Quilts in the Ozarks



by Phelicity Marie Dauphine

The Northern Arkansas/Southern Missouri part of the Ozark Mountains, where we live, is an area well known for frequent craft fairs and shows. There are wonderful places all over to buy the crafts and quilts that so many humans make here, especially in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and Branson, Missouri. There are many, many talented ladies in these hills, and if they're not making candles or pottery or something else, they're sewing quilts.


It is Tourist Season, or what we just call "Season" here from about the first of April until about the end of October, or what the locals call "when the fat lady stands at the top of the hill and sings." During Season, the shops and fairs hang locally-made quilts all over, inside and outside. Many craft shows are held on weekends right on the streets and in the town squares, and lots of ladies hang their winter's work of new quilts for sale in their yards for passers-by to see (hoping a passer will buy). Unless it rains, of course!


I like to see all the purrty handcrafts, but my fafurite is the quilts. I've been a totally indoor kitty all my life, so I've spent a lot of time helping my Mom sew and make purrty things. My job is furry important, because just the right little fluff of beautiful, silvery kitty fur must be on everything for it to look right! Especially quilts!


I like big quilts on the bed, and I like them folded in piles on the trunk in the corner. Cause then I can sleep on top of the pile, and feel just like the princess in "The Princess and the Pea". But I like the kitty-size quilts my Mom makes best. Once in a while she gives me one she made especially for me, or lets me adopt one I decide I like. All us girls have our own kitty quilts. I keep mine in places I particularly love to nap, like on the trunk and the top of the curio cabinet.


Quilts are homey and comfy, as well as being really beautiful. I think that's why humans like them so much. I know it's why I do.

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