Tours, quilts on agenda for Uehling celebration

Uehling homeowners will put out the welcome mats this month for the latest event associated with the village’s yearlong centennial celebration.

Elvin and Mona Cooper, Ray and Marilyn Johnson, Melva Murer, Neva Peterson and Cyndi Moseman will host tours of their homes from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 29. The houses are within walking distance of one another and range from two built during the earliest days of Uehling to much newer models.

All will have one thing in common on tour day — a display of quilts. Many local, some antique and all handmade, some of the 250 quilts also will be displayed in Uehling’s Congregational Church, where tour guests are encouraged to stop first to buy tickets and tour maps.

Another show of needlework, including quilts, will take place the same day at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

Shirley Strand, Uehling show coordinator, said Moseman’s home alone will feature more than 50 quilts, some displayed inside on beds and furniture and others hanging outside on the porch rail and picket fence, weather — and wildlife — permitting.

“I was thinking of calling the show ‘Quilts in the Garden’ and how pretty it would be to have them all hanging outside,” Strand said. “Then I got to thinking about how many birds we have around here.”

Moseman said some of her quilts are family heirlooms while others are gifts from friends or quilt-shop purchases. A favorite is her grandfather’s baby quilt, which she’ll display in an antique buggy. Another interesting and practical quilt in the show is one made from cloth chicken-feed sacks.

The day in Uehling doesn’t end with the home tours. From 2 -3 p.m., guests can gather at the village auditorium to look through scrapbooks of Uehling history dating back to 1906. At 3 p.m., a tea in the auditorium includes a style show of wedding gowns and other nuptial apparel worn by area residents throughout the past century. At least 20 bridal gowns, plus bridesmaid and flower girl dresses from Oakland, Fremont and other communities will be featured, said Glenice Eastberg, director of the tea and show.

Gowns are from the 1950s and earlier, she said, and include a bridal gown worn by an area woman more than 60 years ago.

Wedding cake and old-fashioned ribbon sandwiches will be served through the efforts of the Husker Honeys Community Club and the Wo-He-Lo Club.

Reduced-price tour and tea tickets and registration forms for those who would like to include gowns in the style show are available at the Uehling and Hooper branches of First National Bank Northeast, and at the Oakland Independent and Scribner Bank. Proceeds from the day go toward financing additional centennial events.

If you go

* What: Uehling tour of homes and quilt show.

* When: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. April 29.

* Where: A variety of homes in Uehling and at Uehling’s Congregational Church and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.