Do all of you know that story about the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati?

The story goes that well, there is an underground tunnel from the creek that separates Missouri and Iowa.

Every place has a story.

Over the past ten years, a group of 67 artists and needle workers have dedicated themselves to telling the story of Centerville, Iowa.

Piecing it together line by line, stitch by stitch for the entire community to enjoy.

Oh, I think when I came to live in this area, I would go and visit families and I would always see this lovely woman in the background and stitching away, and I'd ask what she was doing, or she's making quilts for her grandchildren.

Well, how wonderful.

But imagine what all that wonderful female talent can do for the whole community.

And they've done it.

Originally from Wales, Enfys McMurry moved to Iowa with her husband and fell in love with the area.

So much so she wrote a book about it.

Centerville a Mid-American saga.

My love affair with Centerville started out.

I would hear stories of events that had happened in Centerville, a lot of which I thought, this can't be right.

I go home to Wales every so often, and my two cousins took me to a place called Fishguard on the Welsh coast.

They went to see the last invasion tapestry.

It tells the story of the last time French troops invaded Britain.

Enfys was inspired.

And I said, why not do a community one?

All you are brilliant talents with needles and needlework.

One woman, who everyone had told me in town was the best needle woman.

She said, if you think we're capable of this, you've lost your marbles.

And she walked out.

I know this.

After some deliberation, retired schoolteacher Debbie Robinson raised her hand and started recruiting.

We didn't know what we were really getting into.

I called several people that I knew that were interested.

Sandy Nam said, well, does it involve quilting?

And it didn't at the time.

And I said, yes.

And she said, well, I'll quilt whatever you need.

Elaine Spencer.

She says, Debbie, you know those tattered medallions I make all the time.

She said, do you need some of those for the tapestry?

Then, Gene Zapital.

She said, I'll draw all your garlands.

Then I said, oh, I was hoping that you'd say that.

I was kind of a naysayer at first because I kept thinking, how are we going to render these?

How are we going to get from one point to another point?

And I have to admit, when I did the first one, I thought, oh, this is going to take us a lifetime.

They worked alone or gathered in groups.

People donated money to pay for supplies.

Each panel features a moment in Appanoose County his from Enfys book surrounded by wildflowers of the region, farm and coal mining tools, country of origin flags of immigrants, settlers and brass coal miners.

Tags.

History just made itself happen for us on the on the panel.

Women's suffrage fires, the flu epidemic, a presidential visit, a jetliner crash, 52 panels in all.

Before stitching could begin.

An artist had to come up with a drawing.

I would go to the book first, read whatever it was that she had in it, and I would go through everything I could find from there.

I would try to put this together in my head and say, how am I going to illustrate something like this?

When you think of the Normandy invasion, you've got boats, soldiers, marines coming out into the water.

You have guns.

Do you have.

And I couldn't.

I couldn't feature drawing, that kind of thing.

But I thought of what was happening at home during the Normandy invasion.

Jan Van Der Linden is a watercolorist, and she.

She did this.

Like, right now I'm blending these.

And so I've got the purple that I want on top.

And now I have a lighter lavender.

And I'm going to put another light lighter color lavender under that.

And then I will evolve into yellow.

And it's supposed to look like the sky lying on the artist's rendering of plain old Iowa.

It was intimidating to me, though, to see someone like Sue Keller, Sue Sacco, that, their talent is so unbelievable.

And then I would look at mine and say, oh, dear, I don't know, but but you just keep going.

This is just kind of something that's bigger than yourself to be able to do the needlework.

That's just the small part.

You know, the artistry, the artwork that's involved, the whole vision of what it's supposed to look like is overwhelming.

I just keep plugging away at it one stitch at a time.

So now we're trying to sort out our mess, ripping panels apart that are were used to be in the right spot but aren't in the right spot now.

Bonnie's ripping.

These guys are hunting, and the rest of us are kind of arguing where we think they go.

The finished tapestry is 96ft long.

It will be displayed in the packed office on the southwest corner of the Centerville Square.

I hope you walk in the door and go, oh my gosh, can you believe this?

The people in this town made this beautiful stitching.

What is all this?

And start reading about it and learn the history and grow.

To appreciate artwork and needlework and their community and get involved.

When we started this, I did not have grandchildren and now the oldest one is 11.

I just hope someday she comes and looks at the tapestry and says, my grandma did that.

Exactly.

I agree perfect.