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TO THE BARNS: Barbara Konopa
created this quilt as a fundraiser for the Barns of Rose Hill. |
Reprinted with permission from the Clark Times-Courier
©Times Community Newspapers 2004
Berryville, VA April 7, 2004
Barbara Konopa has a passion for quilts.
Every room in her house has quilts on the wall, quilts
hanging on railings, there are even quilted placemats on the table.
To raise money for the Barns of Rose Hill, she decided
to use her time and talent to make a quilt.
The quilt is in a barn-raising pattern. On the light-colored
strips, she got permanent markers and sold signatures for $1. She got more than 400 signatures.
She had intended to get more people to sign, but open
heart surgery in January "kinda slowed me down," she says.
One day, a man came to her door looking for her to sign
a petition. She said she would — if he paid a dollar and signed her quilt. He and
his children all signed, adding a few more dollars to the Barns' fundraising effort.
A friend of Konopa's from Nutmeg Lodge in Martinsburg,
W.Va., donated backing for the quilt; another friend from Inwood donated her time
to do the long-arm machine quilting.
But, it's the signatures that stand out on the quilt.
She went to Grace Episcopal Church, the Berryville craft market and Johnson-Williams
Middle School to get signatures. She remembers many of the children who signed, as
she looks at their drawings.
"It turned out really cool," she says. "The children
were the most fun."
Konopa works with a 4-H group of quilters, saying that
they are the future. The tops of quilts that they made will be on display at the
quilt show.
One 9-year-old in the club, Tamar Michahail, finished
her "top" just last week to the cheers of the rest of the club, Konopa says.
"You could have turned the lights off and she would
have glowed," she said.
The barns quilt and the 4-H tops of quilts will be on
display April 23-25 at the Quilt Show at the Ruritan Fairgrounds.
Reprinted with permission from the Clark Times-Courier
©Times Community Newspapers 2004
www.thequiltercommunity.com
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