JAY – Sewing machines sat idle Tuesday as women gathered to watch fellow quilters show their talents.

Each of the quilters gave some insight into their creations touching on how they chose the colors and patterns and, in some cases, who the quilt is for.

There were a range of styles from table runners to reversible bed coverings.

The occasion was a meeting of the Country Squares quilting club, which gathers at the Jay-Niles Memorial Library in North Jay twice a month.

Though not all of the 30 members from the Jay-Wilton area could be present, there was still quite a showing to express appreciation for each other’s handiwork.

On a table at the side of the room, smaller baby quilts in shades of pink, green, purple, blue, yellow, red and other colored scraps of material were displayed. Designs ranged from wagons and storks to trucks, cats and Winnie the Pooh as well as traditional patterns.

The quilters presented their gifts to Deb McGrane and Janice Crandall of the Franklin County Children Task Force in Farmington to use in “Welcome baby” bags for first-time mothers.

“We have a formal project we do each meeting,” club President Susan Withrow of Wilton said. It is taught by a member.

As show and tell continued, chatter rose with each quilted item presented.

Lisa Small of Wilton showed her Turning 20 quilt pattern she made in shades of brilliant blue.

“I loved the color,” Small said to fellow quilters.

Joyce Orff of Wilton held up a 1950s patterned white and red table top big enough for a card table. Orff and the late Barbara Allen of Jay started making similar table tops before the former member died. Orff finished hers but Allen’s is still in pieces, Orff said, but she expects Allen’s granddaughters will finish it for her.

After the show and tell, Orff said, she helped start the quilting group.

“It’s just getting together and sharing,” Orff said, “And if you have a problem, there are 30 people to help you solve it.”

She does most quilting with a sewing machine these days but is currently working on a piece sewn by hand that has already created a callous on her index finger.

“The fabric search is half the fun,” she said.

The women save their scraps of material and share them with others.

“You see a lot of the scraps in the baby quilts on the table,” Orff said.

The group is very generous, she said, with some members making more than one. They also made lap quilts for the nursing home.

Collette Fortin, another member, said the group would soon be working on a mystery project to make a duplicate of a Home of the Brave quilt, a Civil War pattern. The Sanitation Commission used to give the quilts to soldiers, Fortin said.

They plan to give the quilt to a family who lost a member in the war in Iraq.