Laura Rice is featured quilter at museum’s Sunday opening

    It’s been a long winter and spring is here.
    It’s also Mother’s Day on Sunday which coincides with the season opening at the Chase County Museum in Champion.
    As has been the tradition, the Mother’s Day opening features a quilt show coordinated by the Imperial Crazy Quilt Guild, with Laura Rice chosen as this year’s featured quilter.
    She plans to display about 15 of her quilts, she said, along with many others hung by Guild members.
    The museum will be open Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.
    “Her applique and hand quilting, among the many wonderful quilts she makes, are amazing,” said museum board member Becky Carman of Rice’s work.
    Rice is well-known as a regular winner for her quilt entries in the Chase County Fair’s open class division.
    “I like to share my quilts and this is a perfect opportunity to do so,” Rice said.
    Quilting for about 40 years “but probably longer,” Rice said she is self-taught and has never taken a quilting class.
    Her favorite type of quilting is applique. She hand-quilts everything, she said.
    “I like applique best because it involves more detailed work. It takes more time but I can be more creative with the design,” she said.
    “I love the handwork.”
    When making an appliqued quilt she can also take it with her when traveling, she said, versus sitting at a machine.
    She estimated she makes four to five quilts each year and has given many away. In the past 20 years, she’s begun documenting them, and so far, has 100 documented.
    Rice said she usually only shows her quilts locally, but in 2021 took part in the Quilts of the Plains event in Wray, Colorado, where she won Best of Show and the $100 prize.
    Last year, she entered there again, placing in a couple of categories. She plans to take part a third year in Wray the Saturday after Father’s Day.
    Cookies, iced tea and coffee will be served during Sunday’s opening.
Museum weekly programs
    The museum’s quilt show will continue next Sunday, May 21, from 1 to 4 p.m.
    While the weekly schedule isn’t complete yet, Chase County Historical Society President Charley Colton said there will be weekly Sunday afternoon programs through the summer.
    There are also a number of new exhibits in the museum, Carman noted.