200 Quilts Displayed At 4th Annual Lakeland Quilt Show

by James Coulter

Imagine being a child on a spring day with a clear turquoise sky, lying on your stomach in a grassy field and taking a close look at a flower garden through the lens of a kaleidoscope.

That’s the best way to describe “Floral Fiesta”, a quilt created by Jeannine Davis, a retired librarian with the City of Lakeland, and a member of the Ladies of the Lake quilting guild.

Her quilt was machine embroidered from nine-inch points, with each block taking two hours for her to make.

When she patched together her quilt, she intended it to be a gift for her son and daughter-in-law who resides in Tennessee.

She never imagined her quilt winning best in show at the 4th annual Quilts By The Lake show at the First Presbyterian Church of Lakeland last weekend.

“When I saw [the ribbon], I started crying because there are so many quilts in this show and they are all amazing,” she said.

Davis has been quilting for the past 60 years and entering her quilts in the show for the past three years, having previously won second and third place.

Being able to take random selections of fabric of different colors and shapes and patching them together into a personal masterpiece is what has allowed her to continue her craft for as long as she has been doing it.

“My inspiration is going from nothing to a completed project,” she said. “I like taking flat fabric and making something out of it. I think one of my favorites is picking out the fabric and putting them together.”

Davis was one out of several participants in this year’s quilt show, which showcased up to 200 quilts.

Approximately a dozen of these quilts were awarded ribbons ranging from first, second, and third place to a few honorable mentions.

One such participant, Ann Troutman from Land O’Lakes, won Judge’s Choice for her quilt, Vintage Rose, based on a design by Judy Niemeyer.

“I was thrilled when I saw yesterday that it was chosen,” she said. “It is a culmination of all the hard work that somebody really appreciates.”

She had previously received an honorable mention for a quilt that she made resembling a stained glass window and inspired by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Troutman has been sewing for as long as she can remember, and has been quilting since late 2000. She appreciates the camaraderie and inspiration she receives from the quilting guild.

“By far, this is the best show that we have put on, and the attendance has been fabulous,” she said. “I love fabrics and designs and the ability to take something that wasn’t there and make it into something that is beautiful.”

For the past four years, the quilt show has been hosted by Ladies of the Lake, a local non-profit organization that offers a space for local quilters to meet and share their craft, while also providing a platform for educators and other speakers from across the country.

The show originally started as part of the Living Arts Festival in Bartow, but became its own event which has been hosted at First Presbyterian in Lakeland for the past two years.

Not only were guild members and other attendees able to peruse the many quilts on display, but were also able to purchase quilting supplies and other merchandise, as well as enjoy a lunch provided by the local Boy Scouts troop.

This year proved especially exceptional with all of the guild members taking the initiative to volunteer and spread the word for the event, ensuring a much larger turnout this year, explained guild president Teddy Wenner.

As someone who has been with the guild since 2000, Wenner enjoys how quilting allows someone like her to express themselves artistically with a diverse array of colors and fabrics, and she loved the diversity in this year’s selections.

“I think we have a wide variety of quilts and they are absolutely beautiful,” she said. “I enjoy all the people who come to our show, and they get to look at our different quilts and get a lot out of our show.”

Aside from the participation from its guild members, this year’s event also benefited from good weather, as opposed to previous years, which suffered from heavy rain, said founding member Jacki Andersen.

“The big challenge was getting everybody to help out and do their share of setting up and working the places that need help,” she said. “We would like to get bigger and better, and we would like to thank everyone for coming here and making this a great show.”

“Cosmic Lois Lane” Discusses Truth About Roswell And UFOs

by James Coulter

In 1947, an unidentified flying object crashed near Roswell, New Mexico. The government insists the object was a weather balloon, but for truth seekers like Paola Harris, they know it was something truly “out of this world.”

As a photojournalist and freelance writer on extraterrestrial activity, Harris served as an almost “cosmic Lois Lane”, having interviewed countless top military witnesses who claimed to have had “close encounters of the third kind.”

Harris shared her experiences during a recent lecture in Lakeland at Unity Chapel in the Grove on Sunday afternoon.

One such witness she worked with was Col. Philip Corso, a former Army officer who claimed to have helped research extraterrestrial equipment retrieved from the Roswell site.

Harris met and befriended Corso in 1997, one year prior to his death, and helped him prepare his book, “The Day After Roswell”, in which she wrote the preface and translated the book into Italian.

Corso’s work has been allegedly verified by Paul Hellyer, former Canadian defense minister, who not only insisted that Corso’s account was accurate, but that “UFOs were as real as airplanes”, according to Harris.

Harris has spoken with countless other “whistleblowers” who claim that the “truth” about UFOs and other extraterrestrial activity is being covered up by the government.

Another witness, Clifford Stone, a retired Army sergeant, not only claimed to have encountered extraterrestrials during his service, but that the military has a first aid manual for up to 57 species, Harris claimed.

When he first started his service at age 19, Stone claimed to have been sent to investigate a crash site, where he encountered the body of an extraterrestrial in a harrowing experience that left him emotionally distraught.

“I cannot tell you of how many military people have cried in front of me because it is so emotional,” Harris said.

Harris has been conducting research into the extraterrestrial since 1979, during which time she has collaborated with other notable individuals in the field of ufology such as Dr. J. Allen Hynek.

Having spent 30 years collecting data, the one thing her research has taught her is that there’s still so much more she doesn’t know; and even with what little she does know, she still finds herself asking the big question of what it all means.

As such, she emphasizes the importance of other people doing their own research and pursuing more than one source of information, including her own, as to get a better view of the overall bigger picture.

“I want people to read,” she said. “You cannot read just my book. You have to read them all to see what everybody did, [to see] all the different angles of these things, because there are so many people doing this work.”

Harris offered her presentation through an invitation by the Lakeland chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), the world’s oldest and largest UFO investigative and research organization.

Since its inception in 1969, MUFON has compiled a database of 90,000 UFO reports. Their current membership worldwide consists of 6,000 members, including 2,000 trained experts and 50 PhD consultants.

Aside from investigating UFO reports, the organization also offers seminars and lectures such as this to help enlighten their members, as well as the general public, of extraterrestrial activity.

Sunday’s event attracted up to 65 people, which is the usual crowd size for a small chapter such as theirs within a small city and with three weeks of advertising, explained Teri Lynge, a members of the Lakeland MUFON Board of Directors.

As a close personal friend and colleague of Harris, Lynge appreciates her knowledge and expertise, especially with her dedication to seeking out the truth.

“I love the work that she had done, and I respect her highly,” she said. “We want people to understand that we are not alone, we have never been alone, and we are looking for peace and understanding and camaraderie.”

Overall, the event offered an enlightening experience for both MUFON members and non-members alike.

For Donna Hewitt, the Prayer Chaplin of Unity Chapel, with this being the second event she attended, she much appreciated the information provided by the event, especially with how such information reflects her own religious faith.

“I think the big message here is love,” she said. “Love conquers all and it can heal Mother Earth, and that is what we need right now because we are an ecological mess.”

Lakeland MUFON will be hosting another event at Unity Chapel on Feb. 17 at 1 p.m., which will divulge on a recent disclosure by the Pentagon.

For more information, visit their Meetup and Facebook pages.