Spread out in colorful booths all over the tree-shaded park and through the quaint streets of town, more than 200 vendors offer everything from traditional crafts and antiques to home canned goods and mountain cooking. There's a farmer's market section for locally grown produce and Uniquely West Virginia featuring wine, honey and other shelved goods from all over the state.

High quality traditional and contemporary arts and crafts fill Berkeley Springs State Park. Just down the street, the Morgan Arts Council's Ice House art center has a gallery exhibit and sale of one-of-a-kind items from the most popular artists in town. And there are lots in Berkeley Springs, repeatedly listed among the 100 best small art towns in America. A half-dozen galleries bookstores and art shops along the park and main street join in the festivities with specials of their own.

Everyone eats at the Apple Butter Festival. There are sides of beef, whole hogs and thirty feet of grills packed with chicken-halves all roasted over open fires. Apple dumplings and funnel cakes lead the list of sweet tooth satisfiers. Pepperoni rolls, bean soup, country ham sandwiches and onion blooms are festival favorites too. More than half a dozen downtown restaurants have special treats to lure festival goers inside.

OFFICIAL FESTIVAL MEMORABILIA
The producing Berkeley Springs-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce offers a line of festival wearables including tee shirts,sweatshirts,tote bags and hats all bearing Apple Butter Festival logos. On sale in the festival store at the entrance to the park, the Chamber is also offering limited edition reproductions of the treasured 19th century Moray lithograph of Berkeley Springs. Also, the festival will sell a commemorative program --- nearly 100 pages of photographs, history, feature stories and schedule of festival activities. The Apple Butter Festival Hall of Fame Members will be profiled and local businesses advertised. Copies of the collectible book will be published and sold for $1.00 For advance orders on the book, wearables, and limited edition lithographs call 1-800-447-8797.

NOT YOUR GRANDMA'S QUILT FOR APPLE BUTTER FESTIVAL

The "official" quilt for 2011's Apple Butter Festival in Berkeley Springs marks the twentieth one created by Berkeley Springs fabric artist, Rika Bennett. "It's the 34th year we've chanced off a locally created quilt," said Beth Curtin, festival organizer. "Rika did her first quilt for the festival in 1983 and has done one every year since 1995."

Stars in the Garden is a traditional geometric pattern of eight-pointed stars interspersed in a grid with appliquéd flowers and leaves. "I was inspired by a block from a Baltimore Album quilt which is about as traditional as you can get in the quilting world," explained Bennett. Fall colors of orange, green, beige and gold dominate the queen-size quilt.

In spite of the pattern and colors, Bennett's quilt is decidedly non-traditional. Swirling patterns of the framing fabrics in green and red give a dynamic feel and hand-dyed fabrics are scattered among the leaves. Bennett's ventures into hand printed fabrics and intricate machine stitching mark this quilt, and much of her work, as contemporary pieces of fabric art. "No one will accuse this quilt of looking like something their grandma made," said Bennett with a laugh.

Rika Bennett has been a member of the Delectable Mountains Quilt Guild since its second meeting in 1981. She remains one of its most adventuresome stitchers committed to learning new techniques from improvisational piecing to sun painting fabric.

The Apple Butter Festival in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia is celebrating its 38th anniversary on October 8 and 9 when thousands of people fill the tiny mountain town, many of them lining up to take a chance on Bennett's quilt. The quilt drawing is the final official activity of the festival late Sunday afternoon and always generates lots of interest. "Some lucky person will go home very happy when they win this precious quilt," said Curtin.

The Apple Butter Quilt is sponsored by Coldwell Banker Premier Homes. Until festival weekend, the quilt hangs on display at the Berkeley Springs Antique Mall where chances are available as well as at the Chamber of Commerce office.

For more information call or write the Apple Butter Festival at: