Quilt historian Mary Bywater Cross will present a free, public program titled “The Ties that Bind: Quilts of Community,” on Saturday, June 19 at 3 p.m. at the Elgin Opera House in Elgin. A social at 5 p.m. will follow at the Elgin Community Center, located at 260 N. 10th Ave.

Once viewed as simply a quaint handicraft, historians now recognize quilting as a valuable visual social record of women’s contributions that have been often overlooked in official histories. Ms. Cross will illustrate how women drew their communities together for various purposes through quilting.

The program is in conjunction with the Elgin Riverfest celebration and the Blue Mountain Quilters Quilt Show being held the same day at Elgin City Hall, next to the Opera House, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Blue Mountain Forum and the Elgin Historical Society are sponsoring this Oregon Chautauqua program. Chautauqua is a program of the Oregon Council for the Humanities, an independent nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.