More information about the tours will be available at the Manhattan Quilters Guild booth at the Great American Quilt Festival, May 12 to 16 at Pier 92, the Hudson River and West 52d Street.

A LARGE spectrum of fabric-minded people are expected to participate this week in the third Great American Quilt Festival, on Pier 92 at West 52d Street in Manhattan.

The Great American Quilt Festival continues through Sunday.

"I'm thrilled and overwhelmed," said the teacher, Elaine H. Spencer, whose award-winning quilt is on display at the museum's Great American Quilt Festival 2, which opened yesterday and will continue through Sunday at Pier 92, at West 52d Street and the Hudson River.

Spurred by its success, the museum is presenting the Great American Quilt Festival 2, incorporating the results of a "Memories of Childhood" contest held this year for makers of crib quilts, to run at Pier 92 next Wednesday through Sunday.

Always a showman, Mr. Bishop initiated in 1986 the museum-sponsored Great American Quilt Festival, which was repeated in 1989 and last May.

Patchwork Deadline Great American Quilt Festival 3; (212) 977-7170.

The Great American Quilt Festival 2, an exhibit sponsored by the Museum of American Folk Art featuring the winners of an international contest, opens at the pier Wednesday.

Bishop encouraged displays of modern quilting not only in exhibitions but in the 1986 museum extravaganza "The Great American Quilt Festival."

"Morning Star Quilts: Quilting Traditions of the Northern Plains Indians," an exhibition of 15 quilts, is part of the Great American Quilt Festival, which will run from May 12 through 16 at Pier 92 in Manhattan.