QUILTERS TO HONOR SEMO

The River Heritage Quilters' Guild is creating a quilt in honor of Southeast Missouri State University's 125th anniversary.

The quilt will focus on campus buildings. The centerpiece will depict Academic Hall, and each of the 14 surrounding blocks will represent each of the other buildings on campus, including the original Normal School building. An appliqued border will then frame the entire quilt.

Tina Henning chairs the project for the River Heritage Quilters' Guild.

Henning said, "Our challenge in this project is to take the pictures that we have of the buildings and make them look as real as possible on the quilt."

The quilt will be presented to the university in a ceremony on April 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the University Center Program Lounge.

From 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. in Crisp Hall Auditorium, a presentation on quilts will be made by Dr. Ruth Stone Schulte of the social work department and Thelma L. Stone, a quilt appraiser with the American Quilters Society and a member of the River Heritage Quilters' Guild.

The presentation, "Stitches in Time: Intergenerational Patterns in Quilting," will include a trunk showing of quilts.

The guild was asked in April to create the anniversary quilt.

Henning said the quilt will take about a year to complete.

The guild was established in March 1988 with 25 members. Since then, it has grown to 100 members in Missouri, Illinois and Arkansas.

Over the past few years, the guild's community projects committee has made and donated over 140 quilts to various organizations.