Questionable quilt on display

HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) - Strolling through the sprawling Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton there is so much to see -- for some, maybe a little too much.

"It's embarrassing," said one offended visitor. "Disgusting doesn't even cover it."

Nestled in between the quilts of moss covered trees, mountain vistas, and graphic patterns, there's one quilt a little too graphic for some quilting connoisseurs.

"There's children that come in here," said another upset visitor. Stitched in the quilt, just one of 800 on display, is a naked woman with a fetus in her belly and her private parts - not so private.

Carol Lovell went to the show and was very upset. "It shouldn't be pornographic and it is," she said. "We come and we see this where a woman's body parts are exposed and I'm highly offended. It's showing an open pubic area with the hair combed back."

The managers of the quilt show soon felt Lovell was causing a commotion. "He said, 'Come with me.' And I said, 'I don't want to go with you.' And he said, 'You're going to get escorted off the property.'"

As soon as our cameras focused in, the managers walked off.

"He's going to have to get a policeman," said Lovell, refusing to leave.

Some visitors viewed the quilt simply as art.

One woman said she wasn't bothered by it. "Why should I be?" she asked.

"My kids know what it looks like," laughed another woman.

The woman who made the quilt, Kathy Nida, is from California. The quilt depicts a homeless woman and her unborn child living in a cardboard box and she says the quilt is about being one paycheck away from desperation and begging for help.

Peter Mancuso, one of the hosts and managers of the quilt show, said it is art. "It's textile art," he said. Mancuso added that his quilt show, first held in Williamsburg and then moved to Hampton, has been delighting thousands of people every year for the last 22 years.

The quilt show is open Friday, February 25 through Sunday, February 27 at the Hampton Roads Convention Center next to Hampton Coliseum. Tickets are $14.