CAROL SHETLER/The Luminary Some members of the Susquehanna Valley Quilt Guild auditioned fabrics for the challenge section of the upcoming quilt show’s theme, “WWI Centennial.” Poppy printed materials will be used to recall the poem, “Flanders Field.” The show will be held March 2 & 3 at Allenwood. Left to right are Deb Smith, Nancy Jacobs, Sally Labenberg, Cindy Craddock and Kay Rhinehart.

ALLENWOOD – The Susquehanna Valley Quilt Guild announced the new location for their bi-annual quilt show. The 2018 event will be held at the Warrior Run Area Fire Department Social Hall, First Street, Allenwood.

The show scheduled for March 2 and 3, will have gathered approximately 150 quilts. This year’s theme is the “WWI Centennial,” with works featuring names and photos of many local veterans and nurses.

Show chair, Cindy Craddock will enter two items in the theme categories. At her suggestion, poppies and khaki are required in the challenge section. In one piece, wording to the poem “Flanders Field” appears, in the other, likeness of WWI Red Cross nurses from front covers of magazines during 1917.

Among those paid by the War Department then, were artists who designed images for bond drive posters, magazines, and any other artwork romanticizing the war. These efforts were known as propaganda.

The show’s special feature will be three quilts originally made in Jersey Shore by Red Cross workers nearly 100 years ago. Each has more than 300 veteran’s names embroidered in red on blocks of white muslin. Two include names of Army nurses from the area.

The YELLOW RIBBON Quilt

Betty Neff, renowned designer, quilter and teacher of Canton, PA, will exhibit blocks of yellow ribbons on fields of blue, pieced into block form.

Research documents this symbol as a form of remembrance that can be traced back through the centuries.

Many recall the song, “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree,” a 1972 hit by recording artists Tony Orlando and Dawn. Earlier, in 1949, the song was modernized when John Wayne starred in the movie, “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.”

However, in 1917, the same song had been formatted for the war effort. Its title was “Round Her Neck She Wears a Yeller Ribbon.” So, what was some of the wording connected to the war? It identified Suzie Simkins who read in the paper of “Silas Hubbard leaving hoeing taters to be a soldier. And so, while he went a gunning, round her neck she wore a yeller ribbon for her lover who is fur, fur, away.”

According to the 2006 Summer issue of Sheet Music magazine, the song has taken on all sorts of guises. From college lampoons, “Around her Knee She Wore a Purple Garter,” to a 1960’s popularization by Mitch Miller, “Sigmund Spaeth.”

In 1838, minstrels in shows sang, “All Round my Hat . . .. I wear’s a green willow.” That song, in turn, is believed to be a descendant of an earlier English folk song, published in Thomas Proctor’s Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions in 1578.

Free for the taking to show-goers, Neff will donate patterns for the “Yellow Ribbon,” and/or the “Stars & Rockets.” blocks. This to encourage the making of additional WWI Centennial quilts.

For more information on the quilt guild and the show, visit www.susqvalleyquilters.org