NATCHEZ &045; For Beverley Timmons Wilson, it began with watching her grandmother quilting.

For Beth Trosclair, it started when she saw a beautiful quilt adorning a college friend’s bed.

And Cindi Greer can’t remember a time when the needle arts, including quilting, weren’t a part of the family.

&uot;I never knew what store-bought was until I was 20 years old,&uot; Greer said to the laughter of fellow long-time quilters.

Various things brought the friends to the art of quilting in the first place, but the love of the art itself brought them all to a quilt show held Saturday

at Commerce Cotton.

There, more than 60 quilts, from the 1880s to the present day, covered the walls and the glass of the outside display cases, filling the room with colorful patterns.

The works of art ranged from quilts no bigger than a couple of feet square to large wall hangings to children’s &uot;I Spy&uot; quilts, doubling as decoration for a child’s room and as a mind-teasing puzzle of images.

Store owner Elizabeth Swalm said she could think of no better way to mark her store’s one-year anniversary than to hold such a show instead of the usual food-and-punch open house.

Swalm, whose store hosts a &uot;sew together&uot; group every Tuesday night, said there’s something special about the art.

&uot;So many people remember quilts from their childhood,&uot; she said. &uot;It warms the heart as well as decorating a room. And for these ladies, it’s something very creative.&uot;

And for most of the die-hards at the Saturday show, creating quilts has become quite a productive pastime. Wilson, for example, has made 28 quilts and given all but two of them away.

&uot;It’s relaxing Š it’s therapy,&uot; Wilson said.

Greer &045; who owns her own shop, Back Forty Quilting in the Claiborne County town of Carlisle &045; estimates she’s completed close to 30 quilts.

&uot;My dream is to have 500 incomplete projects when I die,&uot; Greer said to the understanding laughs of the group.