Museum offers double display for program Sunday

This Sunday, the Chase County Museum in Champion will be featuring an “old quilt” show with an emphasis on friendship quilts.
The museum quilt collection has not been on display for around 20 years, said Becky Carman, a Historical Society board member.   
The display will also included quilts from people in the community, as well.
“If you would like to include your old quilts in Sunday’s program, bring them to the museum Saturday between 10 a.m. and noon, or give them to a board member—Carol Maddox, Manette Brown, Diann Schilke or myself,” Carman said.
If displaying a quilt, tag the quilt with the owner’s name, who quilted it and year or estimated year it was made, she added.
The program will be from 1 to 4 p.m., and quilts can be taken down after 4 p.m. Sunday or picked up from a board member.
Refreshments will be provided.
Special cross stitch display
Along with the old quilt display Sunday, there will be a special showing of some of Shirley Fanning’s cross stitch pictures.
Fanning will be present during the display to answer questions.
Her cross stitch pictures host a variety of subject matter and have been professionally framed.
“They are truly fantastic,” Carman said. “You don’t want to miss it.”
“I was the youngest of 10 children—five girls and five boys. My mother taught me to embroider when I was 6 years old,” Fanning said.
Some of her brothers learned to embroider as well, she added.
“Every stitch had to be perfect or we had to tear them out and start over,” she said.
When she was growing up, they would embroider on tea towels, pillow cases and anything that would make nice Christmas gifts.
Fanning was the county assessor in Chase County before retiring 30 years ago. She said she wanted a hobby after retirement.
“I thought about taking up quilting, but that requires the space of nearly a whole room,” she said.
“I was visiting a hobby shop in Columbus and saw some cross stitching kits. So I bought one and brought it home. I loved it, and I was hooked,” said Fanning.
Fanning has been doing cross stitch pictures for almost 30 years now,  she said.
“My pictures are of different varieties, just whatever catches my interest,” she added.
She said each picture takes anywhere from two months to over a year to complete.
“My pictures are not for sale. I only make them to give to family,” she said.
Fanning and her late husband, Jim, have four children, 10 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren.
Jim passed away in 1990.