Staff writer
Attendees at the Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale Saturday in Hutchinson stopped what they were doing and perked up their ears in the Meadowlark Building at the Kansas State Fairgrounds when the bidding for a quilt reached over $9,000 and the auctioneer continued asking for bids.
If they weren’t in the benches or stands in the auction area already, people started drifting over to that part of the building. The quilt, hand-pieced, appliquéd and quilted by the women of the Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church, eventually sold for $11,600, an all-time high for their church.
“There were three main workers on the quilt but others helped, too,” Charlene Driggers said. “Susan Hein, Marilyn Hiebert, and Fran Rhodes pieced the quilt, and Marilyn, Fran and I appliquéd the pattern.”
Afterward it was hand-quilted by the Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren women.
The women started piecing the quilt in 2012 and it was ready to be appliquéd during the summer of 2013. Church women quilted Tuesday mornings from November through February to finish it.
“As we were working on the quilt I told them it would sell for $10,000,” Driggers said, “but they just rolled their eyes at me!”
At the auction her husband tried to bid it up and he was glad he dropped out when he did.
The quilt was a kit of batik fabrics from Keepsake Quilting. The pattern was named “Flowers for My Wedding Ring.”
This was the 46th year for the Kansas Mennonite Relief sale. This year the sale was Friday and Saturday and sale items included baked goods, plants and auctions of vehicles and other items in addition to quilts and wall hangings. The preliminary and unaudited total for the sale this year is $501,608. Funds raised benefit the Mennonite Central Committee’s relief, development and peace work around the world.