Barbara Lewis, whose quilts will be featured at Miners Jubilee, likes to experiment with colors and fabrics

Barbara Lewis thinks she’s made 98 quilts.

Well, maybe.

“I might have made a hundred by now,” she says.

She’s kind of lost count in the past year thanks to a furious bout of quilt-making after she was asked to be the featured quilter at the Baker City Quilt Club’s show during Miners Jubilee.

“This year I did go kind of crazy,” she says.

That request inspired her to finish a quilt she started in 2005. The pattern is “Giant Dahlia,” and she made the center after trying (unsuccessfully) to win a raffle quilt of that design from the La Grande Quilt Club.

“I didn’t win it, so I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to have to make it,’ ” she says.

She first made the center, a flower designed with curved strips of fabric.

“Then I put it away, then got it back out for this and finished it,” she says.

The quilt show is Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Community Event Center on East Street just north of Campbell (the former Armory).

Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $3 per person.

In addition to the display of about 200 quilts, the club will be selling raffle tickets to raise money for the annual scholarships they award to local graduates.

The raffle quilt design this is “Voices of the Past.” Tickets are $1 each or six for $5.

Lewis made her first quilt in 1971, then didn’t make any more until she took a “Log Cabin” class in 1986.

Then, in 2000, she leased her ranch at Bridgeport and her youngest daughter graduated from high school.

She suddenly had extra time, so she joined the Baker City Quilt Club.

“I didn’t have anybody at home and no ranch to take care of,” she said.

She’s been quilting ever since, and attends the clubs weekly gatherings every Wednesday at the Missouri Flat Grange.

“I like trying new things all the time, and taking classes,” she said. “There are always new techniques and new fabrics.”

She keeps most of her quilts, and rotates them through her house as bedspreads, tablecloths, furniture throws and wall hangings.

“I make them because I want to do it, I want to see how the colors and design look,” she said.

Some stay in the closet.

“Some are definitely no – I never want to see this again,” she said.

As featured quilter, Lewis will have about a dozen of her best quilts on display at the show.

For the “Giant Dahlia,” she encourages everyone to lift up an edge to see the custom quilting done by a woman in Union.

“The quilt’s probably prettier on the back than the front,” she said.

The Baker City Quilt Club membership is about 30, and new members are always welcome. For more information, call Virginia Lowry at 523-3038, or Mary Jane Hackwith at 523-3752.

Quilt show

To dovetail with the 21st annual Quilt Show, Baker Heritage Museum will have about 30 historic quilts on display during Miners Jubilee.

All are from the museum’s collection.

The museum, located at 2480 Grove St., just east of Geiser-Pollman Park, is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $5 adults, $4.50 seniors and free for children younger than 16.