Quilts

Meeting Danville City Commission - 5:30 p.m. today at city hall. Agenda includes a budget and bylaw request from the Sister Cities Committee, and proclamations from AARP's Divided We Fail, National Garden Clubs Inc., and Motorcycle Awareness Month. Quilt show planned for Saturday STANFORD - Heritage Quilt Show will be 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday at Stanford Presbyterian Church on Main Street. The event is sponsored by the Lincoln County Homemakers Relay for Life team. The show will feature quilts owned or created by Lincoln County residents.

Nearly every Tuesday from October to April, you can find Nicholasville's Marie Preston monitoring other ladies as a member of the Piece Quilters group. Preston, 84, is held in high regard with the group, but there is another group of ladies who hold her in higher regard. Preston's daughters - Judy Brumfield, 64, Johnetta Ogden, 58, Anna Vance, 55, and Jackie Riggs, 52 - said their mother's dedication to God and family has taught them all valuable life lessons. "They (parents)

While most students do their homework with paper and pencil, sixth-graders in Kathy Beauchamp's homeroom at St. Agatha Academy use needle and thread. Each year, Beauchamp's students spend months sewing quilts to donate to a local charity, stitching squares at school on Fridays and at home in between. The project, she said, is a way to teach both art and generosity. "I wanted to do a project where the students would learn a life skill, and also be a service," she said. "I thought baby quilts would be a great thing to do. " Each quilt is made of 36 squares, sewn together by hand.

Purchase a tree As Memorial Day approaches, we would like to give everyone an opportunity to remember someone very special or honor someone. This is a two-fold opportunity. We plant a tree and provide a plaque for $50. This also leaves a lasting remembrance and beautifies St. Asaph Creek. For more information, contact Mary Middleton, Stanford Renaissance, (606) 365-4518. Democratic Executive Committee to meet The Lincoln County Democratic Executive Committee will meet at the Kentucky Depot Restaurant Thursday, May 8 at 6:30 p.m. Everyone is invited.

OLIVE HILL - Carter Caves State Resort Park will host the Carter County Extension Homemakers 2008 Quilt Show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Quilts may be entered in the show from 2 to 5 p.m. Friday. The categories will include: Appliqu, Feed Sack, Cheater Cloth (preprinted), Hand Pieced/Hand Quilted, Hand Pieced/Machine Quilted, Machine Pieced/Hand Quilted, Machine Pieced/Machine Quilted, and Tacked and Old. There is no entry fee and prizes will be awarded. For more information, call (606)

The quilts are as varied as the members of the guild, but one element in the "challenge quilts" is the same in each. Take the 2006 challenge quilts created by the Crazy Quilters Guild. There are fish in all of them. And in the 2007 challenge quilts, a certain patterned green fabric can be seen in all the quilts. No two are ever alike, and the quilters' takes on the themes range from traditional to quirky. Examples of both challenge quilt themes can be seen in Community Arts Center exhibits this month.

Art has been a part of Dolores Fegan's life for as long as she can remember. She didn't become serious about quilt art until about 2005, when she started using it as therapy. Fegan retired from teaching because of a muscle disability, she says, and picked up quilting "to keep from going crazy. " "It started as hand-quilting," Fegan says. "It turned in to art quilting. ... I don't like to follow patterns. " In fact, Fegan draws the designs for her quilts, with a little help from daughter Annalise, 10. The display of her quilts at the Community Arts Center this month is the first exhibit of her quilt works.

If someone slams you for poor baseball pitching or basketball shooting skills with the old putdown, "You couldn't hit the side of a barn," you could respond with the following comeback: "Yeah, but I can quilt the side of a barn. " While some people might look funny at you for that retort, Donna Forgacs, Boyle County extension agent for family and consumer science, wouldn't. In fact, Forgacs might enlist you for a project that could become a tourist magnet for visitors to the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games in Lexington.

Pamela Z, a San Francisco-based composer/performer and audio artist who works primarily with voice, live electronic processing and sampling technology, will perform a free concert 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Weisiger Theatre at Centre College. Processing her live voice through "MAX MSP" software on a PowerBook, she creates solo works that combine operatic bel canto and experimental extended vocal techniques with found percussion objects, spoken word and sampled concert sounds. These sounds are triggered with a MIDI controller called The BodySynth, which allows her to manipulate sound with physical gestures.

They want to weave color, combined with history, through the county - with quilts. The Art Depository has started a quilting project which will put Jessamine County on both the Kentucky and National Quilt Trails. The National Quilt Trail originated six years ago in Adams County, Ohio when Donna Sue Groves painted a quilt square for her mother and mounted it on the barn. The idea quickly caught on and can be mapped through several states. Mary Kuster, gallery director at the Art Depository, is currently coordinating the project here in Jessamine County.