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Quilt Show Tragedy

On March 4, 1998, Pat Lemmons entered three quilts in a quilt show at the Heritage Center in Abilene, Kansas.

She delivered the quilts herself in two plastic bags and one brown sack with the top showing. She expected the show representatives to put them with the other quilts at that time, but they were painting and she was told to just set them down next to the desk in the office. The painter (who was the director of the show) promised he would get them put away after he cleaned up! She placed the brown bag in a larger plastic bag to protect it from paint. She even went back in after going to the car and questioned that he would take care of them.

Her friend went to the show on March 16 and discovered the quilts were not in the show. No one knows when they disappeared!!! When these quilts were entered in the show, the history of each quilt and Pat Lemmons' name were on a computer print out attached to quilt. Each of these are family heirlooms and are irreplaceable.

Pat emphasizes, "All I can say is don't leave them unless you see them take them to the storage where I was told there were others! It was my first show, and probably my last."

All the blocks have white backgrounds and the designs were done with fabric crayons by family members, except for the top two center blocks which contain two black silhouettes with the names "Floyd" and "Nellie" in a red heart between. The dates of "1929" and "1979" are shown.

Every block is signed and includes birth dates. The bottom right square is an outline of a child's hand, colored with many colors and signed "KATHY". The quilt is tied with black yarn and the back is a gold colored blanket.

Except for the center left and bottom right block, the background of the blocks is ecru (light beige). There are 20 blocks. On the top, the second from the left is a tree with fourteen paper bags hanging in and three bags hanging below the tree. The bottom right block includes the embroidered words "381 Questers Pug Memories 4-H and PTA". Each block is bordered with a multicolored fabric of mauve, sage green, brown and ecru. The back matches the border fabric. An ecru heart is stitched on the bottom right on the back of the quilt and signed by the quilters. This quilt is approximately 72" by 65".

This quilt is blue with white blocks and has hand embroidered bouquets tied with blue bows. The backing matches the blue used in the top and the binding has a point edge. The white blocks are old, made in the 1920's. The blue fabric is new and the quilt is approximately 92" long and 94" wide.