By Phoebe Donald Robinson / Community Columnist

“Come fall in love with Columbiana” is the Columbiana Beautification Board’s autumn theme to welcome the Alabama Historical Association Fall Pilgrimage to Columbiana on Saturday, Oct. 11.
In addition, Columbiana Friends of the Public Library, Columbiana Merchants and Professionals Association, Shelby County Historical Association and Shelby County Arts Council are sponsoring the second annual Columbiana Quilt Walk the same day. The event is free and is open to the public from 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
The trolley will run continuously all day to 25 quilt stops, each with a free different quilt pattern, throughout town. Collect 10 different patterns and enter the door prize drawing at 5 p.m. as the Vintage Gray Band plays at Music on Main from 4-6 p.m.
The signature exhibit, Quilts of Shelby County, will be at the Shelby County Museum and Archives. Organized by Agnes Moore Pool, each community in Shelby County will have heirlooms, quilts and their history on display.
Pool grew up in Columbiana, the daughter of Bill and Vonzelle Juzan Moore and the baby of four sisters. She learned to sew from her mother and aunts, all accomplished seamstresses. As a child she sewed for her dolls sitting under her fort made of handmade quilts tented over cane back chairs.
After marrying her high school sweetheart, Doug Pool, she worked and sewed for daughter Sherry. In 1971, she got her first sewing machine as a Christmas present from her husband. She took classes and refined her craft.
After retirement in 2004 with idle time on her hands, Pool began quilting for seriously ill and abused children, Quilts4 Kids, which will have an exhibit at the Columbiana Public Library on Oct. 11 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
An avid quilter, Pool wanted to learn quilt appraising and went to the premier school in the nation where she was challenged to document her aunt’s extraordinary quilts. That challenged led to the publishing of two books, “Making Treasures While Making Do, Documentation of a Quilting Legacy” and “Documenting Your Quilted Treasurers, A Step by Step Guide.” Pool will have a book signing from noon -4 p.m. at the Quilts of Shelby County Exhibit at the museum.