Guild donates 300^th anniversary quilt

Made with approximately 40 hands and thousands of stitches, 300 years of Beaufort County history will be given a place of prominence in Washington’s Brown Library.

Thursday, the Pamlico River Quilters’ Guild donated to the library a quilt created in commemoration of Beaufort County’s tri-centennial anniversary. The quilt was displayed to the county and made a visit to all county fourth-grade classrooms last year in honor of the event.

“It’s a gift to the county,” said Ruth Rose, president of the quilters’ guild. “We wanted it in a place where it could be seen publicly, and enjoyed, by all the people in the county.”

After considering several locations, the guild chose the Washington library because of its diverse and numerous client-base, Rose said.

And the library is thrilled to be on the receiving end of the guild’s generosity, according to Gloria Moore, the library’s director.

The hand and machine-quilted piece has all the elements of Beaufort County history: its landscape, historic buildings and farming roots are all represented in the 16 blocks making up the outer portion of the quilt. Each of the 16 blocks also represents the work, and design, of one quilter. At the quilt’s center, a map of the county depicting all its rivers and towns, as well as Goose Creek State Park, is marked by corner blocks with more symbolism: a sailboat for boating, a pine tree for the lumber industry, a fish for the fishing industry and a North Carolina star.

“It was a working project for about six to nine months,” Rose said. “It takes a long time to organize a project like this.”

“They are very, very talented,” Moore said of the guild’s members.

The library already boasts one quilt donated by the guild in 2001. The “Beaufort County, North Carolina, Tri-Centennial Quilt” will be hung in the main room of the library, above the music section.