Event to take place downtown July 21

LANDRUM — On July 21, visitors to Landrum are invited to step back in time to their grandmother’s or great-grandmother’s generation.

Landrum will be graced with the colorful, historic patterns of handmade quilts for the Landrum Quilter’s third-biennial Airing of the Quilts event.

“The event celebrates the long-ago custom of airing out winter quilts on [the] clothesline once warmer weather has settled in,” said Landrum Area Business Association Secretary Ellen Henderson. “There will be quilters from all over the upstate.”

The event will showcase the art of quilting, and will offer information about quilting. There will be quilting demonstrations, quilts and quilting supplies for sale and children’s activities.

Vendors include basketry artist Nancy Basket of Walhalla, South Carolina, and author Georgia Bonesteel. Along with Basket and Bonesteel, Patti Germann will demonstrate quilt block painting of various shapes and patterns.

Basket is an artist in education through the South Carolina Arts Commission, and works with the National Indian Education Association as a presenter of traditional and contemporary baskets. She also presents traditional Cherokee storytelling and basketry through the Pickens County Museum and the Haygood Mill.

Basket makes traditional and contemporary baskets from pines needles, kudzu and other natural materials.

Bonesteel is the host of the UNC–TV show, “Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel.” She is the inventor of lap quilting and the author of several books about quilting, including “Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel” and “Easy Does it Quilts.”

Bonesteel teaches at Blue Ridge Community College and at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown.

The Airing of the Quilts is set opposite the Landrum Quilters biennial three-day quilt show, scheduled for June 13-15, 2019, at Landrum Middle School. During the show, quilters will work on projects, will demonstrate quilt making and will show lap sized quilts, Henderson said.

The event will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and adjoin the Landrum Farmers Market on the North Trade Street green. It is sponsored by the city of Landrum and the LABA. For more information, people may visit landrumquilters.com.