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'Divas' excited, ready for fourth annual 'Extravaganza' this Saturday
paw quilters
Pictured, making preparations for this Saturdays Holiday Extravaganza 2010, are some of the Quilting Divas of the Larned-based Quilting Bees Guild. Pictured with beaucoup de quilts are, from left, Ann Hicks, president of the Quilting Bees; Alice Clapsaddle, Diann Morell and Virginia Bauer. The event will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Presbyterian Church, 8th and Morris in Larned. Please enter by way of the northwest back door. Four of the five hostesses of the event are pictured. Shop with the divas for unique, hand-made gift items. - photo by JERRY BUXTON Great Bend Tribune

The "Quilting Divas" of Larned will present their fourth annual "Holiday Extravaganza," this time for 2010, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Presbyterian Church in Larned. Many unique, handmade items will be available for purchase, "just in time for Christmas."

Some of the items offered for purchase will include cookbooks, quilts, wall quilts, kitchen items, jewelry, woodcrafts and homemade goodies. Also, special orders will be taken for Christmas, which falls just five weeks later.

There will be something for everyone, the divas assure the public. And you can enjoy refreshments while you shop and visit with friends.

Ann Hicks, president of the Quilting Bees Guild, from whence come the divas, said the group has made more than 55 prayer quilts (to donate) in the past 2 1/2 years. For this Christmas, they have made more than 100 dog scarves for the Pawnee County Humane Society.

Also, they’ve made 11 quilts to donate to the Fort Larned Lions Club for its annual "Christmas Basket" program. They will also give away other quilted and stitched items, Mrs. Hicks said.

"We also did a quilt for Breast Cancer Awareness," she said. It, along with many other items, was auctioned off at Scraps in Larned in October. Also, the guild will work on quilts to be raffled off for the benefit of the local humane society.

The Quilting Bees Guild has more than 30 members, not all from Larned. Anyone interested in quilting is welcome to join the guild, or to visit a meeting.

The guild will make a 12-month sampler quilt, starting in January.

One highlight of the past year was the guild’s making of the "Fort Larned Quilt" for fourth-graders from Northside Elementary School in Larned. The students’ drawings were incorporated into the quilt, and it placed second among seven quilts competing last spring. The seven quilts were from, and represented, the national historic sites in Kansas.

Also, Mrs. Hicks said the group will have an old-fashioned quilting bee sometime early in 2011, featuring hand quilting and an old frame.