Quilts on display: Quilt tour set for Sept. 26 and 27 in Cape Girardeau, Jackson

Len Fiedler, left, and John Stehr admire the Brown Family Quilt, a crazy quilt designed and created by Idell Brown Dockins, on March 15 at the new Cape Girardeau County History Center in Jackson. (Fred Lynch ~ flynch@semissourian.com)

Hundreds of quilts from past to present times will be on display during a Quilt Tour this month in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

The quilts will be on display from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27. Locations include the Cape Girardeau County History Center in Jackson, the Glenn House in Cape Girardeau, the Oliver Museum/Jackson Heritage Association in Jackson, the Red House Interpretive Center in Cape Girardeau and the Quilt R's Market and More at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau.

Tickets will be available at each of the sites mentioned above and the Cape Girardeau Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Two-day "Super Quilt Tour" tickets may be purchased in advance or the day of for $10. These tickets provide admission to all five sites for both days of the tour, plus a chance to win a quilt-inspired gift.

"To register for the door prize, participants must visit at least three of the five sites," says Donna Grantham, coordinator of the Glenn House Quilt Tour.

Tickets to visit each individual venue are $5, but admission to the Quilt R's Market and the Cape Girardeau County History Center are free.

The Quilt R's Market, which will be open Saturday only, also will have lunch, a bake sale and quilt supplies for sale. All proceeds from the Quilt R's Market will benefit Church Women United.

Grantham says each location is responsible for gathering its own quilts for display.

"We'll have around 70 or 80 quilts at the Glenn House from the late 1800s to current times," she says. "Most of them are family quilts that are functional and were used by the families."

Quilts from three different families will be on display at the Cape Girardeau County History Center, says Carla Jordan, director of the center.

"We will display the quilts of John and Martha Short, Vicki Lane and the Haertling family," she says.

The center also has quilts on long-term display, including Idell Dockins' Mariner's Wheel Quilt and an antebellum memorial quilt.

"These are absolutely amazing quilts and some of the best textile folk art I've ever seen," Jordan says.

In addition to the quilts, the History Center will feature the quilt fiction books of Ann Hazelwood during the quilt tour.

"[The Quilt Tour] is a great opportunity for our various sites to do something together as an alliance," Jordan says. "We currently have a commitment to do the tour at least every other year."