AUBURN - When Mary Quant's son, Peter, was born in 1976, she hand-made his very first baby quilt. Emily and Julie quickly followed Peter, and Quant made them all quilts to cherish, hold, and in them find warmth.

Her children are all grown up now and off to college and beyond, whether or not they still have their quilts is a mystery, but they do still have their mother's love. Quant still has quilting, as a member of the Port Byron's quilting guild.

She put that hobby to good use Saturday morning at the Willard Chapel ABC Quilt-a-Thon to bring the warmth of a hand-made quilt to children in need.

“I thought of myself not as a quilter but just as a person who sews,” said Quant, of Conquest, as she worked from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. making quilt after quilt on her sewing machine.

“I like putting the colors together and seeing how once you put two different fabrics together, you see how good they look.”

The Quilt-a-Thon was part of the Cayuga County Common Threads annual quilt show. Started 20 years ago with the Quilts=Arts=Quilts show at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, the Cayuga County quilt shows have expanded to a variety of different historical locations including the Tubman Home, the Cayuga Museum, and Willard Chapel among others.

The shows are held each year through November and December with a different theme at each location.

The Willard Chapel's show featured a gallery of quilts made from citizens throughout the county called “Quilts Made with Love,” the quilts were unjudged and simply for show. It also featured quilts showing different views of Cayuga County, titled “Quilts with a View of Cayuga.”

“It gives people who have differing levels of experience an opportunity to see what their friends and neighbors are creating,” said Joan Huff of Quilts Made with Love who has been quilting for eight years.

“It's nice to be able to share the quilts we've made with our friends before they go off to parts unknown.”

The ABC Quilt-a-Thon - which stands for At-Risk Babies Crib Quilts - part of the show is a charitable race to sew as many quilts as possible to ensure that every HIV positive child, or any born drug or alcohol-affected, has a quilt of their own. It started in 1988 throughout the country and became part of the Willard Chapel's quilt show only last year, when they made 32 quilts in one day.

Volunteers from various quilting guilds work on an assembly line, each contributing a different part of the quilt until the finished product.

“It's a worthy cause and it's fun to be with women who like to sew and like to quilt,” said Alison Hayes of the Heart to Hands Quilters out of Weedsport.

“I love to work with fabric, I do it for a living, but it's good to do for fun as well.”