Eleanor M. Coonts and daughter Mary E. Utt will have their creations on display during the event for all to see and admire.

Eleanor Coonts was born and raised in the Georgetown community near Beverly, the daughter of William Blackburn Caplinger and Hoda Pingley Caplinger. She had nine children and spent many years both sewing and quilting. She is now 89 years old.

Mary E. Utt also was raised in the Georgetown community. She and her mother are members of the Log Cabin Quilters’ Guild. Utt said her mother’s quilts are considered utility quilts.

“They are meant to be used and loved,” Utt said. “The quilts in the show are ones mom made for her children and grandchildren.”

Quilter Mary Utt shows a quilt her mother, Eleanor Coonts, made from her great aunt’s blocks. The quilt was pieced on a treadle sewing machine. Coonts made the quilt for her son.

Utt’s quilts are different. “They are generally meant to be displayed but are not for everyday use.”

One of the quilts to look for during the MSFF Quilt Show is a nine-patch quilt made by Coonts.

“My mother made the quilt from blocks that were from her great aunt’s,” Utt said. “She found the blocks in an old trunk. She trimmed them, made a sash and created the quilt using a treadle sewing machine. It’s a really lovely quilt, and she made it for my brother, who is a carpenter.”

Utt said usually the Guild has one featured quilter each year, but this year, since they are the only mother and daughter in the group, they decided to show their quilts as a team.

“I have six large quilts my mother made that will be in the show and three large quilts that I have made,” Utt said. “I also have 20 quilted wall hangings that will be on display.”

She said she prefers to make smaller quilted items, because they are easier to get completed.

“A lot of these are my sister Janet Coonts’,” Utt said. “Her birthday is Nov. 2, and every year I give her a quilted wall hanging. A dozen or more of these are pumpkin themed, and they will be on display during the show.”

Some of the their other featured quilts will be ‘Mocha Java,’ which has pieced stars and is all browns and tans; a patriotic quilt with red, white and blue stars; ‘Purple Irises,’ which has irises at the center of stars and free-formed irises that are dimensional; and ‘Amish Churn Dash’ is the first real quilt Coonts made, which has a black background featuring bright pinks and blues.

“We had the ‘Amish Churn Dash’ quilted by a Mennonite woman who lived in the Mouth of Seneca,” Utt said. “When we got the quilt back, she had used black thread to quilt it. Over the years, the color has grown on me, and I have come to the realization that the black thread was the perfect thing to have quilted it with.”

Utt said her mother has a spider-web quilt entered into the show.

“It has different shades of blue in a spider web pattern. It is very pretty,” she said.

Utt said she imagines her mother started sewing in the 1930s. She said when she and her eight brothers and sisters were growing up, her mom made every bit of clothing they wore from feed sacks.

“She didn’t actually have time to quilt until she retired,” Utt said. “That would have been in the 1980s and 1990s. I started quilting about the same time; however, we did not sit and quilt together. But my mom would call me up at like 10 p.m. and say she was stuck and needed a green (piece of fabric.) I always kept my fabric sorted into totes by color, so I would grab one and go down the road and take them to her. We swapped lots of ideas, magazines, patterns and material over the years.”

Utt said her mother did teach her to sew when she was 6 years old.

“My mom said every time she started to sew, I was hanging off the back of the sewing machine,” she said. “I learned to sew just by watching her mostly. She first had an old treadle machine and then she got a Montgomery Ward sewing machine, which was a big step up.”

Utt said quilting is very rewarding.

“It is so time consuming, but I love it,” she said. “I started quilting when I went to dinner at a friend’s house over in Harman. She was doing paper piecing, and she had a 2-inch tulip she had made and it was perfect. I thought it looked worthwhile. I went home and copied that pattern and was down at the Elkins Sewing Center buying fabric, and I have never stopped since.”

The MSFF Quilt Show Chair Kitty Lee said the event opens the Thursday of the Festival, and she said usually they hang about 100 quilts.

“This is the only show we sponsor each year,” Lee said. “We are open Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and the event is located at the YMCA gymnasium. On Saturday, we will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

Those who attend the MSFF Quilt Show are able to vote for their favorite quilt made by an adult and a favorite kids’ quilt.

“We will have a display of quilts made by youth made during quilt classes at the Elkins Sewing Center,” Lee said. “We invite the kids to display their work, because they are our future and because we want them to get excited about our craft. We have included the children’s work in our show ever since our very first MSFF Quilt Show.”

Lee said she hopes festivalgoers will stop by and enjoy the show.

“Quilting is a craft, and it’s an art form. The people of this community need to appreciate these artisans, because we have some incredible artists. We are able to get sponsors to cover the cost of the venue and our insurance, so we do not have to charge an admission fee. One of our goals is to educate others and, during the show, we typically have someone there who is demonstrating some hand quilting. We have others there to answer questions, and we give people gloves if they want to inspect the quilts and the quilting.”

She said the Log Cabin Quilters’ Guild has gained some tremendous growth when people attended the MSFF Quilt Show and then joined the guild.

During the show, the Log Cabin Quilters’ Guild runs a boutique of hand-made items for sale. The proceeds from the sale are used to help finance their community-service projects.

“We make ‘lovies’ in February, which are lap quilts for the nursing homes, WAIC and schools,” she said. “We also have a raffle quilt and use the funds to make our dialysis quilts, which are full-size quilts donated to patients who are receiving dialysis.”

The Log Cabin Quilters’ Guild meets at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month at the Elkins Rehabilitation & Care Center in Elkins, and anyone interested in joining the group is welcome to attend.