Ann Landini has been quilting since 1991, when the beautiful antique quilts she saw in Paducah, Ky., home of the National Quilt Museum, prompted her to check out a book and teach herself.

Now retired as a professor from Murray State University, she finally had time to take part in the Quilting Friends retreat that her friend Jane Blankenship told her about at the Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center.

“I love it,” Landini said. “I’m already looking forward to next year. I enjoy meeting all the people, lots of good fellowship and good laughs.” She was working on a quilt pattern called “Love That Print,” and expected to finish before she left on Feb. 27.

Each year toward the end of winter, the Quilting Friends gather at Maple Mount to piece and sew quilt tops to donate to the Ursuline Sisters. These tops are then quilted and used in the monthly Quilt Club raffle, or for other purposes at the Motherhouse. Many of the quilters come each year, but Landini was one of a handful of newcomers.

Kathy Starkweather moved to Owensboro three months ago from Illinois, as a central location to where her four children live. Her friend invited her to come to the retreat, her first trip to Maple Mount. “I’m amazed at what all it has accomplished through the years,” she said.

She’s been piecing quilts for 15 years, since shortly before her mother died. “I wanted to carry that tradition on,” Starkweather said. “I wanted to make a quilt for my four children’s first babies.”

She doesn’t hand quilt, but she loves piecing quilt tops. She worked on a disappearing four-patch quilt. “It looks more complicated than it is,” she said. Starkweather was clearly enjoying her first trip to the Mount.

“The ladies here are very friendly, the food is wonderful and the fellowship is excellent,” she said.

Amanda Jacobs became the third generation of her family to attend the Quilting Friends retreat. Her grandmother is Mary Teder, who comes each year to help her sister, Sister Amelia Stenger, and her mother is Ann Jacobs. The nurse anesthetist from Farmington, Mo., attended her first Quilting Friends gathering to help where she could.

“I think it’s pretty awesome,” she said Feb. 25 as she worked on cording for tote bags. She and her mother, along with her great aunt Teresa Reale, worked on craft items such as tote bags, purses, aprons and pillows.

“I just like to help out,” Amanda Jacobs said. “We all do it, just carrying the tradition down. It’s nice to be able to make your own things.”

The women at the retreat have been helpful in teaching her new skills, she said. “I will come back as long as work allows me time off,” she said.

On the afternoon of Feb. 26, some of the completed quilt tops were displayed in the small dining room for the sisters to enjoy. Here are pictures from the retreat.