FOUR-DAY QUILT SHOW UNDER WAY IN PADUCAH WILL DOUBLE SIZE OF THE CITY; OSWEGO, ILL., WMAN'S CREATION EARNS HER $18,000

PADUCAH, KY. -- The cameras were flashing, the passersby were oohing in admiration and Caryl Bryer Fallert was basking in the glory. Her kaleidoscope "Birds of a Different Color" took Best of Show honors at the 16th annual American Quilter's Society show in Paducah.

No wonder Fallert was all smiles. As part of the prize, the AQS purchased Fallert's rainbow creation for $18,000 to display at its national museum in Paducah.

Hers was one of more than 400 quilts exhibited at this second-largest quilt show in the United States.

But Paducah's show offers the largest purse in the world -- $100,000 in all from 30 sponsors, said Bonnie Browning, quilt show chairman.

The size of Paducah, population 26,000, will more than double during the show, which began Thursday and continues through Sunday. An economic impact survey of the show last year revealed that quilters spent $10.8 million in Paducah alone.

Fallert lives in Oswego, Ill., and has relatives in Ste. Genevieve County, Mo. Her winning quilt was more than a decade in the making. It took more than 100 colors of thread.

"I spent 10 years designing it, several years dyeing the fabric, four weeks piecing it and two weeks quilting it," she said. "But you might say it took 20 years of practice."

On Thursday, the pattern of Fallert's blouse was a remarkable, muted mirror image of her quilt. A photograph, computer and special ink jet printer helped her create it.

This marks her third win as "Best of Show" for AQS, and six of her quilts hang in the national quilt museum. Another of her colorful quilt entries, "Feather Study #9," won a blue ribbon as well.

An artist her whole life, she has found quilting a creative expression. In the 1980s, her family bought a farm near Owensville, Mo., and there she met women who had quilted their whole lives. She began to attend the Wednesday quilting bees and was hooked. A professional quilter, she creates 20 to 30 quilts each year.

It was Fallert's first Best of Show win in 1989 that created "a real hullabaloo" in quilting circles in that her creation was machine quilted, said Browning. Since then a growing number of machine quilted creations both enter and win.

But many still prefer hand quilting. Just ask Irma Gail Hatcher of Conway, Ark. Her "Garden Maze" won the Timeless Treasures Fabrics Hand Workmanship Award and a $12,000 cash prize.

She worked two and a half years on the quilt along with teaching quilt classes and writing four books. It features 33 Baltimore Album style blocks of different sizes and 3-D appliqu.

Her stitches are meticulous 13 or 14 to an inch. It took seven months just to hand quilt the winning entry.

Her advice to new quilters: Don't start a new project unless you've finished the last.

"If you finish every quilt top you make, you'll figure out a way to get better," she said.

Quilting may be considered women's work by some, but don't tell that to Ricky Tims of St. Louis.

His colorful "Songe d'Automne" took second-place honors in Paducah. The same quilt won first place at a major quilt show in Williamsburg, Va., just four weeks ago.

Tims started quilting in 1991 when he inherited his 83-year-old grandmother's 1956 Sears Kenmore sewing machine. She had just eloped with an 87-year-old fellow who had proposed two weeks earlier.

Before that time, he had never sewn a stitch. But he was drawn to the machine.

"My mama told me how to wind the bobbin. What else did I need to know?" he laughed. Tims began to read the instruction books and soon was quilting like a pro.

His dad, a retired truck driver, and his nephew, an ex-prison guard, have also learned to quilt.

"I try to keep gender out of it," he said, simply.

He will travel to Cape Girardeau next month to present a workshop for the River Heritage Quilt Guild.

The entries came from 48 states, the District of Columbia and 11 foreign countries.

Many of the foreign entrants, such as Chitoshi Kikuchi of Hiroshima, Japan, made the long trip to the show. She and several friends flew to Detroit, changed planes for Nashville, Tenn., and then rented a car for the drive to Paducah. She said the long trip was well worth it. Two of her traditional, hand-stitched quilts were selected for the show.

Both entrants and admirers come from all corners of the globe. They come to see the quilts and to attend more than 140 workshops and lectures.

"We have groups here from Brazil, Turkey, Australia, Canada, Germany and France. There are three busloads from England. The AQS has 60,000 members in all 50 states and 80 foreign countries, and that helps draw the crowds," said Browning.

She spent some time Thursday talking with a group from the national TV station in Toyko who are planning a huge quilt show in 2002. They invited Browning to come as a teacher, which she accepted. She's heading to Turkey at the end of May for a big government-sponsored show in Ankara.

One local entry earned a ribbon at the show. The quilt done by members of the River Heritage Quilt Guild for Southeast Missouri State University's 125th anniversary received an honorable mention.

Browning said it is honor enough to be selected for the show. Only one in two quilts is picked by jurors for inclusion even before the judging begins.