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This art will keep you warm Two-day show features 150 quilts by local artists By BILL VARBLE One noteworthy quilt on display is the Victim's Rights Quilt, which hangs in the Capitol in Salem. The squares in the quilt are designed to call attention to the plight of crime victims in counties around the state, including Jackson County. Annrie Kipps figures she's made more than 100 quilts since she took up quilting in 1971. Most of them she gives away. "All my children and grandchildren and nieces and nephews have quilts," says Kipps, of Rogue River. "Everybody I know has lots of quilts." Kipps is showing some of her quilts in North Medford High School's gym, which has turned into a quilters' mecca this weekend with the Mountain Stars Quilters Guild's 1999 Quilt Show and Silent Auction. Some 150 quilts are on display, made by quilters from Ashland to Hugo. Kipps is the featured quilter at the event, with 15 of her quilts on exhibit. The show continues today. As many as 1,000 people are expected to attend the two-day affair, says Elaine Turcke, of Medford. Doors open at 10 a.m. today at North Medford High School. Admission is $1. Among today's highlights are a silent auction that goes on from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and a wearable art fashion show at 1 p.m. Demonstrations during the day include applique, machine piecing, hand piecing and spoon basting. Kipps figures the popularity of quilting stems from its combination of art and utility. "It's an opportunity for self-expression, and it's useful," she says. "You can throw them on the bed, hang them on the wall or give them away." Kipps' favorite among the quilts she's displaying is one that depicts a bunch of egrets against a green background. The big birds are complete right down to their reflections in the water. Kipps says she was inspired to create the piece some years ago when she used to commute daily past Laguna Santa Rosa north of the San Francisco Bay Area and see the birds there. She says the large white birds hang over her bed. The quilt is not for sale. A more traditional quilt by Kipps is a large green, yellow and white one in a pattern called "Garden Twist." She says the pattern was first shown in 1851 in Godey's Ladies' Book, a popular magazine of its day. White squares in the quilt are filled with decorative stitching, which is what makes the piece an actual quilt as opposed to a comforter, Kipps says. One noteworthy quilt on display is the Victim's Rights Quilt, which hangs in the Capitol in Salem. The squares in the quilt are designed to call attention to the plight of crime victims around the state, including Jackson County. Yet another unusual project is "Quilts Over Kosovo," an effort quilters say is designed to provide Albanian refugees with twin-size quilts. There's more at stake than simple warmth, they says. "It's a way of saying we care," says local organizer Joann Stuebing of Grants Pass. "It will add color and give them hope." She says 10,000 quilts had been collected as of one week ago. Stuebing is asking quilters to mail their own quilts to Quilts Over Kosovo, 1250 24th St. NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20037. For more information, call her at (541) 476-8522. Items up for silent bidding today are marked with blue tags. Bidders must register and stop by the auction table to bid on them. Organizers say some two dozen quilts will have been auctioned off by the end of the day Saturday, but nearly as many more will go today. Most are small. Proceeds go the the Mountain Stars education fun to promote quilting in the Rogue Valley. Winning bidders will be notified after the bidding ends, and quilts can be claimed at 4 p.m. and must be paid for then. Turcke says in a changing world, quilting represents both a tie to the old and a chance to try out the new. "Everybody has a grandmother who quilted," she says. "Now there are new ideas and fabrics. People try them and they become intrigued." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA