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.

INNOVATION MEETS TRADITION IN APPLE BUTTER FESTIVAL QUILT

Although the 2009 Apple Butter Festival quilt is the 18th one Rika Bennett has done for the annual event, it is not commonplace or routine. The Rising Star quilt marks the 32nd year an official quilt has been chanced off at the Apple Butter Festival.

“ I chose to maintain a traditional quilt theme by selecting the familiar Rising Star pattern, although I did take some liberties with it” explains Bennett about her creation. Prime among the liberties are the fabric and color selections.

“ Jane Frenke and I were doing a show together in Washington and I saw her unloading some of the fabrics she created. I said ‘stop!’” Bennett bought three yards knowing it would be the background for the Apple Butter Festival quilt. The blue fabric is hand dyed, stamped and silk screened by Frenke, an innovative textile expert whose Fiesta Fibers is located in Berkeley Springs.

Bennett proceeded to build the quilt around Frenke’s fabric. She went to local quilt supply shop, Acorns and Oaks and saw some brown fabric with threads of blue, turquoise, gold and orange. “My favorite outfit in high school was a brown wool skirt and turquoise angora sweater,” says Bennett who snapped up the fabric. Working from the color palette she now had, Bennett then selected some orange. “It’s the pizzazz color,” she explains. “These are real southwest colors.”

The individually pieced blocks of the pattern are different combinations of the selected fabrics. “The blue background fabric is a perfect canvas that makes the individual star pieces really stand out,” Bennett explains. Intensive quilting including outlining some of the background leaves brings the queen-size quilt to life. “It’s drop-dead gorgeous,” says Bennett, assessing the effect. “It doesn’t look like an old fashioned quilt even though the pattern is very traditional.”

The Apple Butter Festival in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia is celebrating its 37th anniversary on October 9 and 10 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 fabulous quilt,” says Beth Curtin, festival organizer.

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: