On This Day in History Quilts posts will return tomorrow! 

Alliance member Patricia Hobbs of Macomb, Illinois was our Grand Prize winner in the recent 2012 membership drawing. Pat won the Amazing Aurifil Cotton Thread Suitcase, with 216 gorgeous colors. I’d like to take this opportunity to launch a blog series I’m calling Meet a Member, where we’ll spotlight some of the generous, talented folks in our community of members. Our members include many who quilt, and some who do not. Pat is a quilter and a lifelong artist; in fact, she taught art for over forty years.

Pat has donated four stunning quilts for the Quilt Alliance contests, one each year since 2009 (see the Tiny Desk Exhibition of these quilts below).  And as a member, she has volunteered to help with Alliance events like greeting guests in our contest quilt exhibition at the AQS quilt show in Paducah. Thank you, Pat and all our members, for supporting the work that we do, contributing your story and your quilts to our documentation, and for caring deeply about preserving the tradition of quilting for future generations.

When Pat heard the news that she’d won this bonanza of Aurifil thread she said, “I am so excited to have won the suitcase of Aurifil. I never thought I would be the winner of such a wonderful prize. I am guilty of sometimes using cheap thread in the past, but will certainly feel like a queen using such fine Aurifil thread.  I do believe in the work and projects of Quilt Alliance especially that of telling and keeping quilters’ stories. I have learned so much from this organization and enjoy the annual small quilt auctions. It is impressive to see each quilter’s design and special interpretation of the yearly theme.”

And after Pat received the thread suitcase, she told us: “It is one thing to be excited about winning the thread, but to sit and hold the Aurifil thread collection in my hands is a dream come true!”

Here is a Tiny Desk Exhibition (love those NPR Tiny Desk Concerts) of Pat’s Alliance contest quilts from 2009-2012. Click on the link below each quilt to see materials and techniques used in each quilt and to read and hear Pat’s artist statements. These quilts are also documented in The Quilt Index, along with all Quilt Alliance contest quilts (you can browse them here).

For the 2009 contest, “Crazy for Quilts”
24. “Elements of a Homestead (3rd place, Ages over 30)”
Patricia Ann Hobbs
Macomb, Illinois
Click here for materials & techniques and artist’s statement

For the 2010 contest, “New from Old”
09. “Blessings of Plenty be Upon You”
Click this link to view materials & techniques and artist’s statement for this quilt.

For the 2011 contest, “Alliance: People, Patterns, Passion
17. “Recycle/Repurpose”Materials, Techniques”
Click this link to view materials & techniques and artist’s statement for this quilt.

For the 2012 contest, “Home Is Where the Quilt Is”
01. “The Piece Maker’s Child” (Honorable Mention)
Click this link to view materials & techniques and artist’s statement for this quilt.

Posted by Amy E. Milne
Executive Director, Quilt Alliance
amy.milne@quiltalliance.org