The last 37 years of West Virginia heritage are on display as part of the Mountaineer Week Arts and Crafts Festival at West Virginia University.
This year, the Mountaineer Week Craft Fair & Quilt Show opening ceremony will be Friday, Nov. 13 from 11:30 a.m. to noon in the Mountainlair. Randall Reid-Smith, commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, will be the keynote speaker at the event.
"It is a great way for people who are not from West Virginia to get acquainted with the culture and traditions of the state," said Erin Blake, special events coordinator at West Virginia University.
In cooperation with the West Virginia State Department of Commerce and the Campus Club, the Craft Fair & Quilt Show is an indoor, juried craft fair featuring Appalachian handcrafted objects. Artisans must submit five pictures of their work which will be judged on the basis of design, craftsmanship, creativity and the number of crafts per category.
More than 60 artisans from West Virginia and the surrounding area are present to demonstrate and sell their work, Blake said.
"It consists of a wide array of pottery, jewelry, wood products, photography, woolen objects and candles," she said.
The Craft Fair & Quilt Show is the centerpiece of Mountaineer Week, according to its Web site.
In 1977, the practice of adopting a quilt pattern every year was incorporated into Mountaineer Week to add a feeling of unity to the week’s festivities, the Web site read.
The "Double Wedding Ring" quilt logo, made by Ethelyn Butler and Mae Long, who won the Bicentenniall Quilt Show for the Smithsonian, was proposed and accepted as the official quilt logo of that year’s Mountaineer Week. It is still on display at WVU’s Jackson’s Mill Conference Center.
Each year thereafter, a quilt logo was chosen and a quilt square was made and framed to showcase it. Most of the framed quilt squares are on display in the Mountainlair today.
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