Top: St. Francis parishioners Mary Schulte (left) and Cathy Barkman hold up one of their featured quilts for the upcoming St. Francis Church picnic raffle and quilt bingo. The pattern for the quilt is called “The Queen in her Court.” Bottom: St. Francis parishioners Lois Voss (left), Edna Rakers and Ruth Litteken show off their “Log Cabin” quilt. (Photos by Melissa Wilkinson) Quilters of Clinton County, get excited! The Annual St. Francis of Assisi Quilt Show is this weekend, July 20 and 21, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. both days. Held at the St. Francis Parish Center at Second and Clinton streets in Aviston, this yearly show features a preview of the over 70 quilts to be awarded as prizes at the Aug. 3 St. Francis church picnic.
While many of the quilts are donated, many more are sewn and assembled by parishioners and volunteers. Helpers come to St. Francis for one week a month, October through March, in order to dedicate time and effort to quilting for the show.
“We have a big room where we can set up three full-size quilts,” said parishioner Cathy Barkman. “We can piece one together in a day. Then it takes about three days to quilt one, with six to eight people at the quilt.”
According to parishioner Mary Schulte, one does not simply sit down and make a quilt. The process is lengthy and requires special materials such as patterns and quilt frames. While there are now machines that can ease the process, most of the quilts made by and donated to the show are hand-quilted. Schulte said the process is made easier by
splitting the jobs up between volunteers.
“We have cutters. We have sewers. We have rippers, we have pressers and we have ladies who come in and make lunch for us,” said Schulte. “Some come for an hour; some come for a day. They do it because they like it.”
Schulte said the group averages around 16 volunteers per session. One notable volunteer is Vera Netemeyer, 97, who has been hand-quilting at home for the parish for years. But, said Barkman, volunteers don’t have an age requirement.
“A lot of the younger ones are afraid to make them,” said Schulte. “I say, ‘here, sit down and try it.’ When you give them something easy to sew, suddenly they’re not afraid to try something else.”
While some quilts will be offered as raffle prizes, most will be awarded to winners of Quilt Bingo, which will be held on Aug. 3 at 6:30 p.m. during the St. Francis Church picnic.
For those interested in offering their time to future quilting efforts, keep an eye on the marquis outside the St. Francis Parish Center, or on the church Facebook page, where quilting session times will be posted.
The Breese Legion picnic will feature a historical display this Saturday, including these scrapbooks and uniforms. (Photo by Melissa Wilkinson) The veteran organization known as the American Legion was founded on March 15, 1919 in Paris, France. Later that same year, the city of Breese started its own branch. On July 20, 2019, Breese American Legion Timmermann-Benhoff Post 252 will celebrate its 100th anniversary with the restarting of an old tradition; the annual Legion picnic.
According to Legion commander Jeff Jung, many members — including himself — were not aware of the picnics, which ended in the late 1960s.
“When I became commander, I started cleaning and I came across a few pictures and some tickets saying they had a picnic. I didn’t know about it before that. That was about eight months ago,” said Jung. “I went to the executive board first; they looked at me like I had four heads. We decided to take it to the membership and the membership agreed.”
Henry “Red” Hoerchler, Breese Legion manager from 1999-2017, recalled a time during his membership where the Legion was consistently active; so much so that the building was expanded in 1974.
“We had a lot of benefits for different people. Those were always the biggest things we had,” said Hoerchler. “We had one benefit for a gentleman where we set up a tent across the whole alley. You could walk right out the hall and into a tent.”
Top left: 2018 Miss Clinton County Fair Kaylee Hempen milks a cow during Monday night’s milking contest; top right: Cameron Griesbaum competes against family in a squirt gun contest. (Photos by Melissa Wilkinson)
Top left: Prizewinning baker Martha Reinkensmeyer; top right: Evelyn Ribbing and the Best in Show desk that she built; middle left: Marvin Wiegman of the Lions, right, shares a laugh with Tammy and Robert Gerstenecker at the fair; middle right: Dairy Judge Boyd Schaufelberger from Greenvile, on the far left, looks over cows shown by Emmet Schomaker, in the middle, and Jason Brammeier on the right (photo by Diane Sinclair); bottom left: Cara Carrillion of Carlyle and her show hog; bottom right: Denise Sinclair and her first place pieced quilt top. (Photos by Mandy Ribbing)
Top left: 2019 Miss Clinton County Fair contestant Hannah Hill of Sandoval; top right: 2019 Miss Clinton County Fair contestant Lillian Wright of Albers; middle left: 2019 Miss Clinton County Fair contestant Madison Lammers; middle right: 4-H leader Cheryl Timmermann measures the results of team Bryanna Becker of Bartelso’s efforts during Monday night’s cow milking contest; bottom left: Caiden Litteken, and bottom right: Laila Barr, with their show hogs. (Photos by Melissa Wilkinson)
The 2019 Clinton County Fair kicked off Monday night despite the absence of the parade. Fair officials said the decision to cancel the beloved annual parade was made after a large number of floats pulled out of the lineup last minute, fearing weather complications.
The organizers of the Clinton County Fair have rescheduled the annual parade for this Friday, July 19, at 6 p.m. beginning at Carlyle High School.
The original parade, set to march from the Clinton County courthouse to the Carlyle fairgrounds, was canceled a few hours before showtime on Monday, July 15. The decision sparked confusion, as organizers posted on Facebook earlier that day stating the parade would go on “rain or shine.” Several citizens questioned why the event was canceled despite forecasts for rain ending an hour before the parade was set to begin.
“We regret that we had to cancel the parade on Monday evening and no one was more upset than the volunteers of the fair and parade,” said organizer Lori Jansen. “Huge amounts of time and effort are always necessary to put the parade together. When we decided Monday morning that we were planning to have the parade rain or shine, we were comfortable with that decision. The decision to cancel the parade was made for us. Many parade entries canceled due to the weather forecast. Marching bands, many with floats to be assembled, and many with electronics were uncomfortable with the uncertainty of the weather. We could have continued with a parade but the number of entries would have been so very low that it would have been disappointing and it is not possible to turn a parade back on in a matter of minutes or even hours if the weather clears.”
This Friday’s parade will have a substitute parade route beginning at Carlyle High School. The parade will travel south on 13th Street and turn west on Fairfax Street, ending near the old Walmart building parking lot. According to Jansen, this parade route will avoid the lengthy paperwork required to cross one of the state highways which takes weeks to process.
The parade lineup will begin at 5 p.m. in the Carlyle High School parking lot. Jansen said the process would be less formal than years previous as the organizers lack the time to do it more formally.
“The Clinton County Fair Association appreciates the great cooperation with the city of Carlyle and the Carlyle Police Department and we look forward to seeing you at the parade,” said Jansen.
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