"I poured my heart and soul into the quilt for about a week," she said. "I think that quilt would look so good at Fort Niagara."

There will be demonstrations to introduce quilting to novices, and to teach different techniques and styles to the more advanced.

The Fort Drum Chapter of Operation Kid Comfort, which makes quilts for military families, also will participate in the show.