FAIRHOPE, Ala. — Step into Juanita Bohnhoff’s apartment and there are quilts everywhere. There are quilts hanging on the walls, they are on the beds, and there is even a quilt used as a shower curtain in the bathroom. (Yes the regular curtain and liner are behind it, but it makes an arresting display.)

With all the hand-stitched quilts around, you’d think she’s been quilting forever.

Not so.

“About four years ago, a friend challenged me to start quilting,” said Bohnhoff, who lives in Fairhope. She had become an expert with knitting, crocheting and other fiber arts, but she told her friend that “I don't need to get into anything else.”

A little while later, Bohnhoff was in a store and saw an attractive quilting kit.

“I thought I’d use it as a coverlet,” said Bohnhoff.

That project complete, Bohnhoff was hooked.

“I just loved it,” she said. “It’s my therapy. I would never go on drugs or tranquilizers, but when you quilt, you forget the whole world, and you and God can have a conversation.”

Bohnhoff’s quilts and her techniques will be the center of attention Feb. 3-5 at the Robertsdale United Methodist Church’s Quilt Show, taking place at the church on Highway 59.

The colorful quilts in Bohhoff’s apartment had some of the experienced quilters from RUMC gasping with delight. Bohnhoff uses traditional quilting techniques and some of her needlework to embellish the designs. One of the quilts in her home has many different houses, and visitors can spend hours seeing what sewing notions she used for the door and window hardware. She also used to hand-dye her fabric with her friends until one of her doctors put an end to the practice. (The dye was irritating her lungs.)

As the show’s “Honored Quilter,” she will have a room where her quilts are displayed and she will work and talk all things quilting with the guests.

The quilt show at RUMC has been a tradition since the late ‘90s, says Betty Gwaltney, a show organizer and quilter.

And unlike quilt shows where there is formal judging, RUMC’s show is about showing people what quilting can do.

“This is a show, not a judging,” said Mary Barnhill, one of the show’s organizers and a quilter herself. “Everybody is invited to display their quilts.”

Quilters and those owning handmade quilts are invited to bring them to the church Jan. 30, from 1-4 p.m., and Jan. 31, from 9 a.m. to noon.

“I love to see the beauty of the quilts,” said Brenda Pearce, another show organizer. “What was once a necessity is now a hobby and a work of art.”

Pearce added she feels that the show helps “involvement between the church and community,” but all the organizers were quick to add no proselytizing would take place during the show.

Bohnhoff has her own thoughts on quilting.

“I think quilting keeps the mind sharp and keeps you thinking,” she said. “Keeping thinking is very important in life.”