Sponsored by the Landrum Quilters in cooperation with Friends of the Landrum Library, guild members shared their quilts in an open-house display of log cabin and other house-related quilt patterns.

Also included in the display were several Ronald McDonald quilts, of which at least 100 are completed by the guild and donated each year. &bsp;

The Ronald McDonald House project represents just one of the several community outreaches which the Landrum Quilting Guild supports.

&bsp;Activities of the day included demonstrations of several quilting procedures:&bsp; rotary cutting of quilting pieces, hand quilting, and color-coordination of prospective quilts. &bsp;

Of course, necessary to all quilting clatches were the innumerable stories of ancestral quilts, quilting frames hanging from the ceiling under which children played, and memories of Grandmother rescuing her quilts from negligent males who wanted to use them to move furniture. &bsp;

Another highlight was the hand-appliqued and hand-quilted raffle quilt. &bsp;

This special Oak Leaf quilt held a prominent spot on the display wall as visitors scrambled to buy the $1 raffle tickets which, by the way, are still for sale through any member of the Landrum Quilters. &bsp;

The raffle quilt will be given away at the bi-annual Landrum Quilt Show at Landrum Middle School on June 12, 13, and 14.

The Landrum Quilting Guild provides an enriching outlet for everyone interested in needle arts.

Experts, novices, and bewildered &dquo;wanna-be&squo;s&dquo; are all welcome to join, and anyone can find an opportunity to stoke his creativity among this warm-hearted group, which meets on the second Thursday of each month for its business meeting and the fourth Monday of each month for a casual quilting bee. &bsp;

These meetings are held at the old Gowensville school, near the junction of Highways 14 and 11, from 9:30 a.m. until about noon or thereafter. Especially welcome are men. (If football players can take ballet, then men can create quilts.) &bsp;

The author of this article met a man quilter at a Black Mountain fabric store recently. His wife and daughter concurred when he admitted, &dquo;I gave up golf for quilting and have found that quilting is more expensive.&bsp; But…,&dquo; he sighed in resignation as he hurried back to the 40 percent off shelf.

Yes, quilting is an all-encompassing art, incorporating design, color coordination, engineering skills, and dizzying geometric configurations. &bsp;

The fact that many of our &dquo;unschooled&dquo; ancestors engendered some of the still-popular complex quilting patterns speaks volumes about natural ability.&bsp; The Landrum Quilters&bsp; are glad to keep alive this lively and rewarding art form.